One of the proposals for streamlining state government presented last week by Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell’s Commission on Government Reform and Restructuring was to shut down the Freedom of Information Advisory Council.
Writing on Bacon’s Rebellion, an on-line political newsletter, Megan Rhyne of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government says this is recommendation lacks merit. The headline on her article reads: “Reform, But Not In A Good Way.”
A few months ago, the Charlottesville Libertarian Examiner had an opportunity to interview the executive director of the Freedom of Information Advisory Council, attorney Maria J.K. Everett.
FOIA Council’s purpose
The mission of the council, she said, is “to issue advisory opinions on the application of the Freedom of Information Act, to provide training to anyone who asks, and to provide educational materials on the Freedom of Information Act.”
The council was established in July 2000. At the time, Everett was working for the General Laws Committee of the Virginia House of Delegates. Although the state’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) dates to 1968, there had not been a centralized clearinghouse dealing with FOIA in Richmond.
As Everett explains, the General Assembly was “doing a study and said, ‘We need an agency that just answers FOIA questions for government and citizens and everybody’ and I got drafted” to head the agency.
Small staff, large workload
The FOIA Council currently has a staff of two attorneys, who answer 1,800 or more letters, emails, and telephone calls each year. It also issues an annual report that lists its responses to each of those inquiries.
Before the FOIA Council, Everett explained, local government employees faced with FOIA requests “would ask their local attorneys, state government [employees] would ask the attorney general, but there was no way short of litigation that things got solved.”
Everett’s agency, she said, is “not the FOIA police” but acts as a mediator when there is a dispute.
The FOIA Council also engages in educational activities, including some 77 workshops each year.
“We’re training mainly public officials,” Everett said, but also “whoever asks us,” including groups like the League of Women Voters, the Virginia Municipal League (VML), and the Virginia Association of Counties (VACO). (This interview with Everett took place after a workshop during the State Board of Elections’ annual training session for Electoral Board members and voter registrars.)
Everett added that she sometimes speaks to “retiree groups that just want to have a pithy issue to hear about.” She’ll go, she said, to “whomever asks, because we see our training mission as the most important thing that we can do.”
Transparency improved
Everett has perceived a palpable improvement in government transparency since the FOIA Council was started.
In 1999, she said, “the compliance rate was 16 percent” but by 2006, according to an audit by the Associated Press, “Virginia’s compliance rate was 50 percent.”
She added, “That’s a huge improvement. It’s not the greatest betting odds but improvement.”
In comparison to other states, Virginia scores well on FOIA accountability.
The Brechner Center for Freedom of Information at the University of Florida does surveys of FOIA laws across the country, Everett explained, and “Virginia usually gets B-pluses in FOIA law based on ease of request, remedies, exemptions, and having helpful agencies. So we tend to fare pretty well, overall.”
Everett concluded by noting that citizens interested in more information can visit the FOIA Council’s web site at http://foiacouncil.dls.virginia.gov/ or calling its toll-free number, 866-448-4100.
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