I have set up a new website, Public Access to Public Hearings, to advocate for changes to Joint Rule 1D, so that the public will have access to documents submitted in connection with public committee hearings. Please visit, sign the petition, and tell your friends!
Please share widely!
Ted, while I am writing under my organizational username, and we tend to never officially endorse policies that are not directly environmental, I’d say that as an advocate from a grassroots organization, more transparency and visibility would help us tremendously in our world. Often with small non-profits, we can afford to write testimony, but our days are spent doing things other than sitting in hearings (grant proposals, coalition meetings, volunteer and staff trainings, the list is endless).
Have you considered creating an “organizations that endorse” tab to the website?
Thanks for your advocacy.
There is a “Hall of Fame” page on the site that can easily be modified to include organizational endorsers, maybe even with a little logo if you like! Let’s talk.
I would say that they are very connected. When the reasoning behind a public decision is made clear before, not after the fact, the public has a better chance to learn what their representative is supporting. A representative cannot plead ignorance when the facts have all been presented and s/he still acts against the broad public interest. Transparency is more likely to lead to decisions based on merit rather than on power and/or campaign contributions. It gives environmental groups the leverage to support or embarrass their representative, as the case may be, into doing the right thing.