For more information, contact SPJ’s Freedom of Information Committee Co-chairs:
Charles Davis: 573/882-5736 or daviscn@missouri.edu
Joel Campbell: 801/422-2125 or joel_campbell@byu.edu


Virginia’s House of Representatives wants every municipal body – every city council, school board, and county government – to follow the state’s rapidly improving Freedom of Information Act. But it doesn’t want to let the sun shine in the General Assembly.

The House recently voted 52-48 to exempt the General Assembly from the open-meeting provision of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act. The bill, pushed by House Majority Leader H. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, now heads to the Senate, where it could encounter stiffer opposition. Under the bill, the Joint Rules Committee, which consists of senior senators and delegates, would decide which legislative meetings are open to the public.

An opinion issued last month by state Attorney General Jerry W. Kilgore, R., said daily legislative caucuses of the two political parties are not public bodies covered by the FOIA. But such gatherings would be considered public if members discussed an upcoming vote on the floor.

Griffith's proposal would allow private caucus meetings and unannounced, informal gatherings in which legislators could decide the fate of a controversial bill without public scrutiny, coming into public session only for the vote.

SPJ urges its members to write and call to express their opposition to this major step backward. A copy of SPJ's letter is below

Contact any or all of the following Virginia officials.

Sen. John Chichester, President Pro-Tem, VA Senate
FAX: 804-698-7651
johnchich@aol.com

Delegate William J. Howell, speaker of the House of Delegates
FAX: 804-786-6310
Del_Howell@house.state.va.us

Delegate Brian Moran, Courts of Justice Committee
FAX: 804-786-6310
Del_Moran@house.state.va.us

Lt. Gov. Tim Kaine, President of the Senate
FAX: 804-698-7651
ltgov@ltgov.state.va.us

Gov. Mark Warner (FAX is 804-371-6351)

The Web site is: www.legis.state.va.us

Constituent hotline for any questions: 1-800-889-0229


Mailing Addresses:
House of Delegates, PO Box 406, Richmond, VA 23218

Senate, PO Box 396, Richmond, VA 232 18

Governor and Lt. Gov, State Capitol Bldg., Richmond, VA23219

SPJ Letter to Lawmakers

March 1, 2004


SUBJECT: Legislation exempting the Virginia General Assembly from the Freedom of Information Act.

Dear Lawmaker:
We write on behalf of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), the nation’s largest association of working journalists, to ask you to oppose H.B. 1357, which would exempt the General Assembly from the meeting requirements of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act. Open government – especially open legislatures – serve an important purpose in our democracy

This across-the-board FOIA exemption for legislative meetings will deprive Virginia residents of access to important information about their state government. In addition, it sends a terrible message to state, county and local boards, commissions and agencies. If passed, it will trigger not just public outrage, but it will foster greater cynicism and distrust of state government.

The General Assembly has made tremendous progress in recent years in tightening open-meeting and open-record rules. Virginia now ranks in the top 10 in use of the Internet to bring sunshine into legislative activity. Creation of the full-time FOI Advisory Council has made the state a national leader in finding innovative ways to assure FOIA compliance without constant litigation. Legislative committees increasingly provide good prior notice for draft legislation and advance meeting dockets. This record for openness makes Virginia’s sudden and total rejection of the Freedom of Information Act meeting provisions for its legislature all the more disturbing.

We agree with state Sen. R. Creigh Deeds, D-Bath County, that H.B. 1357 is a “terrible bill … [that] presumes that the legislature is a private club.” If passed, public access to meetings in which most legislative work is done will be at the discretion of a small group members. Changes in the committee’s composition could alter the public’s right of access from one session to the next. Furthermore, committee members will be able to use their power to close sessions where controversial views they support are discussed and open sessions when it would be most embarrassing to their opponents.

The bill passed the House of Delegates on a narrow 52-48 vote, with 13 Republicans voting against it. It is noteworthy that other Republican delegates in private expressed serious reservations about the bill but in public were reluctant to break ranks and oppose it.

SPJ urges members of the General Assembly to reconsider this ill-advised decision and defeat H.B. 1357.

Nationally, SPJ includes more than 10,000 reporters, editors and news executives who work for print, broadcast and electronic news outlets. The D.C. Professional Chapter includes about 350 journalists who report on national and local government, many of whom live in Virginia. The Virginia Pro Chapter includes 75 journalists from the area around Richmond, Va. These journalists have a vital interest in protecting the public’s right to the free flow of information about the Virginia General Assembly.

Sincerely,



Charles N. Davis and Joel Campbell, co-chairs
Society of Professional Journalists Freedom of Information Committee



Robert S. Becker
SPJ Washington, D.C. Sunshine Chair
Washington, D.C. Professional Chapter



Brian Eckert, president
SPJ Virginia Pro Chapter


Cc: Sen. John Chichester
Delegate William J. Howell
Delegate Brian Moran
Lt. Gov. Tim Kaine
Gov. Mark Warner



----- SPJ FOI ALERT SUBSCRIPTION NOTE -----
SPJ FOI Alert Vol. 9; No. 7

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