Stafford County’s emerging practice of routing media questions for elected officials through government staff is not just a change in communication strategy — it is a direct threat to transparency. It creates a wall between residents and their representatives, insulating leaders from basic accountability and weakening the democratic norms that make local government work.
This gatekeeping did not appear in a vacuum. It followed weeks of questions surrounding Garrisonville District Supervisor Dr. Pamela Yeung, who abstained from a major data center vote on October 22 without offering any explanation. Residents spent hours speaking at that meeting. The standards were described as some of the strongest in Virginia. Every supervisor present either voted for or against them — except Yeung, who opted out and has never said why.
After more than a year of declining interview requests, Potomac Local approached Yeung at a ribbon-cutting event earlier this month, a perfectly normal practice in local journalism and civic life. We asked two reasonable questions any voter would expect their news reporter to ask: Why did she abstain from such a critical vote, and why did her campaign mailer claim she had “secured a new movie theater” for The Garrison when the developer publicly said no contract exists?
Instead of answering, Yeung accused us of “harassing” her, told us to “make an appointment,” and walked away.
At the Board of Supervisors’ November 18 meeting, she escalated further. Yeung said reporters should not approach her at public events, should not “put mics in my face,” and should not “follow me to my car.” She claimed such interactions are “dangerous” and could lead to “someone getting hurt.”
This is not how representative government works. Asking elected officials questions is not dangerous. It is essential. It is how the public learns what its leaders are doing and why. To characterize normal press inquiries as physical threats is to invert reality: the danger lies in silence, not scrutiny.
What happened next was even more alarming. While preparing this story, Stafford County’s Office of Communication emailed Potomac Local stating: “At this time, Dr. Yeung prefers using our established means of answering questions… Please send your questions to us.”
In other words, Stafford County staff — unelected employees — would now determine what questions Yeung sees and how, or whether, she responds to them.
To better understand what this means for open government, I spoke with Megan Rhyne, executive director of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government. Rhyne described the system as textbook gatekeeping: “Government shouldn’t be inserting middlemen between citizens and the people they elected. No one votes for a spokesperson.”
She’s right. This isn’t message management — it’s message control. And it is fundamentally incompatible with a transparent, responsive government.
Suppose a voter approached Yeung at a community festival or a church dinner and asked why she abstained from a major vote. Would they be instructed to email the communications department? Would they be accused of harassment? Should residents fear that asking questions might be deemed “dangerous”?
Stafford County’s approach suggests the answer is yes.
On November 19, I emailed the County Administrator Bill Ashton with three straightforward questions: Is there a formal policy requiring reporters to route questions for elected officials through staff? Why is direct access to supervisors being restricted at public events and after meetings? How does this practice align with Stafford’s stated commitment to transparency?
As of this writing — five days later — Ashton has not responded.
This silence, combined with Yeung’s refusal to answer any questions, reveals a deeper cultural problem. As Rhyne told me, many transparency failures aren’t rooted in the law but in a government’s desire to control information. FOIA requests are often misused to delay or avoid giving simple answers. Communications offices increasingly filter access rather than facilitate it. And elected officials sometimes begin to believe that they are owed insulation rather than scrutiny.
But public office is not a private job. It is not supposed to be comfortable. It is not supposed to be controlled. It is supposed to be accountable.
Supervisor Yeung has one job above all others: to vote on policy and explain her decisions. Everything else — the ribbon cuttings, the ceremonies, the photo opportunities — is secondary. When an elected official refuses to do that job, and when a county government steps in to shield her from the public, democratic accountability breaks down.
Stafford residents deserve transparency, answers, and access to the people they elected. Potomac Local News will continue to ask questions — even if the county insists they be filtered, delayed, or ignored because accountability is not dangerous. Gatekeeping is.
