Richmond Wins 2026 "City of Darkness" Award

"The city’s secrecy shenanigans extend beyond the FOIA library."

Mar 23, 2026

As we close out Sunshine Week, let’s not forget to recognize the recent award achieved by the City of Richmond: The City of Darkness Award. Since 2015, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and MuckRock have published their joint project, The Foilies, annually "to recognize the agencies, officials and contractors that thwart the public’s right to know.”

One of the awards granted as part of The Foilies, which "[recognizes] the worst in government transparency,” is The City of Darkness Award. Here’s their award statement about Richmond this year:

Richmond’s creation of a new FOIA Library may seem like a step toward transparency, but there are questions about the city’s commitment after it left the same officials subject to records requests in charge of curating which records might be released.
Faced with a plan to post all of the city’s eligible public records released under Virginia’s "sunshine” law, the Richmond City Council instead opted to go with the mayor’s alternative proposal. That plan lets the mayor’s administration — the same one that might be the subject of those records — decide what’s worth posting to the library.
Instead of providing access to all public records that the city released under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, the library will only contain a subset that officials believe meet certain criteria, including records that the administration deems "relevant” to city business or that would aid “accountability.” The city cites concerns that "transparency without context” might be too confusing for the average citizen. Forgive us for having more faith in Richmond residents than its leaders do.
The city’s secrecy shenanigans extend beyond the FOIA library.
In an ongoing legal battle, attorneys representing Richmond asked a judge to prohibit former city FOIA officer Connie Clay from filing FOIA requests seeking information about her firing, and sought a gag order to prevent her from talking about the case. Clay alleges she was fired for insisting the city comply with public records law, describing what she calls a “chaotic and mismanaged” and illegal FOIA request process. Rather than agree to a $250,000 settlement, Richmond has spent more than $633,000 in taxpayer funds on legal costs. The trial and the FOIA library launch are both slated for the summer of 2026.