2016 Advisory Opinions Issued

VIRGINIA FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ADVISORY COUNCIL
COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA

ADVISORY OPINIONS ISSUED

2016

Opinion No.	Issue(s)
July
AO-01-16	Records that have been prepared by or for the Office of the Governor for personal or deliberative use may be withheld as working papers. However, if those records are disseminated by the Office of the Governor to another agency for that agency's use in carrying out its statutory duties, then the records may not be withheld as working papers because they are no longer for personal or deliberative use of the Office of the Governor. Pursuant to subsection B of § 24.2-404, FOIA does not apply to records about individuals maintained in the voter registration system.
August
AO-02-16	A motion to convene a closed meeting that contains a general reference to the subject matter to be discussed does not satisfy the requirement to identify the subject. If a member feels that a closed meeting discussion strays beyond the matters identified in the motion to convene, that member shall make a statement to that effect to be included in the minutes before the public body votes to certify the closed meeting. In such a situation, it is expected that the member who feels that the discussion strayed will vote against the motion to certify when the vote is called. Further, if the motion to convene a closed meeting purports to discuss a subject (or subjects) but the actual discussion is of some other topic not addressed in the motion, that would be a violation of FOIA.
September
AO-03-16	Generally, requests for information (RFI's) are preliminary to a procurement transaction or contract negotiations, and not directly part of such transactions or negotiations. FOIA does not contain any specific exclusion from mandatory disclosure that would allow information received in response to an RFI to be withheld. Whether other exclusions apply to such information, such as those exclusions applicable to contract negotiation records or proprietary records and trade secrets, must be considered on a case-by-case basis.
December
AO-04-16	Under FOIA, a teacher has a right of access to the teacher's own personnel records, but not necessarily to scholastic records of a student. Generally, if a teacher requests a record that is both a personnel record and a scholastic record, the response should provide those portions which are the teacher's own personnel records but may redact those portions which are exempt as scholastic records. Other laws outside FOIA may also affect access to scholastic records, but this office's statutory authority is limited to providing guidance on FOIA.