Title: Closed Sessions: The Standard We Should Meet
Author: Supervisor Rich Jamieson, Guest Contributor
Published: January 6, 2026, 8:04 PM
Publisher: Royal Examiner
Category: Local Government
Summary
The article argues that Virginia’s FOIA establishes openness as the default and allows closed sessions only for narrowly defined, specific legal transactions or disputes, not general policy discussions, even when legal issues are involved. It explains that the Legal Services Transparency and Review Policy simply codifies this standard by requiring advance notice, written justification, and precise identification of the FOIA exemption and the legal matter at issue, aligning county practice with FOIA Council guidance. Drawing on past cases in which public deliberation was derailed by the overbroad use of closed sessions, the piece contends that clearer, more rigorous procedures are necessary to ensure accountability, protect public participation, and prevent misuse of confidentiality.
Thoughts
January 9, 2026
This piece treats specificity and advance notice as a cure-all for misuse of closed sessions, but that assumes the problem is primarily one of compliance rather than system design. Rules can require more detailed motions and written justifications, yet still fail if the underlying workflows, incentives, and recordkeeping aren’t built to support them.
From a process standpoint, the real question isn’t whether officials can cite the right statute or FOIA opinion, but whether the system reliably produces clear, durable, and auditable records of why decisions were made. If those records are fragmented, inconsistently applied, or vulnerable to retroactive reinterpretation, then formal compliance may increase without improving real transparency.
Transparency works when it is embedded in how information flows through an organization—not when it is bolted on as a procedural checklist. The goal should be a governance system that naturally produces understandable, trustworthy records, not one that relies on perfect adherence to ever more complex rules.
