tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2498525082522582900.post6636168866905409633..comments2024-03-22T16:02:08.213-05:00Comments on The Wheel: Petition the GovernmentMark Stegerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02376182294736839659noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2498525082522582900.post-4309239522197647182011-11-09T18:29:13.646-06:002011-11-09T18:29:13.646-06:00Bill, thanks for the feedback. I appreciate the se...Bill, thanks for the feedback. I appreciate the service provided by <a href="http://rumorcheck.org" rel="nofollow">Rumorcheck.org</a> in investigating rumors and would welcome any expansion of the service to answering questions as well. I understand how separating the two can sometimes get confusing. Did so-and-so do such-and-such, and is such-and-such legal, are two different questions.<br /><br />I would still like the city government to provide official responses to issues raised at council meetings and to create a communication channel in which residents can petition the city. I'm not insisting that the channel meet the legal standards of a petition as used in the city charter or state law. I'm just suggesting ways the city can meet the council's agreed goals to elevate the city's two-way communications to deeply engage residents and to utilize new technologies to do so.Mark Stegerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02376182294736839659noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2498525082522582900.post-6825675497831224882011-11-09T10:52:24.533-06:002011-11-09T10:52:24.533-06:00As a Postscript, I guess we should differentiate b...As a Postscript, I guess we should differentiate between questions of law and questions of fact...<br /><br />That is, rumors are often, "so-and-so did such-and-such unethical or criminal act"...in the law, this is a question of fact, and this sort of thing comprises many of the rumors that RumorCheck researches.<br /><br />But a question of law is something like "does State law require that a home rule city have a balanced budget?" This can be asked and answered dispassionately, and avoid the acrimonious bickering that we so often see... <br /><br />Questions of law lend themselves to the deep research of the statutes as well as relevant court cases...just the sort of thing that RumorCheck does in much more detail that the average blog that throws out statements without a lot of thought...of course, Mark, I don't mean to paint all blogs with the same broad brush, but I think you'll agree that it is really difficult to post content every day on a blog and do in-depth research at the same time (the reason why RumorCheck isn't a blog nor publishes every day)...<br /><br />So RumorCheck could provide a new service:<br />* answering questions (is this statement of 'fact' true?)<br /><br />along with the current services:<br />* review of rumors (so-and-so did such-and-such)<br />* editorials (statements of opinion by RumorCheck)<br /><br />Make sense?<br /><br />Billmccalpinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02768191960822864278noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2498525082522582900.post-57866265601700200162011-11-09T10:36:03.737-06:002011-11-09T10:36:03.737-06:00I sympathize with your thoughts...it would be nice...I sympathize with your thoughts...it would be nice if sincere people could have a mechanism to ask a question and get it answered by a competent authority...the difficulty is that there are those people who really don't want an answer but who want to pontificate their views without regard to the facts of the case.<br /><br />You saw that happen at the recent League of Women Voters program on the Charter where a local attorney tried to interrupt the proceedings to claim that one of the panelists was wrong about something that he wasn't wrong about...and since the lawyer brought a whole sheaf of papers to the event which he tried to present, it was clear that he came to argue the point, not listen to the competent authority (in this case, a former mayor of Richardson who had also served on the last Charter Commission).<br /><br />This is precisely the reason that the Council (and nearly every Council in the area) limits a person's input to 5 minutes in the Visitors Section...because without that limit, certain people would try to hijack the public process for their own ends.<br /><br />However, since it's not good to point out the problem without offering a solution, how about this...we see that recently, you asked on this blog the questions of "what is a balanced budget?" and "does the City have a balanced budget?" You asked these questions in a sincere and open frame of mind and admitted even as you asked the questions that maybe the legal definition of "balanced budget" was different than the common one.<br /><br />As you saw, RumorCheck took this question and presented information on the Charter's language, State law, and the nature of non-profits (and how municipal non-profits are required to run a "deficit" when their reserves exceeds publicly agreed to targets). You were certainly free to accept or decline the explanation, but at least you now had ample references to the statutes and to the non-profit practices to evaluate whether or not the City's practice makes sense.<br /><br />Would this be a beneficial sort of interim solution, to present this type of question to RumorCheck? Yes, I normally address "rumors", but answering legitimate questions would actually be a pleasant change. <br /><br />I know that the City staff and Council would be delighted to have the voters better informed on how things actually work...<br /><br />Billmccalpinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02768191960822864278noreply@blogger.com