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GirlGeek · Rider Joined: 11 Dec 2006 Posts: 23 Location: Delaware

Why We Should Never Sink into Complacency and Should be Ever Vigilant

On Friday, 3/23/2007, something happened which confirmed our wariness of the goings-on in the Delaware General Assembly. It confirms that we must be ever-vigilant in our monitoring of Senate Bill 46.

As you all know, this bill is with the Senate Safety Committee. There are quite a few people that are monitoring the meeting schedules so that we will know if and when this bill is being considered in committee.

As of the morning of Friday, 3/23/2007, there were no Public Safety Committee meetings scheduled. As late as 10:00 A.M., the status had not changed. However, when we checked the site at approximately 2:00 P.M., lo and behold, there was a meeting of the committee scheduled for 3:00 PM that day ! S.B. 46 was not on their agenda, but it could have been.

This prompted me to write my Senator, who happens to be a member of the Safety Committee, as well as the Webmaster of the General Assembly website.

We need to know in a timely manner when bills are being considered.

Question: If S.B. 46 had been on the agenda, what would we have done? Is there an action plan?

I fear that we will be caught off guard. We should not be sitting and hoping that Senate Bill 46 “never comes up”.

We should be acting as if it already has.

What is the plan?
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Senate Committee Meeting Schedule:

http://www.legis.state.de.us/LIS/lis144.nsf/Senate+Meeting+Notice/?openview&count=50&nav=mtgs
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Letter to Senator Cloutier:

Dear Senator Cloutier,

I am not quite sure where to direct my inquiry, as I am not certain where the issue may lie. I am copying the Webmaster of the State website on this e-mail.

My concern is about the timeliness of information posted on the General Assembly section of the State of Delaware website ( http://www.legis.state.de.us/LEGISLATURE.NSF?open). I am a daily visitor to this site in order to keep up-to-date on legislation of interest to me.

My specific issue is that as of this morning, Friday, 3/23/2007, the Senate Public Safety Committee had no hearings scheduled. This afternoon, I happened to revisit the meeting schedule site ( http://www.legis.state.de.us/LIS/lis144.nsf/Senate+Meeting+Notice/?openview&count=50&nav=mtgs) and saw that a meeting of this committee was scheduled for 3:00 this afternoon.

My concern is that there was virtually no notice of this hearing in advance which would offer no one who had an interest in the agenda item to attend the meeting.

I do not know what procedures are in place for the timely posting of information, but in the interest of open and transparent government I find it somewhat disheartening, if not disturbing. I am not blaming anyone, I would just like to know where to direct further inquiries so that this does not occur in the future.

It may be an internal procedure within the General Assembly, or it could be a communication issue between the General Assembly and the website administrators. As an Information Services professional, I have seen this happen. It is of special concern when the General Assembly website does not provide timely information, for whatever reason.

The bottom line is that there is a flaw in the process of posting timely information.

I would like to find out where this flaw is and what can be done about it.

Your feedback is appreciated.

Sincerely,

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Follow the issue. Better yet, get involved.

Delaware Freedom Riders
http://www.delfreedomriders.com
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GirlGeek
Delaware Freedom Riders