The Wheel

Monday, September 9, 2013

The Whole World is Listening. If Only Someone Speaks.

State Senator Kirk Watson of Austin is bragging about a bipartisan bill passed by the Texas legislature that allows for the use of electronic message boards to facilitate communication between local government officials like city council members. Watson's bill enables something like a Facebook for local government, where council members can write messages to each other and they can respond to each other electronically, all of it in open threads the public can read. I don't really need to describe how Facebook works, do I?

Why is this a big deal? Previously, such electronic communication between council members was forbidden by the Texas Open Meetings Act, which insists that all group communications take place in public, in posted, open session. The effect of the law is to suppress deliberation, not foster it. Council members can't get together between meetings to discuss issues. They can't send emails copying the full council. They can't even email or talk to each other one-to-one because of the chance that the discussion eventually gets passed one by one to the full council. Such "walking quorums" are also forbidden.

After the jump, what this means for Richardson.

Late Summer in the Steger Garden (2013)

From Flowers

More photos after the jump.

Berkner Bounces Back

From 2013 09 06 North Garland vs Berkner

The Berkner Rams varsity football team quickly shrugged off a beating on the road last week from the South Garland Colonels. This week the Rams defeated the North Garland Raiders at home, 42-7. It's a great time to be a Ram!

More photos after the jump.

S2L77: Mashhad, Iran

Mashhad, Iran
March 29, 1977
Five hours spent at the Afghanistan/Iran border.
We made a futile effort to find a restaurant in Meshed, ending up eating at the hotel and having a bad, over-priced meal.

Source: Personal travel notes.