Blogging? A Win

[Annie]

Links

http://vaconservative.com/archives/2006/09/08/will-vehrs-wins-his-grievance-against-dba/

9/8/2006
Will Vehrs wins his grievance against DBA
Filed under: Blogging by Chad Dotson @ 12:55 pm

I generally don’t post anything above the Caption Contest on Fridays, but this deserves a mention…and putting it above the Caption Contest is strangely appropriate.

It has been several months since Will Vehrs last posted here at Commonwealth Conservative. You will recall the tempest in a teapot over one of our Caption Contests that resulted in a ten-day suspension without pay for Will. I’m as outraged now as I was then about this insanity.

I have known for a while that Will had filed a grievance against the Department of Business Assistance in response to the suspension (which Will served, without pay; he blogged about the experience here at CC. Search for “suspension diary” to read those posts). I have been watching for weeks to see when they were going to post the result of the grievance hearing online (this page gives the rationale for making such decisions public).

At long last, it has been posted (it’s a PDF file, so know that before you click on it). In its decision, the Department of Employment Dispute Resolution directed the DBA to reimburse Vehrs for the ten days of suspension and restore all benefits that were adversely affected by the suspension.

Finally, logic and good sense prevails.

It is notable that the DBA actually appealed the decision (asking for reconsideration of the ruling that went against them), but their appeal was denied.

I’ll have more observations as I get an opportunity to read the case more closely, but one noteworthy point that arises (with respect to blogging) is that the government’s internet policy here in Virginia is actually fairly progressive. I don’t know about other cases like this (I imagine most deal with games or adult content, rather than blogging), but gauging “excessive personal use” under the policy is probably too subjective, according to the first read of the decision.

Also, though Will’s argument about the disclaimer on his “bio” page here at CC failed to move the hearing officer, it appears that a disclaimer on every post might have helped further.

Lots of things to chew on there. I’m just glad that Will has been (at least partially) exonerated officially.