It was ten years ago in June that the city council old timers Bond, Stocks, and Houlihan closed and locked the doors to city hall. The old doors were replaced with glass - a fitting reminder to taxpayers that from then on you could look in but weren't allowed inside without a special invitation. It was a great metaphor. It was transparent but it was faux. The public could see only what the council wanted the public to see and staff could step behind the corner when they didn't want their activities to be known.
Tin is the traditional gift for the tenth anniversary.
An insightful quote by Lucy Dalglish
ReplyDelete“What these open government laws do is break down that wall of government secrecy so that everybody knows what's going on. A democracy can only function if we have information. You can only have oversight of government if you have information.”
Lucy Dalglish is the executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.
Speaking of governmental control:
ReplyDeleteTonight at the council meeting, the 'majority' will replace the most qualified Environmental Comissioner, Elizabeth Taylor, with probably, Harriot Sheldon, the least qualified applicant. And there is nothing anyone can do to stop it.
She will do the bidding of the majority council.
Woops, Shelton's not applying.
ReplyDeleteIf you really like a perspective on the absurdity of the city’s openness and transparency. Look at their policy regarding Email.
ReplyDeleteEncinitas Administrative Policy #G037. Use of electronic e-mail.
“Email is intended for City-related purposes only. All e-mail communication regarding City business are the property of the City of Encinitas. The City reserves the right to retrieve and make proper and lawful use of any and all communication transmitted through the e-mail system.”
This starts out quite nice and legit, until you get to the policy regarding retention obligation and public record.
“E-mail messages shall not be kept, either electronically or in hard copy, unless retention is required by law or where its retention would serve a useful purpose for the City. E-mail does not become a public record under the Public Records Act.”
“All incoming, sent and deleted e-mails that are older than 30 days will be deleted AUTOMATICALLY from the e-mail system on a daily basis.”
Now how convenient is that !!!
The complete Encinitas Administrative Policy #G037 is here:
ReplyDeletehttps://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=gmail&attid=0.1&thid=12e2f9b0a6627d84&mt=application/pdf&url=https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui%3D2%26ik%3D26516f0880%26view%3Datt%26th%3D12e2f9b0a6627d84%26attid%3D0.1%26disp%3Dsafe%26zw&sig=AHIEtbRxhLoJzNHqbwy1RpVopQA1FaT_rA&pli=1
Kooks kept barging into official's offices on rampages at Encinitas city hall. That is why security increased there.
ReplyDeleteIt all started when Kerry Miller became City Manager in late 1999. He hated the Brown Act and thought transparency interfered with doing city business. Better to keep the pesky public out of the way.
ReplyDeleteJames Bond felt similarly, and then Jerome Stocks and Christie Guerin. When Dan Dalager joined the council in 2002, it became Fortress Encinitas. It continues to this day.
Only Teresa Barth has championed openness with Maggie Houlihan not joining with her as often as she should have. So far Kristin Gaspar is on the side of hiding as much from the public as possible. She smiles and mouths the words, but doesn't vote accordingly. Will she ever break with Stocks and Bond?
Stocks is the biggest RINO in the USA.
ReplyDeleteGives 35% increase in public pensions payments to himself and every City Employee in one vote. Then he turn around and approves building all brand new fire stations for his union buddies in excess of $20,000,000. He gives away all the tax dollars to pensions and union perks and then tries to say with a straight face that times are tough and there is not any more money for other projects. Get the word out, What a loser, RINO. Vote him out in 2012.