This speech was given during the public comment portion of the Stafford County Board of Supervisors.
Mr. Chairman and the Board of Supervisors,
I am representing Virginia Progress.I was looking at your published legislative agenda, that is, what will be provided to our General Assembly representatives for consideration for submission as legislation next November. Most of the proposals are reasonable, and many have been submitted in various forms over the previous few years to meet tha challenges of rapid growth in the county. Usually three or four proposals are submitted for our General Assembly representatives to concentrate on and a few subsidiary proposals of less importance or less possibility of being achieved are included.
I was appalled to see listed as the Number One proposal, Proposed Amendments to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). I was surprised to see it at all, but thought it was audacious and arrogant to be presented in such a position of prominence.
I do know why it was included though; recently there was a lawsuit that used FOIA to discover that illegal meetings were held by some members of the School Board, and this sims to prevent more embarrassment, or more lawsuits of the same nature.
It is as if someone had gotten in trouble for robbing banks and then called there supervisor to complain that it was inconvenient to have a stringent law on robbing namks, and he promised to make the laws more friendly.
I use the analogy of robbing, because that is just what these amendments are designed for, to steal the ability of their citizens to watch over and control their government.
The great Republican and American, Abraham Lincoln, encapsulated the spirity of Democracy by describing it as "Government of, by, and for the people." FOIA is a tool designed to prevent government from becoming of, by and for the politicians. It is to make sure the citizens are being represented fairly and honestly.FOIA insures our government is open and information is assessible. It makes sure that the people's representatives are advocating actions to advance the people's goals, not the politicians private agenda; that they are fulfilling their campaign promises and not participating in skulguggery and chicanery to hide activities and distort truth.
In the United States, Virginia, and Stafford, ours has been a constant struggle for open government. These resolutions seek to close the door that we must peer through to see the workings of our government and to insure that backroom deals are not being made that mortgage our future. It is unworthy of Stafford and Virginia.
I would like to thank those on this Board, Republicans, Independents and Democrats, who have campaigned for a more open government, or have worked to be open and assessibleon this Board.
Mr Gibbons, Mr. Cavalier, Mr. Brito, Mr. Schwartz, and Mr. Fields, I thank you for your efforts. You can see now that the battle is a constant one. Restore the needs of our citizens to the top of your proposal list, Remove NUmber One, FOIA ammendments, which only serves the selfish interests of politicians.
