Virginia State Librarian Nolan T. Yelich claims the administration of former Gov. Jim Gilmore is withholding documents promised to the Library of Virginia and worries it may have destroyed records that should be available to the public.
For several weeks, Yelich and Gilmore have argued about the documents turned over to the library—reportedly less than half the papers promised, according to the July 10 Richmond Times-Dispatch. Gilmore said he would give the library the papers it wanted once library staff told him what they already have; Yelich replied in a July 3 letter that the library wanted to examine what records were still held by Gilmore and his staff. “We need some indication that the information we seek still exists,” Yelich said.
Yelich also told Gilmore he was “concerned over the implications of the telephone call we received from your staff in early January that implied your office had approximately 100 boxes of records awaiting destruction.”
G. Bryan Slater, a former member of Gilmore’s cabinet, said none of the records Yelich wanted had been destroyed and said Gilmore “wants to do everything that he can to make sure that the records and information that they are entitled to have been turned over.”
Posted July 15, 2002.