Coalition honors Madison woman

FREDERICKSBURG — A former sheriff’s office employee who won a court decision against the Madison County sheriff for willfully violating the state’s Freedom of Information Act is being honored by the Virginia Coalition for Open Government.

The organization announced Thursday that Leigh Purdum has won the Laurence E. Richardson award for individual citizen contributions to open government.

Purdum, a former office employee under Sheriff Eric Weaver, brought suit when the sheriff refused to identify the people he had appointed to a newly formed citizens advisory board.

Weaver refused to give Purdum the names of citizens he appointed to the board, the board’s meeting dates, minutes and other details.

In December 2007, the Madison County General District Court found that while the board is not a public body and not subject to FOIA, any records about the board created and maintained by Weaver in his role as sheriff were open to the public.

Weaver was ordered to pay a $250 fine and Purdum’s court fees. Purdum represented herself and accrued $53 in court costs.

She said at the time that she filed the suit because “I wanted to know who was my representative” on the sheriff’s advisory board. “After I hit dead ends with the sheriff and Lisa Kelley (the county administrator), I wrote a letter to the FOIA council in Richmond and they issued that opinion.”

Weaver described Purdum’s case as a personal attack veiled in a FOIA request from a “former disgruntled employee.”

VCOG’s media award went to Lawrence Hammack of The Roanoke Times for his articles exposing a former Roanoke city councilman’s doublebilling for expenses to the state and city.