State Sens. Edd Houck (left), D-Spotsylvania, Janet D. Howell (center), D-Fairfax, and John Watkins, R-Powhatan, confer on the Senate floor yesterday in Richmond. BOB BROWN/RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH

Senate backs change in FOIA/VDOT bill

Date published: 4/27/2006

By CHELYEN DAVIS

RICHMOND--The state Senate yesterday unanimously approved a new bill that would allow the Virginia Department of Transportation to keep secret certain aspects of public-private partnerships until entire projects are finished.

The bill is a reconstituted version of one passed during the regular session of the General Assembly. It was originally intended to tighten some loopholes in disclosure requirements for public-private partnerships.

But, at the behest of Secretary of Transportation Pierce Homer, Gov. Tim Kaine amended the original legislation to say that VDOT could keep certain documents related to public-private transportation projects confidential until "all phases or aspects of the comprehensive agreement is complete."

In some large projects that take years to complete, that means information would be kept private for all those years.

Homer had argued that VDOT needs that ability to protect its bargaining position in large public-private agreements.

The Freedom of Information Advisory Council and several open-government organizations objected, saying that the amendments were troublesome and had bypassed the process of running open-government exemptions past the council first.

So all sides agreed to scuttle the original bill and Kaine's amendments, and have Kaine reintroduce the bill, with his amendments still on it but also with a sunset provision. That means that legislators and the FOIA Council will have the next year to study the issue further, while VDOT gets the bargaining protections it needs.

The House still must approve the bill.

In other action, the Senate Finance Committee yesterday heard, but did not vote on, several bills to create regional transportation authorities in Northern Virginia, Hampton Roads and the Interstate 81 corridor.

Sen. John Chichester, R-Northumberland, said he expects the committee to pass out one Northern Virginia bill and one Hampton Roads bill and perhaps a third one, all of which would be connected to one another and to a statewide transportation bill.

He said the committee wasn't quite ready to approve any legislation yesterday, but the committee is scheduled to meet again today with the intention of passing out some bills.

The idea behind the Senate's regional proposals is to find a way to get the state's most congested regions extra transportation money, while still pushing for a statewide transportation plan as well. The Senate and House have been fighting over this issue since the regular session ended in early March.

"The Senate is bearing the load of the work, apparently," Chichester said. "We're not putting out press releases."

The House and Senate are both in session today.

To reach CHELYEN DAVIS: 804/782-9362
Email: cdavis@freelancestar.com

Date published: 4/27/2006