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Win
in Portsmouth Case Maintains Citizens' Access to Public
Information
The
Lawyers' Committee has fought efforts to limit public access
to information, decision- making, and judicial review -
all fundamental rights in a functioning democracy. In 1997
the Washington Park Lead Committee ("Lead Committee"),
a non-profit community group of residents of the Washington
Park public housing project, filed a Virginia Freedom of
Information Act or FOIA request with the Portsmouth Redevelopment
and Housing Authority. The FOIA request was to review Housing
Authority files as part of an investigation of potential
civil rights violations concerning the handling of lead
contamination and its cleanup at the Washington
Park public housing project.
The
Lead Committee and the Housing Authority worked together
to narrow the scope of the request and agreed to a initial
schedule of production, time and place of review, as well
as other administrative arrangements. But before it allowed
viewing of the documents, the Housing Authority placed additional
limitations on production. If those limits were allowed
to stand, it would have taken the Lead Committee 5 years
and 260 trips to review the files.
In
addition, before the Housing Authority would allow access
to any records, it demanded that the Lead Committee agree
to pay all attorney's fees for Housing Authority attorneys
to review each document to see if any records, or portions
thereof, should be withheld. The Housing Authority would
not even release documents, such as public meeting minutes
and agendas, that clearly would not require an attorneyıs
review.
The
Lead Committee agreed to pay reasonable search and copying
fees, but refused to pay for a Housing Authority attorney
to review each file. Nowhere in the Virginia Freedom of
Information Act did it provide for the payment of the fees
of an attorney to preview files for confidential content.
Thomas Henderson, Director of Litigation for the Lawyers'
Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, stated that "An
assessment of attorney search fees like that to a private
requester would effectively bar most, if not all, citizens'
access to public records. This would seriously undermine
a community's ability to meaningfully participate in decision
making that affects their lives or to challenge practices
that discriminate against them."
The
Housing Authority filed a complaint in the Circuit Court
for Portsmouth asking the court to declare that any information
requested under the Act is subject to payment to the Authority
to retain an attorney to preview all files. The Lawyers'
Committee asked the court to find the Housing Authority
in violation of the Act and order them to provide access
to clearly non-exempt documents and to work in good faith
with the Lead Committee to determine reasonable and efficient
means and time periods to review and identify responsive
files.
The
court ruled in favor of the Lead Committee. (Washington
Park Lead Committee v. Portsmouth Redevelopment & Housing
Authority. (Circuit Court for the City of Portsmouth, Court
Order L97-1352)). The Housing Authority appealed the decision
to the Virginia Supreme Court, which refused to hear the
appeal.
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