Who are you?

Who am I, The ban of the City Council of Santa Rosa, Ca.    I have been attending the meetings for 20 years trying to get them to comply with the Brown Act.  They hate me!

As would anyone else who is being corrected and told they are doing something wrong.

But I am 83 years old, retired, and still in good health.  Just getting discouraged about how hard it is to get agencies to follow the law.

I even submitted the San Diego Meeting Docket to the City Clerk to show how extensive San Diego had to change their agendas  to comply with the court case Shapiro vs. San Diego City Counci.  Now if all agencies agendas met those standards it would be beneficial to the public.

 

JackO

I am  a council member for the City of Arvin, near Bakersfield.  I have been a regular at the meeting since 1993, and a thorn in the side of the council.  I was appointed to a vacacy in Jan. 2005.  This City is in a mess.  There are only 2 council members trying to abide by the law.  Like Jack, tring to make them line up to the laws.  Very difficult to do

First of all, let me say that I believe in honest, OPEN government, which is what led me to want to be in politics.  My city, which I've lived in fofr 26 years, doesn't function this way.  You can do a search over the internet and see the last 4-6 years what a spectacle it had become, constantly in the news.  We finally had a change in leadership Nov. 04, hoping a change would come, I was appointed to fill the vacancy of a council member that became mayor.  I am up for re-election in Nov.  although thinking seriously whether to run or not.  Many wrong things going on and I can't seem to change them.   Maybe you can get an answer on a question for me?  Our previous council enacted an ordinance for compensation in Dec. 03.  The then mayor and 2 council members started receiving pay Jan. 04, before a council member started a new term, which is law.  Can the residents sue to get the 11 months of pay back from these.  Also, there was a resolution authorizing a $150 cell phone allowance to all.  In Feb. it came to my attention that our now Mayor, who I was a campaign manager for, has been taking this allowance since he was a council member (2002) but also having his cell phone on the city account being paid by the city.  This in my opinion is illegal as he's double dipping.  Nothing has been done as of yet.  Do you feel this is illegal?  

I am a citizen of Orange County.  I have NO faith in the annointment cycle (formerly election cycle) in this county, state, nation.  Those that count the votes determine who wins and there is from what I can determine NO integrity in any of the voting systems.  This area is in dire need of OPENESS and TRANSPARENCY for the public.

My public records requests have basically been associated with determining the custody path of election materials and observation opportunities during election day.  My experience has been similar to others posts in that I get the response late and or denied as not available.  It can be discouraging but I guess that is their aim.

Thank you for this forum.  I will use it for advice.

Darlene Little

 

 

hello everyone...formerly of San Francisco/Oakland, and now a resident of San Jose...my new job is being exec. director of a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that seeks to continue to promote civic participation and leadership among underrepresented ethnic communities locally, statewide and nationally.

glad to see that CalAware has finally established a community forum and am looking forward to hearing from contributors and those sharing knowledge.

Hello to everyone...

I am a 50 year old guy who hasn't been active in politic's, and such, since College.  I have a wonderful wife and children......I am simply an average guy.    Dealings with the nearby City of Glendora lead to my joining CalAware and becoming passionate about  agency compliance with the law, at all levels of Government.   The flagrant violation of the CPRA  by Glendora led me to filing suit last summer.   Requests were simply ignored, fees in excess of the direct cost of duplication were charged,  requests were required to be in writing on a city prescribed form - well you get the idea.   Arrogance seems to prevail in the operations of many local governments - City representatives and officials simply do not want to be accountable.   I feel strongly that is wrong - they are conducting the "peoples" business, not their own.  I, along with every member of the public, has the absolute right to know and observe what is taking place.
We have little in the way of laws that protect us - the Brown Act and CPRA are the main two.   Both need some updating and I know that Terry, along with everyone at CalAware, is working hard to get these updates approved.  They really are to be applauded for the outstanding work they perform to help insure our rights-
Oh...my lawsuit, we go to trial next week.....I am optimistic that the outcome will be good for Glendora and all members of the public.

I'm the editor/owner along with my husband of a local, monthly newspaper.  We're coming up on our one year anniversary of the paper.

 Between the two of us, we go to all the City Council and School Board meetings.  We've been doing this for the past three years.

I've been coming the calaware site for the past few months and I finally decide to join. 

We live in a small town that is supposed to be exploding in growth over the next 10 years.  We started the paper because the town had no central source of communication.  So much tradition in this small town yet many new and even the old timers didn't know where or when events were occuring.

In order to better understand the meetings and the processes of local government, we have had to become very familiar with the Brown Act and Public Records Act.  This website has been most helpful and even entertaining.

Greetings to all!

I am an experienced advocate and frequent user of the Calif and Arizona Public Records acts and over the last 5 years have had many interesting experiences and encounters down here in Santa Cruz County and in Pima and Pinal counties in Ariz
I frequently speak at Santa Cruz city council meetings and other local commissions and board meeings. Sometimes I open by quoting Govt. Code 54950 Declaration of Legislative Purpose. Check it out!
.
I have successfully obtained hundreds of records from a wide variety of public agencies including police depts , public works, personnel, planning, water, info tech/computer, Superior Court, IT, animal control, parks & rec, City managers, Board of Supervisors, county recorder , finance dept & more.

These have included 911 calls and tape recordings, inter dept. e-mails & memos, public infrastructure plans and specifications, govt. video camera locations and specs, civil and criminal court actions, agency rules & regulations, SOP manuals (standard operating procedure), organizational charrts and personnel lists, job descriptions, studies and staff reports, police and sheriff training manuals, budgets, attorney/city contracts, state/city joint use agreements, land parcel boundary descriptions, deeds and maps.

Occasionally I catch our "civil serpents" in an outright lie about their records. I frequently and assertively pass them copies of the code and suggest they give it to their dept. attorney. Most of them are slowly catching on.

 I rarely use dept. forms since they don't have places for electronic copies and they state "standard fees". I refuse to  show ID.

I have managed to find extensive records that county and city depts. had "lost" or no longer had copies of.

Recently my peers and I have been "pushing the envelope" to obtain records in electronic format from agencies that are used to milking the public for copy fees from 25 cents to 2.50 per  page. We will soon be using a digital camera to obtain copies at no charge.

A pocket tape recorder is one of my favorite tools so that there is NO QUESTION regarding any dialog that takes place, or the manner, wording and temper of any encounter.  I have accumulated more than 50 tapes of encounters that would be useful (as well as entertaining)  to other watchdogs.  I have never lost a court case which I recorded and have successfully defended pro se against a city injunction and a number of traffic and minor citations.

I would be happy to help others and hope to be a frequent Calaware forum participant.

Jhond  G.     (pronounced "yon-duh" with long "o" and a soft "d")


Edited by jhond - 21/July/2007 at 12:29pm

LJ, I am sorry for the challenge you are having finding employment.  I feel that corruption is widespread in many, or most, government offices.  Activists and watchdogs have been asking for a forensic audit for the City of Encinitas, for years.  Supposedly we do have "audits," but they are not "line item" and the public and Council don't really know what's going on, for the most part.  

Things are so corrupt where I live that I do not even feel comfortable describing my situation. But, I come from a town where I volunteer at preservation tasks, among others. We have alot of shaninigans with public access to reports and recordings, among other things, so I get to be pit bull on these issues. That can be personally costly, its not fun. It is amazing how many regular citizens do not know how all this works, and since I have sort of worked it out, often information access lies on my shoulders.

Hmmm, I think I know you Thom B.