[11423] in Public-Access_Computer_Systems_Forum
Californica's Task Force on [Against!] EAccess to Pub Rcds
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jim Warren)
Tue Jun 24 20:46:10 1997
Date: Tue, 24 Jun 1997 16:29:30 -0500
From: Jim Warren <jwarren@well.com>
To: PACS-L@LISTSERV.UH.EDU
Reply-To: Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <PACS-L@LISTSERV.UH.EDU>
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
I've just sent this to California State Senator Quentin Kopp, resigning
from his so-called Task Force on Electronic Access to Public Records.
Bummer -- but it was clear that the Task Force was loaded with self-serving
bureaucrats with only a few, powerless token public-access advocates --
most of whom didn't even attend most of the meetings.
Quentin's Task Force was/is massively stacked AGAINST
equitable/non-profiteering *mocern*/electronic public access to our
already-computerized public records. Details in my column - pointer below.
The members of the Task Force who are online (many are not!) are in the
cc-list of this msg.
I hope you will bring the Task Force's impending sell-out of public access,
to the attention of your newspapers' Editorial Page Editors, and express
your opinions to your elected so-called representatives, as well as to the
members of the Task Force. Soon!
--jim-the-bridge-burner
Jim Warren, (jwarren@well.com) activist-in-burnout & Contrib.Editor
(MicroTimes)
345 Swett Rd., Woodside CA 94062; voice/415-851-7075; fax-for-the-quaint/<ask>
[self-inflating puff: Hugh Hefner First-Amendment Award, Playboy Foundation;
James Madison Freedom-of-Information Award, Soc.of Prof.Journalists-Nor.Cal.;
Electronic Frontier Foundation Pioneer Award (in its first year, 1992);
founded InfoWorld, the Computers, Freedom & Privacy confs, blah blah blah]
===
Sunday, June 22, 1997
Quentin Kopp, Senator
California State Senate
State Capitol
Sacramento CA 95814
Dear Quentin,
It is with great frustration and regret that - by this letter and my June
23rd column, enclosed - I am resigning from the California Senate Task
Force on Electronic Access to Public Records. I do not want to have my
name associated with any rubber-stamping of the "little bit pregnant"
proposal that is moving forward in your stacked Task Force. It is a sellout
of the public's need-to-know in favor of agency profits and convenience.
I urge you to become more involved in your Task Force [any involvement at
all would be an improvement]. I urge you to re-balance the makeup of the
Task Force, to give equitable representation to the public's interest, as
opposed to its current massive bias in favor of local and state agency
bureaucrats.
I urge you to give concrete illustration - by substantive action - to your
past support of maximum open government ... for all citizens; not merely
for those who can afford to buy it.
I remain, Sincerely,
Jim Warren
JCW/mac
===
The column, titled, "Government For Sale! ... For Those Wealthy Enough to
Buy It," can be seen in any of the ~200,000 California copies of MICROTIMES
#166, or on the web at http://www.microtimes.com/166/fantasies.html .
