Date: Wed, 20 Apr 1994 10:43:48 -0700 From: Jim Warren Subject: GovAccess.034: CA & CT ACTION ALERTS; informed voters; $26mil avail <5/12 Apr.20, 1994 CALIFORNIA IMMEDIATE ACTION NEEDED: LEGISLATION TO AID PUBLIC OVERSIGHT OF LAW ENFORCEMENT PRACTICES State Senate Bill 1460 is currently scheduled for an Apr.26th hearing, and it's in trouble. SB 1460 would re-establish Public Records Act control over access to most inactive law-enforcement records - essential if the press and the public hope to exercise reasonable oversight of enforcement practices. The records were public until recent court rulings that permitted the police to make them permanently secret. Although SB 1460 would again permit public review, it explicitly continues numerous reasonable protections - such as for active investigations, disclosures that would endanger individuals or compromise security, victim information when a victim requests that police withhold it, etc. Unsurprisingly, a number of police organizations oppose the bill. If the bill is to pass the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, *immediate* faxes, letters and calls are needed to bill-author Sen. Charles Calderon - and from their constituents to Senators Roberti, Watson, Torres, Presley, Marx, Petris, Lockyer and Hurtt (with copies to Calderon). Hon. Charles Calderon c/o Chief-of-Staff Kelly Jensen California State Senate State Capitol Sacramento CA 95814 voice/916-327-8315; fax/916-327-8755 &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& CONNECTICUT IMMEDIATE ACTION NEEDED: LEGISLATION TO STUDY ELECTRONIC PUBLIC ACCESS TO STATE RECORDS A Hartford Courant reporter says his state legislature is about to act on House Bill 5826 (File 326). It would create a task force to study how modern [computerized] access might be provided to the state's public records. Reportedly, they have a BBS in the state Tax Dept. And, a legislative staffer has set up a sorta legislative BBS at his own expense apparently out of his house (neat!). Also, court dockets are somewhat available online - reportedly at great expense and requiring special software. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& JOHN GARAMENDI STILL ONLY GOVERNOR CANDIDATE TO VOLUNTEER USEFUL DISCLOSURES Garamendi is a Demo. candidate. The notable still-obsolete candidates are: 1. Gov. Pete Wilson (Repub.). A March 10th Sacramento Bee article reported that Wilson's re-election e-mail address is PeteWilson@delphi.com . 2. State Treasurer Kathleen Brown (Demo.) reportedly received big bucks from the financial industry in which she, as Treasurer, controls the investment of California's vast loot-in-waiting. She's at katbrown@netcom.com . 3. State Senator Tom Hayden (Demo.) says he's running to raise reform issues, but incidentally will help split the sexist male vote without any second female splitting the sexist female vote. :-) He's at reform94@delphi.com . For those who can't tell 'em apart except by sex, maybe it'd be nice to vote for the one(s) who facilitate *informed* voting via modern/computerized campaign-finance disclosures. Or at least tell 'em by email that it's a serious consideration in your vote. [For beady-eyed suspicious readers, I'm registered "independent" in the still-public-so-far voter records, so I get to not vote for all of 'em. :-) ] &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& TONY MILLER STILL ONLY SECY.OF STATE CANDIDATE TO VOLUNTEER USEFUL DISCLOSURES Miller became the Acting Secretary of State in February, after being the Chief Deputy SoS for more than 12 years, and the SoS Chief Legal Counsel for about half a decade before that - i.e., an experienced, career public administrator (also a Phi Beta Kappa from UC, with a law degree from Boalt Hall, UC-Berkeley). He was one of the first Fair Political Practices Commissioners, and before that was a college teacher and firefighter. He is vigorously supporting current legislative proposals for computerized filing of and public access to campaign-finance and lobbyist disclosures. He is also currently purusing plans to put election-night returns on the Internet, this November - probably a "first" for any state in the nation). And it's disconcerting to realize that this is noteworthy, but during his ~18 years as a senior official in the Secretary of State's office there were no scandals nor allegations of wrong-doing in that office. The Secretary of State's job is as a manager and administrator of a large state agency - the state's primary archivist of public records of all kinds - especially business and financial disclosures, also responsible for assuring fair and open state ballot information and elections. The other three candidates for SoS are career politicans - much more experienced at campaigning and fund-raising than Miller, but with little or no experience in management and administration: 1. Democrat Gwen Moore spent the last 16 years in the State Assembly and is about to loose her seat under term limits. She has had little-if-any administrative experience (Note: The Chief-of-Staff she chose and supervised in the '80s was convicted of using his position to peddle influnece, though no charges were made against Moore.). Recognizing that the SoS is centrally involved in facilitating public access to public records: Moore repeated refused to in-any-way support AB 1624 last year, to open up legislative information to free public online access, although she was repeatedly, explicitly asked to support the bill (however, she never voted against it). Less than a month ago (*after* it was known she wanted to be Secy of State), she authored AB 3611 - that has only nine substantive though vague lines - to mandate that the SoS "develop a program to utilize modern communications and information processing technology to enhance the availability and accessibility of information on statewide candidates ... [and report] on the scope and cost of the program by June 30, 1995." But she has yet to voluntarily file *her* disclosures in computerized form, as has been requested. And, Moore has yet to support SB 758 that is far more explicit than her bill and would require computerized political disclosures effective Jan. 1, 1995. 2. Democrat Mike Woo has spent all of his adult life in politics. He has been on the Los Angeles City Council for eight years and was an unsuccessful 1993 L.A. mayorial-candidate. Before that, he worked in local and state politics, including serving as an aide and deputy to Sen. Dave Roberti. His extensive literature does not list any experience in administration or management, and lists no legal training. Although his campaign literature emphasizes that he was, "Long a proponent of election campaign reform," he has yet to file any of his disclosures in easy-to-distribute, easy-to-review computerized form, as has been requested - although he has collected a third-again more than his leading opponent. 3. Republican Bill Jones has spent 12 years in the State Assembly and is also about to loose his seat under term limits. Before politics, he was a businessman and rancher. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& GLENVIEW ILLINOIS CABLE-BASED COMMUNITY DATA NETWORK From mundtj@glenvw.ncook.k12.il.us Fri Mar 4 08:42:19 1994 From: John Mundt In a recent message, there was reference to responding if one had a local county access point. Perhaps we qualify, perhaps not. Glenview, IL, has created a community network connecting schools, the village government, and the public library. Potential other members are local hospitals. This is city-wide in scope, not county-wide (Cook County politics kills everything). We use CATV broadband modems to create a 4 Mhz Ethernet that shares a single T1 Internet link. John Mundt mundtj@ncook.k12.il.us Head, Administrative Computing (708) 998-5007 Glenview School District 34 Glenview, IL &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& At the end of the game, the king and the pawn go in the same box. --An old Italian proverb [via $WW090@YJ0030.REMNET.AB.COM] Mo' as it Is. --jim Jim Warren, columnist for MicroTimes, Government Technology, BoardWatch, etc. 345 Swett Rd., Woodside CA 94062; voice/415-851-7075; fax/415-851-2814 >> To join or drop the GovAccess list, email to jwarren@well.sf.ca.us .<< >> Permission herewith granted for unlimited reposting and recirculation.<< Date: Wed, 20 Apr 1994 10:54:44 -0700 From: Jim Warren Subject: GovAccess.034part2: (woppps! ment to include this) $26mil avail <5/12 Apr.20, 1994 $26-MILLION FOR YOUR INFORMATION-INFRASTRUCTURE INNOVATION; MAY 12th DEADLINE From nii_agenda-approval@world.std.com Sun Mar 6 17:10:56 1994 From: Tom Freebairn We ask your assistance in posting the following announcement regarding NTIA funding as widely as possible and in alerting eligible nonprofits to consider applying for support or to partner with other organizations that plan to do so. -- Key elements of the NTIA program seem to be: Background: This is a new grant program. Total grant funds available in this round: $26 million Size of individual grants: No guidance for this first round. Application deadline: May 12, 1994 Announcement of awards: Late summer or early fall, 1994 Duration of grants: 6-18 months Special consideration: Requires matching support Special consideration: Emphasis on partnerships for applications Special consideration: Emphasis on computer-based electronic networks Eligibile Entities: State and local governments; nonprofits Types of grants: 1) Planning Grants (40% of available funds); 2) Demonstration Projects (60% of available funds) Selection process: Competitive merit review Additional note: Guidelines are approx 37K Excerpts: Summary: "...funds for planning and demonstration projects to promote the goals of development and widespread availability of advanced telecommunications technologies; to enhance the delivery of social services and generally serve the public interest; to promote access to government information and increase civic participation; and to support the advancement of an advanced nationwide telecommunications and information infrastructure." Program Description: "NTIA announces a competitive grant program, the TIIAP, created to advance the goals of the Administration's National Information Infrastructure (NII) initiative. Major goals of the NII initiative include: the promotion of private sector investment through appropriate tax and regulatory policies; the extension of universal service so that information is available to all at affordable prices, using the widest variety of appropriate technologies; the promotion of technological innovation and new applications; wider access to government information; and guarantees of information security and network reliability. . . ." "The TIIAP will provide matching grants to state and local governments, non-profit health care providers, school districts, libraries, universities, public safety services, and other non-profit entities. Grants will be awarded after a competitive merit review process and will be used to fund projects to connect institutions to existing networks and systems, enhance communications networks and systems that are currently operational, establish new network capabilities, permit users to interconnect among different networks and systems, and bring more users on-line. Equally important, they will help leverage the resources and creativity of the private sector to devise new applications and uses of the NII. The success of these pilot projects will create an ongoing process that will generate more innovative approaches each year." NTIA contact: Dr. Charles Rush, Acting Director of the Office of Telecommunications and Information Applications National Telecommunications and Information Administration Department of Commerce Telephone: (202) 482-2048; fax: (202) 482-2156 e-mail: tiiap@ntia.doc.gov NTIA BBS via Internet: ntiabbs.ntia.doc.gov; or at: iitf.doc.gov NTIA BBS via dial up: (202) 482-1199; modem set a either 2400 or 9600 baud, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit. -- The Information Infrastructure Clearinghouse project is a small foundation- supported project being developed to track federal funding regarding the National Information Infrastructure (NII) and to make the information widely available to nonprofit organizations. We are not a federal agency and do not receive any federal support. Our project is not currently staffed to handle inquiries for extensive assistance, so please direct any questions to the NTIA at the numbers listed above. As we develop our capacities, we hope to play useful roles in identifying common interests among potential applicants and in referring nonprofits to appropriate technical assistance providers. -- Tom Freebairn Information Infrastructure Clearinghouse Project c/o Benton Foundation 1634 Eye St., N.W., 12th Fl. Washington, DC 20006 (v) 202.638.5770, x23 (f) 202.638.5771 benton@clark.net &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& "The future belongs to neither the conduit or content players, but those who control the filtering, searching and sense-making tools we will rely on to navigate through the expanses of cyberspace." --Paul Saffo (_Wired_: 3/94) Mo' as it Is. --jim Jim Warren, columnist for MicroTimes, Government Technology, BoardWatch, etc. 345 Swett Rd., Woodside CA 94062; voice/415-851-7075; fax/415-851-2814 >> To join or drop the GovAccess list, email to jwarren@well.sf.ca.us .<< >> Permission herewith granted for unlimited reposting and recirculation.<<