Two thumbs up for CA and CT
13 June, 2008
Some quality transparency work is being done by state legislatures across the country. A couple of my recent favorites:
California: Don’t battle with people that buy ink by the barrel
The California Chronicle reports on legislation aimed at keeping taxpayers in the loop on how their cash is spent.
Senate Bill 1696, authored by Senator Leland Yee (D-San Francisco/San Mateo), would prohibit a state or local agency from allowing an outside entity to control the disclosure of information that is otherwise subject to the state´s Public Records Act. In addition, the bill would specify that regardless of any contract term to the contrary, a contract for the purpose of conducting a review, audit, or report between a private entity and a state or local agency is subject to the same disclosure requirements as other public records.
The need for the measure arose from the denial of a January 2007 request by the San Francisco Chronicle to the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF). UCSF refused to release an independent review of its finances or even the name of the firm that was issued a contract for $165,000 to carry out the review. UCSF claimed the auditing firm controlled the confidentiality of the contract and the audit.
I’m glad most newspapers are on our side.
Connecticut: No pension for you! (unless you have a union contract)
The Connecticut legislature approved a measure Thursday that would empower the state to revoke the pension of any elected official or state worker convicted of corruption. Newsday.com also tells us the bill will also:
_ Makes failure to report a bribe and failing to report witnessing a bribe a crime._ Includes the governor’s spouse as a “public official” under the ethics code.
_ Limits gifts to public officials for major life events, such as the birth of a child, to $1,000 or less.
_ Prohibits state contractors from offering a job to a state employee who participated significantly in awarding a state contract to that firm.
Since we try not to make the Perfect the enemy of the Good, we applaud the legislators that worked to give taxpayers some justice in public corruption cases. For states that have public officials on trial (SEE BELOW): Take Note.
I See Dead People …. In the Voting Booth
10 June, 2008
This is amazing. 
I ran across this editorial from The Florida Times-Union while surfing the net today. Thank goodness there is at least one old media outlet crying out for election integrity and urging elected officials to ensure free and fair elections … or at least not allowing corpses to vote.
Here is the editorial from their website.
The Florida Times-Union
June 10, 2008
Elections: Keep them honest
By
The Times-Union
Voter fraud, like the Energizer bunny, just keeps going and going and going and …
A recent study found 9,000 dead people were registered to vote in Connecticut, Fox News reports.
Ok. I know government is inefficient but lets get them to hire the credit card companies that call me when I miss a payment. At least they know where I am and if I am alive!
Innocent mistakes?
In some cases, but not in all. One person had voted 17 times since his death.
17 times!!!! This is either election fraud or very stupid election judges at the polling
location.
There is pretty strong evidence that voter fraud has altered the course of history.
Chicago Mayor Richard Daley may have stolen the 1960 presidential election by arranging for votes in the names of dead people.
Something definitely was up in Texas. The Washington Post recalls:
“In Fannin County, which had 4,895 registered voters, 6,138 votes were cast, three-quarters of them for [John] Kennedy.
“In one precinct of Angelina County, 86 people voted and the final tally was 147 for Kennedy, 24 for [Richard] Nixon.”
At the time, a reporter investigated voter fraud in Chicago. The Post quotes him as having said:
“I remember a house. It was completely gutted. There was nobody there. But there were 56 votes for Kennedy in that house.”
This is not like voting for the All Star Team in Major League Baseball. It is one man .. one vote not one man… twenty votes!
Who knows what would have happened if Nixon had been elected president in 1960 instead of 1968?
Also, Lyndon Johnson was nominated to the U.S. Senate in 1948 by an 87-vote margin.
That earned him the nickname, “Landslide Lyndon.”
The election, in which some late votes were “found,” may also have been fraudulent, according to The New York Times.
Click Here to read the full story on the website.
Thousands of brave men and women gave their lives to ensure America has free elections. Let’s hope our election officials live up to their sacrifice. Sadly, some have not.
TN Leg: Transparency is great… for someone else
4 June, 2008
Drew Johnson, President of the Tennessee Center for Policy Research, describes new “improvements” to the state’s Open Records Act in today’s Tennessean. Although the law demands citizen access to all state, county, and municipal records during all business hours, Johnson describes the reality of trying to view information.
[W]hen Tennesseans request such information, they receive responses including: “I am a little stressed right now, so I appreciate it if you don’t add to that”; “Please explain to me why you need bills on any credit or debit cards used by the city”; and “You will need to send a formal letter with references that we can verify.”
….
Recently, TCPR took the state Department of Finance and Administration to court to force the department to hand over documents that, despite being requested nine months earlier, had still not been made available. The state Department of Economic and Community Development took five months to reply to a TCPR open-records request … just to let us know they were denying it.
In the Tennessee legislature’s haphazard attempt to update the Open Records law, they specified a 7-day window for government to address information requests. However, they also piled on exemptions to the law, including exemptions for the legislature.
The question remains: What do TN legislators have to hide from their constituents?
