Wiener Succeeds in Killing the Panel?
(Screengrab from SOTF shows 7 cancelled meetings since June.)
On Thursday, when open government advocate Patrick Monette-Shaw made me aware of the decision by the Sunshine Ordinance Task Force, I took it as another sign that Supervisor Scott Wiener was succeeding in his quest to kill the SOTF. Since there was no explanation on the SOTF site regarding the cancellation, I asked its administrator Andrea Ausberry for detail on Friday morning.
At 5:03 pm yesterday, a Friday afternoon before a long holiday weekend (talk about burying bad news when no one is paying attention!), Ausberry sent me a link to this note dated August 31, a full day after the SOTF simply said the September meeting wouldn't take place:
Dear Members of the Public,
We wanted to make sure you were kept in the loop as to the cancellation of our September meeting. As of today, we are still in violation of the Sunshine Ordinance, Section 67.30. Therefore, I cancelled the September 5, 2012 meeting. The Board of Supervisors has been on recess for the month of August.
The Rules Committee meets on September 6, 2012 and will address our issues from the letter I sent on behalf of the Task Force on July 16, 2012. Applicants recommended by the Rules Committee, will be forwarded to the Board for approval on September 18, 2012.
I will keep you abreast of any developments as they occur.
Respectfully yours,
Kitt Grant, SOTF Chair
The cancelled September meeting of the full board of the SOTF brings the total of cancelled full board and committees to eight since Wiener launched his effort to eviscerate and kill the panel.
Where are the protestations from Wiener's colleagues on the Board of Supervisors, especially the progressives David Campos and John Avalos? Campos and Avalos are up for reelection in November and neither faces a serious challenger, so why are they silent about the terrible problems at the SOTF? They have nothing to fear from voters in their districts, who are about to retain them as their supervisors for another four years, so they should be leading the fight to restore SOTF to functional status.
In Wienerville, there ain't no sunshine.
Thanks for the informative post.
ReplyDeleteThe reason that the Sunshine Task Force is in violation of section 67.30, and cannot convene, is because the Board of Supervisors has declined to appoint a qualified disabled person to the SOTF. This is a disability rights issue as well as political retaliation.