The Charlottesville Transparency Project is live on Muckrock...






The Charlottesville Transparency Project is now live on Muckrock. The goal is to bring a little sunlight to a city that certainly appears to need it badly. The Charlottesville Transparency Project is a 100 % self-funded, non-commercial investigative journalism project and public service to the residents of Charlottesville and the entire state of Virginia. If you'd like to help or have a question you'd like answered, email me at rblee22468@gmail.com. 




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Charlottesville apparently denies public information request from Virginia resident...

Image
On April 25, 2019, I submitted a Freedom of Information Act request for public information to the Charlottesville Police Department. The request was submitted through Muckrock, a website designed to promote greater government transparency and make filing a FOIA request easier for the public. I purchased a Muckrock Professional account for $40, which gives me up to 20 FOIA requests through the site every month and includes a feature which detects if you are filing from out-of-state and then submits the requests through a group of volunteer proxy filers. A proxy filer is someone who takes the place of the actual filer, and in this case, the proxy filer appears to be a Virginia resident who has successfully submitted previous FOIA requests to the Charlottesville Police Department with no issues.  Muckrock also includes a feature where you are able to view the actual email data. The email data for this particular requests ap...
Read more

Charlottesville Police Department declines to name employee who "liked" tweet encouraging me to file a FOIA request by proxy...

Image
This is kind of unbelievable. An unknown employee controlling the Twitter account for the Charlottesville Police Department "liked" a tweet in reply to me from a Virginia resident who offered to file Freedom of Information Act requests by proxy on my behalf. The tweet was "liked" on March 15, 2019. It seems logical that Tyler Hawn would have been controlling the departments Twitter account during this timeframe. I sought comment from the Charlottesville Police Department yesterday as to who might have been controlling the account when the post was "liked".  Predictably, the "spokesperson" for the Charlottesville Police Department was at a loss for words.  I followed up with questions regarding the legality of the requirements made of me by city officials to verify circulation of my online magazine within the Commonwealth. According to multiple media organizations in Charlottesville, none have ...
Read more

News articles show that city of Charlottesville and other local government entities respond to online only news media and out-of-state requesters...

Image
News articles reviewed by this author show that the city of Charlottesville, and other local Virginia government entities respond to Freedom of Information Act requests from online only media outlets and out-of-state requesters in direct contrast to a recent denial of a public records request submitted by this same author, by the city of Charlottesville. It is not known at this time the number of other online only or traditional print media outlets who have been required to submit a second class mailing permit or undergo a circulation audit by an independent auditor under Section 8.01-324 of the Virginia Code. It is also unclear at this time the reason why the city of Charlottesville is selectively denying Freedom of Information Act requests. We will update this post with any further examples we are able to uncover of the city of Charlottesville's egregious abuses of power.  September 4, 2017, "UVA Professor Warned Police Of Impending Violen...
Read more