West Virginia

Overview

West Virginia

(This section is blank. See the point above.)

Since the Open Meetings Act applies only to proceedings of the "governing body" of a public agency, defined as entities with two or more members, individual executives such as a governor or mayor are not covered by the statute. This conclusion simply means a governor can meet with his staff without being required to open such a meeting to the public. However, where the mayor is acting in connection with a city council meeting, he becomes part of a public agency and the meeting would be covered by the Open Meetings Act.

The FOIA has no specific exemption for prison, parole and probation reports. Therefore, unless the particular materials sought fall with the exemptions discussed above for personal information or law enforcement records, they would be available for public inspection.

Overview

West Virginia

There is no West Virginia caselaw or statute addressing whether a journalist may be deemed to have waived the privilege. Because the privilege is constitutional in nature, it is likely the privilege may never be deemed to have been waived.

Neither the West Virginia Freedom of Information Act nor the West Virginia Open Governmental Proceedings Act explicitly provides for an ombudsman.

Overview

West Virginia

The statute contains an exceptionally broad exemption for discussions of personnel matters, including "[t]he appointment, employment, retirement, promotion, transfer, demotion, disciplining, resignation, discharge, dismissal or compensation of any public officer or employee, or other personnel matters, or for the purpose of conducting a hearing on a complaint against a public officer or employee." (W. Va. Code § 6-9A-4(2)).

(This section is blank. See the subpoints below.)