The Good Life endorses Props 1 & 2
And some local news links.
The Good Life Magazine endorses Props. 1 & 2 "While critics have labeled the lead proponents as special interest groups we view them as public interest groups. They are fighting for our legitimate right to be more informed citizens." 4/27/06 "Why Do They Say 'Open Government' and 'Clean Water' Like They Were Bad Ideas?" The Good Life Magazine 4/27/06 Cost of Austin's Prop. 1 hotly debated "The 30-page document states it would take about $2 million to $3 million to get things up and running, not the city's estimate of $36 million."
News 8 Austin 4/26/06
Indy report reveals OGO costs less
Independent local research group
Liveable City has released its non-partisan study of the Open Government Online Amendment, Proposition 1 on the May 13th ballot. The major conclusion is that the cost of the OGO will be
less than 1/10 of the City's first cost estimate. The City of Austin has now confirmed Liveable City’s cost estimate, and Clean Austin has confirmed Liveable City’s report as accurately reflecting the priorities set out in the amendment.
From Liveable City:
Liveable City released two studies examining the hotly contested Open Government (Proposition 1) and Clean Water (Proposition 2) Charter Amendments in the upcoming May 13 City of Austin Election. The ballot studies are intended to help Austin voters sort out the critical issues, including arguments by supporters and opponents, and possible impacts of passage of the proposals.
Two separate teams of Board members worked on the ballot studies over the last two months. The studies uncovered the fact that 122 developments had been grandfathered over the aquifer since 1999, and that a more focused open government online plan could cost less than 1/10 of the City's current estimate.
In other good news, start looking for our TV ads, which start today!
CleanAustin volunteer party tonight!
With free stuff, and that is free as in
BEER!
Please come to our
Volunteer Party this Thursday night at 7PM. Free Beer and Pizza!! We'll make yard signs and do other campaign tasks that must get done to win this election. Please pass this invitation on to your friends in Austin.
WHAT: Volunteer party with pizza and beer
WHEN: Thursday night - tomorrow - at 7PM
WHERE: Clean Austin campaign headquarters, 505 Willow (downtown near the Convention Center, one block south of Cesar Chavez and one block west of Red River).
Thanks to
Black Star Co-op for the beer!
If you can't make the party on Thursday, you can still help! Sign up to volunteer at
CleanAustin.org or just call the campaign office at 476-5100.
Understanding "G" Files in Austin
"G" files is the term used to refer to the secret police misconduct files here in Austin. "G files” include misconduct complaints submitted against Austin police officers by citizens or by other officers and the files of subsequent investigations. Currently, only about 3% to 7% of these files are available to the public in Austin because the file is available for public inspection only in cases in which the officer was found guilty AND was disciplined with 3 or more days of leave. Any less discipline than a 3-day suspension and the whole file is secret.
Why does Austin accept this relatively low level of transparency with respect to its police? Austin voters voted to "opt in” to Chapter 143 of the Civil Service Code along with about 70 other Texas cities, including Houston and San Antonio, in 1949. At the time Austin voters “opted in” to the Civil Service Code, the “G” files were public—it was decades after Austin voters had voted to “opt in” to the Civil Service Code when the police unions successfully lobbied the Texas Legislature to get the Civil Service Code changed to make the “G” files secret. All Chapter 143 cities follow the same guidelines about police "G" files, unless they have used meet and confer contract negotiations to override these civil service rules.
It is important for comparison purposes to note that over 2,000 other Texas law enforcement agencies, including the Travis County Sheriff's Department, are not under Chapter 143 and thus have close to 100% of their "G" files available to the public.
One common point of confusion in Austin is whether or not this issue is governed by state law. Although Austin has opted to be governed by Chapter 143 civil service, a “state law,” another state law allows the City of Austin to override any state law in its "meet and confer" labor contract with the police association. Therefore, in Austin, the City literally chooses which parts of the state civil service law it will agree to follow and which parts it will agree to override with the meet and confer agreement. Simply put, the City of Austin is governed by whichever state laws it chooses in the meet and confer contract.
Greater Transparency in "G" FilesThere is a clear public interest in allowing access to "G" files, specifically the ability to:
- Understand performance patterns of individual police officers
- Understand overall performance patterns of the police force in Austin
- Understand the management responses to complaints in general as well as certain types of complaints in detail create protection for complainants who are less likely to suffer retribution when there is a public record that they have filed a complaint against the police
Early voting is May 1-9. Election Day is May 13th.
Hear ACLU grill candidates on Prop 1 and city issues
The ACLU will host a candidate forum Monday night, 6:30 to 8:30 so our members can query the candidates about their positions on Prop 1, and ask other questions relevant to individual liberty in Austin. Everyone is invited to attend!
Where: Cafe Caffeine, 909 W. Mary
When: 6:30 for mingling, and 7 pm to start the first panel of candidates.
For the ACLU, Prop 1 does something critically important for Austin--it opens
records about police misconduct. That's why it is a major priority of ACLU's Central Texas chapter. It takes the entire community working together to counter the powerful forces responsible for the system we have today. We may not get the opportunity to make these positive changes again in our lifetime!
The ACLU worked for years to implement civilian oversight of police, but the system negotiated in secret meetings between the city and the cops is toothless and gagged. Members of the civilian review board cannot even talk to the public about what they learn without facing criminal penalties. That's absurd. Why create civilian oversight if the civilians are prohibited from telling the community what's wrong with the system! This super secret oversight process--with
sealed misconduct records that even victims cannot peak into--was designed to fail, and
it has failed.
Proposition 1 gives the public a voice in the design of the civilian oversight system by opening the now-secret negotiations to the public and requiring the city to STOP maintaining police misconduct records in sealed files.
With police misconduct information available under a public information act request, victims' families can learn exactly what happened to their sons and daughters, and you can learn why a handful of problem officers continue to divide our police force from the community it serves. Finally, our civilian oversight board will be able to analyze the problems it sees and bring real solutions forward to the Council and the citizens.
The City had the opportunity to do this on its own four years ago. We begged them, and the ACLU stood side by side with many other organizations to protest the secret process and the final, overpriced agreement. But we were told this was all the Austin Police Association would agree to...and the city can't do anything without their agreement.
It's time to end the stranglehold the Police Association has on this community. They work for us! Good behavior on the job is not an option. Its a mandate, and one that can finally be enforced if Proposition 1 passes. Its time for a change. And our city officials have made it very clear that they won't implement this change on their own.
Negative mailer misrepresents Prop 1
Over the past few days, Austin voters got a big, colorful card in the mail making the same old false claims about Prop 1--in particular, it repeats the false claim that the charter amendment would cost $36 million and requires email to go online. We've debunked this falsehood on numerous occassions, so this time I'll just remind readers that email is among the "categories that must be produced in response to a public information request" (Section 4, first sentence), not on the narrow, specific list of things that must be put online.
Think about it: If email was online, there would be no need for a public information act request. All the language about email in this amendment merely ensures that email will be retained so that if a citizen files a request for Brewster McCracken's emails related to Stratus/Freeport, they will still exist.
Instead, Prop 1 will put the following basic information online: development agreements, tax abatement agreements, big city contracts, policies and procedures that affect the general public, the records of our public meetings (agendas, minutes and transcripts or audio recordings), the city's legal docket, and a calendar of meetings and calls about official business for our city's top officials. That's all good stuff, the kind of thing that will really change the way the city does things--for the better.
Because it does so many good things, Prop 1 is endorsed by the Sierra Club, the SOS Alliance, Tx PIRG, the ACLU, the Gray Panthers, the SEED Coalition, Texans for Public Justice, the Greens, Save Barton Creek Association, Consumers Union...in fact almost all of our good, local advocacy groups back it.
Who opposes it? The Real Estate Council of Austin (RECA), Stratus/Freeport, Temple Inland, and the developer lobby law firms. Mike Blizzard, a paid consultant for Stratus/Freeport, has been the lead voice for the EDUCATE PAC that sent that big card. Does this sound familiar? It's the same special interests lining up once again to keep Austin's citizens from exercising control over Austin's government.
