City council members across Hampton Roads spent tens of thousands in public money last year on a variety of expenses, primarily for travel, meals and lodging for conferences. That’s not illegal or suspicious, mind you, but information that is useful for the public as they evaluate both the operation of local government and the people who serve in elected office.
Virginian-Pilot and Daily Press reporters outlined that information in a recent story made possible by the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, which requires that such data be available to the public. It’s one small example of that law’s value and why transparency in government is critical to the health of our communities and our commonwealth.
“The affairs of government are not intended to be conducted in an atmosphere of secrecy since at all times the public is to be the beneficiary of any action taken at any level of government,” the preamble to the state FOIA statute reads. It’s a bold declaration, one perfectly suited for the birthplace of statesmen such as James Madison and Thomas Jefferson.
The primary authors of the Constitution and Bill of Rights (Madison) and Declaration of Independence (Jefferson) understood that government must be accountable to the people in order for the American experiment to thrive. As Alexander Hamilton wrote in Federalist No. 27, “A government continually at a distance and out of sight can hardly be expected to interest the sensations of the people.”
That should mean, as Virginia’s FOIA requires, “All public records and meetings shall be presumed open, unless an exemption is properly invoked.” The expectation is one of transparency — that government should operate in full view of the public it serves unless it can prove why such information should be secret. Even then, the law gives officials the option of disclosure should they choose.
In practice, they most often do not. Rather it is an all-too-frequent occurrence that public officials employ the overly broad language of some exemptions to choose secrecy rather than transparency or use other tools — such as charging exorbitant fees for records — to discourage citizen oversight.
The recent story about spending by city council members in six area municipalities — Chesapeake, Hampton, Norfolk, Newport News, Portsmouth and Virginia Beach — is one example of how FOIA benefits the public.
Reporters filed requests for records for “meals, mileage, lodging, transportation, individual event tickets and other … related costs” when officials travel on official business. The inquires followed reporting last year about Newport News officials using city-issued credit cards for a host of questionable expenses, including a “$700 flight to Indiana to watch a Christopher Newport University basketball game, a $200 a night hotel reservation and roughly $1,100 in meals.”
Should that data be public? Absolutely. That’s not to say that any of the recent reporting showed fraud or abuse, but rather it is information that residents of those communities should have about what happens at city hall.
It’s the sort of information that should be available on the state level as well — and should soon be.
The General Assembly this week passed legislation that would allow for a more accurate review of such spending by state government officials. Senate Bill 340 “clarifies that the name of a public employee, officer, or official as it appears on a purchase card statement or other payment record and the description of individual purchases are not exempt from disclosure by the State Comptroller.”
That will allow for better oversight of spending by public officials. After all, that is Virginians’ money and Virginians should know for what it is spent and by who.
March 10-16 is Sunshine Week, which puts a spotlight on the importance of transparency in government, serves as a reminder to the public of why openness is critical in ways both big and small. It is a cause worthy of citizens’ advocacy with the firm understanding that government must always be accountable and accessible to the people.