Local woman earned honor

The Charlottesville Daily Progress
Published: May 25, 2008

A former public employee from Madison County has won an award named for a Charlottesville leader in a case heard by an Albemarle judge.

For all its local connection, that case should advance freedom for Virginians.

Leigh Purdum received the Laurence E. Richardson award for individual citizen contributions to open government from the Virginia Coalition for Open Government.

Good choice.

Ms. Purdum last year asked Sheriff Erik Weaver to provide the names of the people he had appointed to an advisory board, along with the board’s meeting dates, minutes and other details. She was a former office worker at the sheriff’s department who now was involved in a campaign to unseat Mr. Weaver.

Mr. Weaver refused her request. He later said he thought she wanted to discover the names of board members and topics of discussion to try to discern who might be supporting him — with the ultimate aim of politically attacking those board members.

Undeterred, Ms. Purdum took her request to court.

The case revealed a loophole in law. While public boards, agencies and other bodies are supposed to conduct meetings and keep records open to the public (with limited, specific exceptions), it turned out that advisory boards were not considered public bodies under the law.

The Virginia Freedom of Information Advisory Council had already issued an opinion that board meetings did not have to be open to the public under this loophole, but that records held as part of the sheriff’s office — including records on the advisory group — were public documents open to public inspection.

Judge Robert H. Downer Jr. ruled that the sheriff had willfully violated the state’s open records law and ordered him to pay Ms. Purdum’s court costs plus a $250 fine.

Mr. Downer is an Albemarle County judge who had been specially appointed to hear the case. His decision is believed to be the first time a district judge ruled that a public official willfully violated the law, and imposed a punishment.

Imposition of punishment signals a willingness by the court to take freedom-of-information violations seriously.

Until public officials know that courts will take this solemn approach to issues of public openness, they will continue to withhold information for any number of self-interested reasons.

Mr. Weaver said he wanted to protect board members from political attacks — hardly a sinister reason. But the next public official who seeks to hide information may do so for far darker reasons — and believe he can get away with it because of lax enforcement in the past.

In any case, political heat often is part of the territory when one is appointed or elected to a board. There are ways under the law to deal with unfair attacks. But hiding from the natural rough-and-tumble of the democratic process is not tolerable.

The VCOG award was named for the late Larry Richardson, former president of Charlottesville Broadcasting Corporation and a tireless promoter both of local community progress and the ideals of free information.

Because the Madison case may set a higher standard for courts hearing other freedom-of-information cases, it is fitting that the award be given to Leigh Purdum.