October 28, 2013
Dear Calaveras Board of Supervisors:
We are concerned that the County Clerk will no longer be preparing and sending out preliminary Board of Supervisors meeting agendas
(see message below).
This has been a very helpful and useful service to ensure an open and transparent government.
In the past, preliminary agendas were emailed Wednesday afternoon, and the final board packet usually posted on Thursdays.
But we have been told this is going to stop--that only the final meeting agenda and packet will be available, and not until Friday afternoons.
This may meet Brown Act requirements (as explained), but it cuts two days out of public knowledge of board meeting items.
Eliminating access to preliminary meeting information will not be helpful to the public, newspapers or other media, and will be detrimental to a "more open and transparent process."
Newspapers will not have the Tuesday meeting information in time for Friday papers. The public and other agencies and departments will not have enough time to distribute important meeting information before the weekend.
We're not sure now elimination of preliminary agendas for the public is a great cost savings, as we understand these preliminary agendas are still being created and are available at Supervisor's request.
Sending the same preliminary agenda to the email list shouldn't take much time, and we ask you to please consider keeping that courtesy in place.
Thank you,
Respectfully,
Colleen Platt, Secretary
MyValleySprings.com
from: Board clerk
subject: October 29, 2013 agenda
As the County moves towards implementing an electronic agenda management system, there will be many changes in the process of producing the agenda packets for the Board of Supervisors.
These changes will include efficiencies, as well as cost savings and in an effort to provide a more open and transparent process, we will no longer be preparing a preliminary agenda.
Effective immediately, a link to the final agenda and its supporting documentation will be emailed on the Friday afternoon prior to the board meeting.
It is our hope that this will provide the best transparency, by making the complete agenda packet available to the Board and the public at the same time.
Due to the fact that the next meeting is a special meeting and I will be out of the office on Friday, October 25, 2013, that information is available to you today on our website.
Board Clerk
3 comments:
The County Clerk is not responsible for this. It's the Board Clerk. She now works for Lori Norton the CAO. Madaline Krska is therefore, out of it.
Cmon, everyone knows this is to keep the public from being aware. And to make it so the Board Clerk doesn't have to work.
The Supervisors don't like that the press sees it earlier because they don't read or study it and don't want to be asked questions about it. This is their idea--block out the public.
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