Sunshine Week: The Real Local Heroes

As many of you know, I have spent a LOT of time reading, re-reading, then reading again the minutes of Town Council and Planning Commission Meetings for the Town of Christiansburg. Among the most important thing that I discovered during that process is who the real “Local Heroes” are here in town.

Over and over again, people have come forward to present their concerns to Town Council. Many times, repeating the same issues for months or years without much in the way of visible or written results. Often, these people came before the political entity unarmed, not knowing that there were documents that they could obtain in order to press their case forward. That may not have been what got me started doing (Freedom of Information Act) FOIA requests and posting information online, but it is what keeps me going on that quest.

Speaking up at public meetings takes courage. Asking your government to simply do the right thing takes courage. Refusing to be silenced takes courage. In cases where intimidation and rudeness are what follows those courageous acts, you who have stood up and spoken up shine even more brightly for that courage. I thank you. Every voice that is raised adds to others and sooner or later, the problems will be dealt with.

If people cannot get their government to do the right thing simply by asking, it may take more stringent measures like showing them the actual laws and how those laws were violated.

Citizens not knowing their rights under FOIA has been only one part of the problem, the bulk of the weight of that should fall squarely upon the shoulder of those elected and appointed officials who are there to serve the public.

It has been well documented that the Mayor and Town Council of the Town of Christiansburg do not have the best history in the world when it comes to being compliant with the Virginia Freedom of Information Act. Their pleading of ignorance of much of the law led to a public FOIA training session that was held at Town Hall on June 3, 2008 (Recording available upon request:). Add to that, the fact that each and every appointed and elected officials is required by State Code to be furnished with a copy of the chapter in the Code concerning the Freedom of Information Act by the public body’s administrator (Town Manager) or legal counsel (Town Attorney) AND that they are mandated, by that law, to read and become familiar with the provisions of the chapter.

§ 2.2-3702. Notice of chapter.

Any person elected, reelected, appointed or reappointed to any body not excepted from this chapter shall (i) be furnished by the public body’s administrator or legal counsel with a copy of this chapter within two weeks following election, reelection, appointment or reappointment and (ii) read and become familiar with the provisions of this chapter.

(1976, c. 467, � 2.1-341.1; 1999, cc. 703, 726; 2001, c. 844; 2002, c. 393.)

Alas, this lack of understanding continues to be present despite the fact that each time someone has been elected or appointed this process is to have occurred, and many of those people in such positions have served for multiple terms.

Granted, there has been some improvement, but there are still a lot of areas where issues remain unaddressed. Many of the decisions made by government appear to simply spontaneously appear without discussion or input from citizens (see  Aquatic Center Meeting and Document Notes for an example).

Or, if you would like more history on the problems, opportunities, and successes with Sunshine/Open Government in our area, simply look at some of the Roanoke Times articles about the topic. While not all of them are about Christiansburg, a lot are and many of the issues raised simply haven’t been brought to Christiansburg, yet: