COPs Resources

Latest News

• Witness.org - Organization founded by Peter Gabriel to encourage people to use modern video cameras to document human rights atrocities. It was thought that they would be an appropriate partner for Citizens Oversight.
• Maplight.org provides a fantastic resource for linking campaign contributions with votes on bills.

Background

This topic is to accumulate and organize information and resources that will be helpful to COPs participants. It is also an appropriate place to list tips and hints, as well as success stories of COPs activities. Concerns about corporate control of news media and citizen intimidation are also appropriate.

Resources

• http://www.rcfp.org/ogg/ - Open Government Guide -- Lets the user compare any state laws regarding public records requests
  • Pages on California - http://www.rcfp.org/ogg/index.php?op=browse&state=CA
• http://www.nfoic.org - The National Freedom of Information Coalition -- has summaries of laws in all states with regard to access of documents.
• The organization Californians Aware (http://www.calaware.org) is focused on making sure governmental agencies comply with the Brown Act, the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), and the California Public Records Act (CPRA). They will be excellent partners as we move forward in our citizens' oversight.
  • Calaware recently performed audits of law enforcement agencies and found that they performed very poorly in terms of releasing information that is available to the public by law. See Calaware Law Enforcement Audit Report
• California First Amendment Coalition: http://www.cfac.org
• California Government Code: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/calawquery?codesection=gov

• Laws regulating meetings and information disclosure
  • The Brown Act - regulates how meetings are run, public notice, no outside meetings, etc.
    • Closed Session Details - When are closed sessions allowed, and how are they to be conducted.
  • California Public Records Act - requires the disclosure of information from public agencies and bodies.
    • CPRAon Law Enforcement Records - If you need to request law enforcement records, what is allowed.
  • First Amendment
    • Top10_FirstAmendment.pdf: Top ten points on First Amendment rights
  • Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
    • FOIA as amended in 1996: http://www.usdoj.gov/oip/foia_updates/Vol_XVII_4/page2.htm
    • How to make a FOIA Request: http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20060313/news_1m13howto1.html

• Public Citizen is an excellent resource for tracking federal congressional members.
  • Congressional scorecard
• CALPIRG is an excellent resource for tracking California legislative members. It also scores Federal Senate and House records.
• http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/ - Official legislative action page.
• http://www.agacgfm.org - Association of Governmental Accountants promotes an initiative for citizen-centric reporting.
• The Nation provides issues tracking: http://capwiz.com/thenation/issues/

• District Attorney of the County of San Diego, Bonnie Dumanis
  • Special Operations Division, Public Integrity Unit: 619-531-4051
    • Leon Schorr - Talked on the Phone.
    • Mr. O'Toole

• Are speakers from the public required to provide their name and address in order to speak?
  • I asked this question to the State Attorney General's office, and I received a call from Ted Prim. He said that his office informally advises the public that members of the public do NOT need to identify themselves or provide their address. He said that to get an official written opinion on this issue would require a request by a member of the assembly or senate and then it would take six months to complete.

• Dunn & Bradstreet run a website called the Selectory ( http://www.selectory.com ) the has a powerful search tool for parent companies and their subs in North America (including Mexico & Canada). An alternative site is http://www.referenceusa.com . both require paid memberships, but could prove an invaluable tool for researching board members and their spiderweb of affiliations.

COPs Administration Notes

• COPs Video Squads - notes for logistics of creating video of governmental meetings.
• Reporting via texting -- Interesting video on Ted.com describing how cell phone texting can be used as a means to gather information. New problem is we have too much and need a way to parse through it and decide what is important.

Images

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Timeline

• dd mmm 2008 - Description

Recent Articles and Media: (Add | All Media)

This is the most recently published 20 articles, most recent first.

• Rosenberg's Rules of Order -- ", League Of California Cities, 2003-08-01 COPs Resources
• Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act -- ", State Of California, 1967 Applicable to State (not local) bodies. COPs Resources

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