A win for good-government in Beverly Hills: Council unanimously OK’d tighter lobbyist registration requirements that now require any ‘legislative advocate’ remunerated above $50 to both disclose their role in chambers and file a form under penalty of city suspension and state perjury law. Kudos to Mayor Mirisch for spearheading it and to the mayor’s Sunshine Task Force for workshopping it.
Tag Archives: Sunshine Task Force
Sunshine Task Force Meeting #3 [Recap]
The Sunshine Task Force, an ad hoc committee formed by Mayor Mirisch to advance good government reforms, met for the third time this week, and on the agenda was a change to the city’s existing legislative advocate form. The objectives are to glean more information about lobbyists and their clients, and to make that information available online to the Council and the public at large. The broader goal: greater transparency in Beverly Hills city government. Continue reading
How Well is the City Doing on Transparency?
A transparent local government is a politically-sustainable local government
It is the cry of good-government & transparency (aka ‘sunshine’) advocates alike: all public documents should be accessible, machine-readable, and searchable. For how would we find the proverbial needle in the local government haystack if we couldn’t locate a document based on a search for content? We at Better Bike have bent the collective ear in Beverly Hills City Hall for three years (without much success) to get the city to commit to generating documents that meet that standard, at least, but to no avail. How’s our city doing on other aspects of that ‘sunshine’ thing then? Continue reading
Sunshine Task Force #2 Recap
The Beverly Hills Sunshine Task Force met for a second time this week following on last month’s initial meeting, wherein participants highlighted instances where the city falls short on sharing information. In that meeting, several new initiatives were proposed to nudge the city toward open government principles. On this month’s agenda was a staff presentation on West Hollywood, Walnut Creek and little-known city of Villa Park’s efforts. But in this 1-hour meeting we focused instead on proposals for an ombudsman and greater lobbying disclosure. There was scant time to address other issues as suggested last month much less ‘next steps.’ Here’s the recap. Continue reading
Beverly Hills Sunshine Task Force Meets
Mayor John Mirisch’s transparency-focused Sunshine Task Force (agenda) held its inaugural meeting this past Tuesday. A handful of folks from all corners of Beverly Hills came together to talk about what can be done to make City Hall more open and to make public information more accessible. The mission as framed simply by the Mayor: “To shine a light upon the workings of city government to encourage public participation.” With two sitting councilmembers, two former mayors, various neighborhood leaders and a bike advocate at the table, there was no shortage of diagnoses or suggestions for a cure. Continue reading
Sunshine Task Force Inaugural Meeting 4/30
Aside
We’ll be sitting on the city’s ad-hoc Sunshine Task Force for its inaugural meeting on Tuesday, April 30th at City Hall [agenda]. The task force will examine opportunities for enhanced public participation in city business and better communication between City Hall and stakeholders. (Improved communication could start with listing the meeting on the city’s official calendar, we suggest.) We hope to see you there.