Fort Monroe legislation seeks FOIA exemptions
Hampton lawmakers on authority’s board push bill; transparency advocates concerned
TRICHMOND — wo Hampton legislators who sit on the Fort Monroe Authority’s board of trustees are pushing for a bill that would exempt the entity from complying with certain provisions of the Freedom of Information Act. “It’s just a way to help Fort Monroe work in the private development world with private developers and their financing,” said Glenn Oder, the authority’s executive director.
The authority is a political subdivision that oversees development on the state’s property at the fort, which ceased to operate as an Army base in 2011.
The bill would allow it to withhold “trade secrets, proprietary information or financial information” received from a private individual or entity for the purposes of complying with a lease, license, permit, or other agreements of a commercial or residential nature.
Republican A.C. Cordoza introduced the bill in the House of Delegates. Democrat Mamie Locke told The Virginian-Pilot in an email she plans to carry the measure in the Senate.
Lin Weeks, staff attorney with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, said access to documents — including those between government and private industries — helps to hold public officials accountable and keep citizens informed.
The RCFP is a nonprofit that advocates for journalists and First Amendment rights.
“Proprietary information specifically has been given a really broad construction by the courts,” he said. “I think the idea that proprietary information held by the Fort Monroe Authority (could potentially) be kept from the public is troubling from a transparency standpoint.”
Oder said the authority requested the exemptions because it’s requiring developers to sign construction completion guarantees, meaning they have to periodically submit financial statements demonstrating their ability to fulfill their obligations.
“We talked to the FOIA Council and they indicated that without an express exclusion to FOIA, these financial statements would likely be public documents,” Oder said.
“Developers have been hesitant to sign a construction completion guarantee, or even a lease, knowing that they are going to have to guarantee the construction with the knowledge that their financial statements could become available.”
Oder added some state agencies that work with the private sector have similar exemptions.
Megan Rhyne, executive director for the Virginia Coalition for Open Government, believes the legislation could be more narrowly tailored.
The coalition is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that advocates for government transparency.
“I think that they probably have legitimate reasons for wanting to conceal certain types of information related to the leasing of their properties,” she said.
“(But) the way that the bill is written is broader than what they need.”
Since the authority is unique, Rhyne explained it was difficult to draw comparisons between what the bill would allow and FOIA exemptions that exist for similar agencies.
“They are very different from a locality or a state agency,” she said. “I don’t know of any entity that is similar.”
The Fort Monroe Authority Act, which created the organization, tasked it with overseeing the protection and maintenance of the state’s natural resources and property interests at the fort. It also directs the group to renew Fort Monroe as a “vibrant and thriving” community.
The executive director reports to its fourteen member Board of Trustees, which includes Cordoza and Locke.
In a brief statement, Locke said she did not believe the bill would inhibit transparency.
Cordoza did not respond to requests for comment.
Betsy Edwards, executive director of the Virginia Press Association, said she couldn’t speak to this specific measure. But she said the organization is — across the board — opposed to any new laws that weaken the Freedom on Information Act.
“Virginia already has hundreds of exceptions to FOIA,” she said. “(The state) just keeps adding them on and that makes it weaker and weaker and weaker.”