RICHMOND, Va. — A Richmond councilmember is pushing to bring so-called "radical transparency" to City Hall through a proposed measure that would require the city to increase the public's access to information in an unprecedented way.
But the proposal is facing some pushback from the top city manager, which led to a tense exchange during a council committee meeting Wednesday.
“It’s clear that residents today in Richmond, they don't trust their city's government," Councilmember Kenya Gibson (3rd District) said as she introduced her ordinance to the committee.
Gibson is seeking the establishment of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) library, where the city would publish all the FOIA requests it receives, the documents it releases, and the fees it's charging people to supply those documents.
The Virginia FOIA is a law that requires the government to be transparent about the work it does on behalf of taxpayers by ensuring the records it maintains are available to the public. Anyone can utilize FOIA by making requests for records. However, there are multiple exemptions that protect sensitive information from mandatory disclosure, and the government can also charge requesters for the time it takes to supply the requested records.
Gibson's efforts follow a period of transparency concerns that were heightened in 2023 and 2024 as City Hall faced criticism and lawsuits, including one from CBS 6, for alleged failures to comply with FOIA requirements.
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Several citizens, organizers, and advocates showed up to Wednesday's meeting voicing similar concerns and support for Gibson's proposal.
One resident, who said he volunteers with an advocacy group that submitted several FOIA requests to the city over the past two years, said the group "experienced difficulties and some regrettable situations, including, but not limited to, extreme delays in getting information, getting fragmentary information, and very high charges for receiving information."
Another speaker, who said she was an organizer with the Richmond Education Association, said while the current FOIA office seems to be making positive changes following personnel changes, a FOIA library would only bolster those improvements.
"You can have the right people in place. You can remove people who you feel are not doing the best job, but unless you put in permanent structures and permanent procedural changes and ensure transparency, just these individual moves of a person here or a person there can only create maybe temporary improvements," she said.
Gibson announced that "the most poignant context for this discussion is the legal complaint now in progress between the city and our former FOIA officer."
She's referencing a lawsuit filed by former FOIA officer Connie Clay, who alleged she was wrongfully fired after warning the city about its repeated unethical and unlawful practices to suppress and delay the release of information. The city has denied wrongdoing.
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"The optics in this case are not good," Gibson said.
Chief Administrative Officer Odie Donald disapproved of Gibson bringing up the legal fight in a public forum, adding that the lawsuit shouldn't be "used as a black eye against the city."
“I’m not comfortable at all talking about litigation. I'm not sure why we did that, but talking about open litigation in a public forum, that is quite dangerous for the city, especially for the body that is in charge of ensuring that we remain fiscally responsible," Donald said.
Donald said while he supports the idea of a FOIA library, he'd like more time to work out exactly what information should be published and how.
“FOIA is not just as simple as black and white. There are unintended consequences to legislation that is created," he said. “I’d be interested to find out if, as written, does it increase the liability to the city?”
Gibson responded, “To be clear, the way that Virginia state law defines the Freedom of Information Act, it's simply not structured to be a vehicle to protect the city from liability.”
Richmond's communications director Ross Catrow, who oversees the FOIA office, told the council committee that Richmond gets 5,500 requests per year, and most of them pertain to legal issues or emergency services.
He said he'd have to hire three additional staff members, costing up to $350,000, to maintain the library. Extra review of the records and the process of uploading information to the library would take extra time, he said.
"This is not three people to click a button so that the requests go into the FOIA library. This is three folks that need to use their very smart, expert, subject matter brains to decide how these go into the library," Catrow said.
Another thing to consider, he said, is that different requesters have different rights to information, so what may be available to an individual requester may be exempt from disclosure to a regular member of the public.
Councilmember Katherine Jordan said in response to Catrow's remarks, "I'll just say that I've heard very positive things about the work being done to improve the FOIA response."
As a frequent requester of information, CBS 6 has also observed improved collaboration from the city and adherence to required timelines when it comes to fulfilling FOIA requests over the past several months.
Ultimately, the city council committee declined to take a vote on the ordinance on Wednesday as requested by the administration. Discussions will continue over the next 30 days.
CBS 6 is committed to sharing community voices on this important topic. Email your thoughts to the CBS 6 Newsroom.
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