Open Government

1st Amendment Open Government Open Meetings SF City Council

This looks familiar

l3wis November 14, 2022 4Comments

If you follow my rants on here and at city council meetings, you know my thoughts on limiting public input by the chair of the meeting and prior restraint.

Well, what do we have here? A chair of a city council meeting trying to talk down public commenters, except this time, they are suing;

As I have mentioned in the past, as long as you are addressing the body about policy and government they cannot shut you down.

Here are some highlights from the suit (PDF DOC);

Mayor Owens frequently uses her authority as Presiding Officer of Eastpointe’s City Council to suppress dissent and criticism by interrupting and shouting down members of the public who criticize her or raise subjects she finds personally embarrassing.

At one point in the meeting, the city attorney even intervenes and tells Owens that public commenters are free to say what they want to.

I have argued for a long time that the city council and it’s chair (Mayor TenHaken) have been violating citizens 1st Amendment rights when it comes to public input and trying to shut them down (while huffing and puffing, sucking on candy and calling commenters losers).

I will be watching this case closely . . .

Open Government Open Meetings SF City Council Sioux Falls

Local Transparent and Open Government is easy

l3wis October 30, 2022 0Comments

I do support 1st Amendment Rights and the freedom to dissent our government, but there are things the government can do that has very little to do with free speech. The City of Sioux Falls could put these modest proposals in place with very little capital, if any, which would actually reduce the need for constituents to dissent the government.

Some local governments have instituted some of these things;

• Livestream all public meetings on YouTube (including boards) and have that livestream on the main page with . . .

• A rolling calendar of all public meetings . . . (which we have on the council agenda page, but NOT on the main page)

• All public meetings should be after 5 PM during the work week.

• An online search engine portal of all public city documents (the city has something like this, but it is complicated and cumbersome)

• Answer constituent questions if possible during public input (the council used to do this but the practice was ended during the Huether administration).

• Have a weekly mayoral and separate council presser to answer media questions about the weekly agenda (and live stream it on YT).

• Stop limiting council debate during the meetings.

The last one is a new thing. During the past couple of council meetings there has been an effort to limit the council debate. I am not even sure where this is coming from, but it seems there now is an effort from council leadership and the mayor’s office to limit debate between councilors during first readings.

Open government is easy, and most times it costs nothing to do. I think our issues with zoning, homelessness and violent crime could be easier tasks to conquer if we just talked about them openly.

1st Amendment County Commission Minnehaha County Open Government Open Meetings

Minnehaha County Commission votes 4-1 to move Public Input to the end of the meetings

l3wis September 27, 2022 7Comments

During regular public input at the beginning of the meeting several citizens spoke out about moving public input, including myself.

It was the last agenda item on the meeting and during that discussion they voted to move it to the end but did take Barth’s amendment to leave it at 5 minutes instead of 3. He was the dissenting vote.

I reminded the MCC that this was the public’s time and the word DISSENT is in the 1st Amendment.

1st Amendment County Commission Minnehaha County Open Government Open Meetings

Minnehaha County Commission denies public input on CO2 pipeline

l3wis August 2, 2022 9Comments

Besides the fact that the commission gave the green light for the pipeline to move forward (4-1 vote, Barth dissented) they also told the attendees there would be NO public input because the chair said it ‘wasn’t a public hearing.’ Ok, what the Hell would you call a public meeting with a posted agenda item? A church potluck?

14) Consider a Temporary Zoning Ordinance on Gas and Liquid Transmission Pipelines

They did follow state law by allowing general public input at the beginning of the meeting, but you are NOT allowed to comment on agenda items. I would encourage attendees to file an open meetings violation against the commission for denying them their 1st Amendment Rights and the use of Prior Restraint by the Chair. Barth asked for public input and the chair said they have pretty much heard enough thru phone calls and emails. So are those emails and phone calls going to be posted online so people can see those conversations?

Open Government Open Meetings SF City Council Sioux Falls

City of Sioux Falls Website got a little bit more transparent

l3wis April 29, 2022 9Comments

Imagine my surprise today when I went to the meeting agenda page and in the bottom left hand corner when I clicked on the calendar instead of a PDF coming up, an actual interactive calendar appears with links to events.

I have known about this link for awhile but it was never linked to this page. I am not sure if it was ever linked to the website before. It was previously sent to me by a city employee.

Not sure who in the IT department or clerk’s office crawled out of the darkness and made this nice little change, but you deserve a coin, a children’s book or at the very least an atta-boy.

This looks familiar

Local Transparent and Open Government is easy

Minnehaha County Commission votes 4-1 to move Public Input to the end of the meetings

Minnehaha County Commission denies public input on CO2 pipeline

City of Sioux Falls Website got a little bit more transparent

You Missed

Sioux Falls City Council violated so many rules tonight it was ALMOST comical, but I am NOT laughing

Rhoden and Jackley apparently don’t know what the 1st Amendment is

UPDATE: Sioux Falls Citizen Survey results down in almost every category since 2021

Trump to Ban Androgynous names