Ray of sunshine

Teri Saylor

Special to Publishers' Auxiliary

Mar 1, 2025

After 6 years in court, the Supreme Court of Virginia narrows the scope of personnel information under the state’s FOIA

In October 2022, the Virginia Supreme Court, in a precedent-setting ruling, narrowed “personnel information” under the state’s Freedom of Information Act, restricting to include only facts, data and statements that would invade someone’s personal privacy.

This ruling gives local elected officials less room to hide when they attempt to withhold information from the public.

This new precedent came out of a long, protracted effort by a Virginia attorney and a local newspaper to gain access to documents relating to the resignations of three municipal employees in South Hill, Virginia.

Cracks had already started forming in the brittle veneer of the South Hill town council before Richmond attorney Richard Hawkins began filing FOIA requests for crucial personnel documents that exposed a dysfunctional and toxic work environment. The Mecklenburg Sun of Clarksville, Virginia, also filed FOIA requests for the documents and reported on the ordeal since it began in 2019.

It’s a story that plays out every day in many cities and towns across America.

South Hill, Virginia, population 4,690, is a thriving small town in rural Mecklenburg County along I-95 just over the North Carolina state line. On its website, the public can find council meeting agendas and minutes, and instructions for making FOIA requests. The monthly meetings are streamed on YouTube, and anyone is welcome to tune in online or attend them in person.

Susan Kyte has been a reporter at the Mecklenburg Sun for about 14 years and is the weekly’s sole news writer.

From its office in Clarksville, the newspaper covers all of Mecklenburg County, including South Hill, about 30 miles away. For a long time, the Sun relied on published agendas and minutes to report on South Hill’s local government until about seven years ago, when Kyte learned that matters involving local businesses, citizens and government officials were heating up.

“Saying the town government was dysfunctional is an understatement,” Kyte said. “Employees were quitting amidst accusations of mismanagement and unrest, so I started covering the meetings in person.”

THE UNRAVELING

Until about six years ago, an entrenched town council carried out its business as if no one was watching and made many decisions in secret; few people questioned its actions because they didn’t know enough about what was going on.

“It was almost as if they conducted all their business behind closed doors, and when they met in the open, they had already made all their decisions, everything was hunky dory, and they just cast pro forma votes,” Kyte said. “Everyone was happy, and that’s just the way it was.”

Then, a current of discord began spilling out into the public as town employees started clashing with town manager, Kim Callas and the town council over personnel issues and their habit of enacting the town’s business behind closed doors. Business owners and residents in the community started taking a strong interest in the town’s business, even attending council meetings in force.

Kyte says Callas, who has since resigned, ran South Hill largely unchecked. A previous mayor, who had recruited him and continued to influence the way the town was run, became his top adviser.

“It was almost comical because Callas would often leave his office for town business, only to drive to the former mayor’s house,” Kyte said. “You would find his car frequently parked there, and sometimes the town’s finance committee chair, the fire chief and others would meet there, too.”

That’s how it all started to unravel, and in the next election, three new council members were elected, and they began asking questions about how financial decisions were made, how money was managed and how personnel matters were handled.

SUN COMES OUT

With a new infusion of council members, years of toxicity came to light, Kyte said. Employees began complaining about Callas and his management style in emails, letters and in person at council meetings, and they started resigning in 2019.

“Council meetings became the best show in town,” Kyte said. “They were packed.”

Hawkins, the attorney, stepped in at the behest of a local businessman to request copies of resignation letters, emails, and other records related to the complaints and resignations.

According to Kyte’s reporting, Hawkins sought access to 27 documents involving complaints about the town manager and resignation letters from the town’s former finance director, public works director, and human resources manager.

Piece by piece, town officials trickled out copies of letters and emails from business owners and citizens identifying general concerns about town operations until just seven documents remained in dispute.

They included a letter from a town employee’s attorney to the town attorney complaining about discrimination, a petition to the town’s personnel committee from seven employees requesting a meeting to discuss the town manager, an email thread from a town employee regarding disciplinary actions sent to the town mayor and council, an unsigned document sent to the mayor complaining about the town manager and his work environment, and finally, the resignation letters from the three town employees.

The Mecklenburg Circuit Court concluded the anonymous complaint and part of the employee petition should be disclosed but agreed that the demand letter, email chain and three resignation letters were exempt from FOIA requirements, leaving five documents under seal.

Hawkins appealed to The Supreme Court of Virginia, which found Mecklenburg had “erred in its interpretation and application of the personnel information exemption” and remanded the case to the lower court “to review and, if necessary, redact and release the documents at issue.”

It was further noted that releasing the disputed documents would not be an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy and that documents reflecting the conditions in a public workplace preventing the efficient operation of government or possibly causing the resignations of public employees should be subject to public disclosure.

Last January, the town released the last five documents. And the court awarded Hawkins $65,000 in attorney fees.

BUSINESS AS USUAL

On a recent Wednesday afternoon, Kyte was enjoying the day after press day, her time to recharge for the next week’s newspaper.

The Mecklenburg Sun is a locally owned independent weekly with a print circulation of 17,800. Publisher Tom McLaughlin’s father started the newspaper in 1976.

“We stay in print because we have an older population here,” Kyte says. They want the newspaper in their hand, and when you tell them they can find it online, they say they don’t ‘do online.’”

The Sun employs six staff including McLaughlin, who is also the editor and designer. The advertising staff is robust with three salespeople.

On this day, Kyte is in the middle of a busy week, filled so far with accidents, crime and local government shenanigans. It was business as usual.

“We’ve had a bad tractor-trailer crash, even though there was hardly any ice up here at all, and a court case where a guy pled guilty to raping his girlfriend,” she said. “Monday night, we had a heated town council meeting in Chase City, where the town manager called the entire council assholes and stormed out as a council member called him an asshole right back.”

Kyte chuckled when she said she just reported the incident as a “heated exchange.”

Reflecting on the drawn-out efforts to extract public documents from a local town council, she says they did not uncover crime or malfeasance; rather, they revealed what often goes on behind closed doors — controlling behaviors, cronyism, backstabbing and power grabs.

Kyte senses a renewed sense of openness on the South Hill Town Council. The current town manager is much less reticent about disclosing public records than the previous administration.

“She usually takes the full week or 10 days to respond to requests for information, but she does adhere to the rules,” Kyte said.

She is glad to have played a role in setting a precedent for improved access to public personnel records in Virginia.

“From now on, other lawyers, newspapers and citizens that want to get records like that can always point to this ruling,” she said. “

It’s one more ray of sunshine in Virginia.

Teri Saylor is a freelance writer in Raleigh, N.C. Reach her at terisaylor@hotmail.com.