Washington Coalition for Open Government

Open and accessible government is the keystone of a strong democracy

Full audio recording of the May 21 meeting. We pick up the meeting in progress with the first speaker: Michele Earl-Hubbard
Download - 27.5 mb, MP3 med. quality

Download - 13.75 mb, MP3 lower quality

Interview with Toby Nixon (president of WCOG) discussing the nature of the organization and it's purpose.
Download - 1.75mb, MP3

Interview with Tim Ford - Assistant Attorney General for Government Accountability. Discussing the history and future of House Bill HB3292 . A bill that requires governments in the State of Washington to make an audio record of their executive sessions.
Download 1mb, MP3

Related Links of Value

   www.openthegovernment.org

   www.sunshineweek.org

   Washington Policy Center

   www.sunshinecommittee.com

   WA State Auditor

   WA Attorney General

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WCOG statement of purpose:

The Washington Coalition for Open Government represents individuals and organizations intent on preserving and protecting Washington's Open Government Laws - Open Records and Open Meetings. Its mission is to represent the public in matters where open government issues are raised, are threatened or deserve broader exposure.

The Coalition conducts public workshops and forums around the state involving the public, public officials and the media. It addresses government accessibility as is provided for in the various statutes that assure such access and accountability from our public agencies.

Visit their web site for more information
www.washingtoncog.org

The Kitsap County Event

On Wednesday, May 21, 2008 the Washington Coalition for Open Government organized an event in Bremerton Washington to help bring awareness and knowledge of the rights of citizens to have access to government information. It was well organized and attended. Representatives of note in attendance were Senator Phil Rockefeller and Representative Christine Rolfis. Both have been contacted by The Community Network about their opinion on HB3292 (which house bill was referenced by Assistant Attorney General Tim Ford in the forum and in the personal audio interview downloadable on this page). Both representatives were trained in the subtleties of politics on Bainbridge Island before moving "upstairs". We will keep you apprised of their responses.

The core of the presentation was a panel of people with broad knowledge of the subject of open, accountable and transparent government from different perspectives. The meeting was presided over by WCOG President, Toby Nixon. The discussion forum consisted of:

Michele Earl-Hubbard - Principal of Allied Law Group, LLC. She specializes in media law, open government law and general litigation. She has authored and edited numerous publications dealing with open government issues.
Tim Ford - Assistant Attorney General for Government Accountability. He discussed a bill that requires local governments to record executive sessions, so that if questions arose, those sessions might be later reviewed by a court. (Tim is also running for a Court of Appeals possition)
Mike Fancher - Vice President of Washington Coalition for Open Government. Recently retired as executive editor of the Seattle Times.
Bill Mahan - Commissioner for the Port of Bremerton, District 3.
Scott Ware - Editor Kitsap Sun since August 2001. (See Sun article of the event)

Why Washington Coalition for Open Government on the Community Network?

BainbridgeIsland.org was established 16.5 years ago as a model to demonstrate the use and the power of the Internet to precipitate change in, and enhance the values of communities in the areas of social significance, government and economy. The greatest asset we have is the stories of reaching out all these years to leadership, creating many windows of opportunity only to watch them close again and again for lack of ethical people in leadership possitions.

The subject of open government goes to the heart of an important issue, control and manipulation of citizens through the control and flow of information. The demonstrations of these techniques can be readily found here on Bainbridge Island, Kitsap County, State levels and all the way to the White House. Our stories of attempting (over the last 14 years) to bringing audio (as demonstrated on this page), video and internet resouces into local government and the great effort that emerged to keep it from happening, is the same history of the attempt to establish HB3292. (Representative Rolfes can attest to the accuracy of many of our stories.)

To this end we are dedicating our resources to promoting WCOG and other projects of its kind. In the not too distant future we will be bring forward several new projects based on the knowledge gained by the experiences of Bainbridge Island Community Network and others designed to facilitate certain specific ends but work in concert for a greater effect. Some of these projects are as follow:

Diogenesaward.org - In search of an honest man (or woman) in government and business. We have many negative example of unethical government and business activities. This project is designed to seek out and give credit to those who act in favor of the ethical.
Realeconomy.net - Bringing forth accurate economic information and models to help create a better world and aid in reversing the disastrous economic direction we have been heading for some time.
Realgovernment.org - Bringing together information and tools to create better government. Like the efforts of WCOG.
Connectingthreads.org - Drawing the relationships of people, things and events together to demonstrate the bigger picture of influences that create the world we live in.

The best part to come, Enginesofchange.org and several other domains representing projects to facilitate the evolution of government, economy and social structures. All in good time and when the right leadership emerges.

I believe we are at a nexus point in the evolution of the planet as we have known it. I have given many presentations on using the internet to perciptate change. At the end of which I regularly heard: "We now understand the need but how do we get there". Several years ago I shifted my focus to the creation of the tools and the manual on how to use the tools to shape the change and enable other to do the same.

Sincerely - Dave Henry