Support Open Government!
January 15th, 2007 by Dan GaffneyI believe Delaware Senate Bill 4 is one of the most important pieces of legislation ever introduced in Dover. A simple bill, it would define the General Assembly as a “public body†in our Freedom of Information Act. State lawmakers exempted themselves from the law when first passing the FOIA rules. It is ridiculous to argue that the General Assembly is not a “public bodyâ€, so I congratulate Senator Peterson and her co-sponsors, Senators Sokola, Copeland, Bonini, McBride and Cloutier along with Representatives Gilligan, Maier, McWilliams, and Keeley.Â
Absent from the bill are lawmakers from Sussex County! The culture of secrecy is alive and well here in slower lower. Pete? John? Joe? Gerald? Danny? Thurman? Gary? George? George? What are you guys trying to hide?
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UPDATE: Senator George Bunting faxed me a letter stating he was asked, and will sign on as a sponsor of this bill! Anyone else?
January 15th, 2007 at 9:49 am
Dan, I couldn’t agree with you more!!!
I plan to contact my representatives to seek their support of this extremely important bill.
Another significant issue is Wind Power as an alternative to the expansion of the NRG coal fired Power Plant. There are four bids, one by Blue Water to install Wind turbines off-shore which will be virtually invisible from our beaches and offer so many environmental, job and profit opportunities for our Delaware. The decision on the bids is 02/28/2007, so I hope folks will contact their representatives on this issue too.
January 15th, 2007 at 3:12 pm
I’ll keep my fingers crossed, but this one is doubtful …
January 15th, 2007 at 5:43 pm
I would hope that eventually all states would enact what Florida called “Government in the Sunshine” legislation. That it hasn’t happened already can only be attributed to citizen apathy as no matter what party or ideological affiliation you have getting things out in the open is a good thing.
Unfortunately though our politicos adopt to the new visibility more easily these days. I’ve read where in practice much of the Florida procedures have been watered down or ignored after so many meetings where no members of the press or public bothered to show up.
We have the technology to telecast (via the Internet, since there arent; enough cable channels to do it) every governmental meeting that occurs at the local state and national level. Wouldn’t it be great if all such meetings were archived on Youtube instead of some of the drivel that is out there now?
Funny business would still go on, but it would be a lot harder to orchestrate… and “orchestrate” is exactly what happens in the long run as a lot of the real decisions on (for example) C-Span covered meetings happens in small informal meetings that are off the record. The conspirators then come into the committee room with scripts that they follow to simulate a deliberative process.
Still, I’d rather force these ne’r-do-wells that represent us to go though the act and risk a slip-up that would give themselves away rather than the way most of them (at the state and local level) have it now. A lot of corruption would be simply too hard to hide.
The downside, if there is one, is that you also end up with elected officials that are simply better actors. I think our modern political process pretty much eliminates some of the most intelligent candidates from the very beginning if they are not also “photogenic”. But there is no going back from that. A boon for make-up artists everywhere.
January 15th, 2007 at 7:32 pm
Macb,… That 5 o’clock shadow did wonders for Nixon in his debate.
January 15th, 2007 at 10:06 pm
This is good news. I believe we should encourage all DE legislators to sign on as co-sponsors of the bill and, absent a compelling explanation, hold those accountable who don’t.
January 16th, 2007 at 9:49 pm
More on the Open Government front …
Two more Senate bills introduced today (SB 12 & SB 13), which are also assigned to the Senate Exectutive Committee deal with Initiative and Referendum with SB 12 and sending potential Constitutional Amendments to the polls for voter ratification with SB 13.
They’re good pieces of legislation, SB 4, SB 12 and SB 13, unfortunately they have been tried in the past, and failed …
I don’t think enough has changed to make these propsed changes any closer to a Gubernatorial signature …
January 17th, 2007 at 7:55 am
Unfortunately, Matt, you may be right, though I hope you are not.
It will be interesting to see if (Strom) Thurman Adams manages to sit on these Adams backbreakers, preventing them from coming to the floor for a vote, and getting away with it like he always has.
I detect a growing disgust for the “good old boy” form of government we have, as evidenced for example by the growing impact of people passionate about land use issues. Just yesterday on Randy Nelson’s show there was a virtual groundswell voiced against that smooth spinmeister Rich Collins and his lies and half-truths. Rich is part of the good old boy network that starts with Thurman Adams, including the likes of Dale Dukes and Vance Phillips on the SCC.
We don’t need this form of dictatorship here in this state. It is past time for the people to demand much better, with pressure applied both by direct contact and the ballot box. For the latter, we need to find good candidates like Mike Opaliski and do the ground work to get them elected. They cannot do it all themselves!!!