FOIA

I want to write about the Freedom of Information Act. I don't know much about the federal version, but I can talk about Virginia's.

The FOIA gets changed yearly. I get a new edition of the Virginia Press Association's booklet every summer, but haven't yet received the 2006 version. So I have a little pile of old FOIA guides for reporters. I have in hand the 2004 edition because I'm too sorry to get up and get the 2005 edition out of my camera bag.

But looking online, I see lots of changes to the Virginia FOIA since 2004. One section, 2.2-3705.2, has been completely revamped to add all kinds of information that is no longer available to the public. One of these exemptions is "plans and information to prevent or respond to terrorist activity" (2.2-3705.2 (4)).

I have done stories on Health Department plans to respond to terrorist activities before; they focused on anthrax at the time (remember that?). I am wondering why some of this information should not be public. Don't we want to know how the government is going to respond if there is a crisis?

Maybe there isn't a response and that's what they don't want us to know? How can we be reassured that a response is in place if it's secret?

FOIA comes up at the local level in town council meetings and supervisor meetings. Government meetings. The county is pretty good about following FOIA, but there have been times, during breaks, when I've walked by a gathering of three supervisors having a discussion and coughed, "FOIA" several times to break up their pow-wow.

FOIA states that elected officials aren't supposed to gather in groups to converse. That's an unannounced closed meeting. Meetings can only be closed for specific reasons.

Also, citizens have a right to most (but not all) information in the office.

If officials don't comply, there are supposedly penalties and fines.

This set of laws is good in theory and I'm glad something is in place. But I have also seen it thwarted. For example, a county school board several years ago simply thumbed its nose at the citizenry, the newspaper, me, and the Virginia FOIA council and went on about its business, FOIA be darned.

Nobody was fined and no one was punished and that was the end of that, as far as I know.

One of the towns I cover had FOIA issues last year. My editor and I trumpeted the issue in the newspaper in the hopes the citizenry would raise a ruckus, but that did not happen. It essentially passed under the radar.

But several years ago, in another town, I noted a FOIA violation in a story and the next month 20 citizens turned out to watch and make sure their council members minded their p's and q's. I was moved to tears to see this kind of interest.

Unfortunately, it is rare, and the lack of citizen interest makes FOIA a joke. It is a good tool and should be used to obtain information and keep elected officials honest, but the legislature at the state level, and probably the federal, are gutting it every year to make things more and more secret.

I don't believe in secrets at the local level. I think the only things that should be discussed in private are personnel and the purchase price of property. Generally speaking, it is has been my experience that if a town council or a school board is talking about issues in private, they're doing things the citizens would not like.

And usually they know it, too.