Sunshine Supporters in N.C. General Assembly Trying To Keep The Efforts Alive

News channel 14 has a great post online along with a report that talks about the sunshine amendment that is being discussed at the North Carolina General Assembly here is the link to the post and embedded video that accompanies the report. CLICKHERE

UPDATE: City of Greensboro Dumps State Lobbyist But Now Wants To Hire Federal Lobbyist: Government Waste At It's Best

RFP_Federal_Lobbying[1] Post W-rev Dates


UPDATE 12-16-2010: This is a repost from a November post with the actual RFP request for proposal with the scribd version embedded above that was given to anybody who wanted to apply to be the federal lobbyist for the City of Greensboro . It looks like a timeline has been set to waste taxpayers money to go after taxpayers money.Below are the key dates.

IV. Key Dates

November 11, 2010 RFP Release Date
November 17, 2010 Final Date for Clarifying Questions (2:00pm Eastern Standard Time)
November 19, 2010 Responses to Questions Posted
December 10, 2010 Proposal Due Date (2:00pm Eastern Standard Time)
December 14, 2010 Tentative Interview Date
December 17, 2010 Tentative Selection of Proposal by Committee

Then in the RFP we have this stated :

XV. Award of Contract



Award of Contract, if awarded, will be made by the City Manager to the Respondent whose Proposal is determined to be the most advantageous to the City, taking into consideration the relative importance of price and other evaluation factors.
 
The City Manager gets to pick the awarded contract, when does the City Council get a say so in the contract? Also on December 17, 2010 which is when this post is put online they have a selection committee that is going to meet to select a proposal. Who makes up this committee?
 
Below is a repost from November 2010  on the issue of lobbyist and the complete waste of taxpayers money.
 
_________________________________________________________________________________

On Friday November 5, 2010, Greensboro City Manager Rashad Young released an "Items For Your Information" (IFYI). Usually these IFYI's are not interesting and don't provide much information to decifer from.

Not today.

One of the topics in the IFYI was a request for proposals for city lobbyist. Here is what was said:

At the January 26, 2010, Council Work Session, Council approved the City going forward with the process to engage federal lobbying representation and directed staff to pursue collaborating with the Greensboro Partnership to cover the cost and coordinate our efforts. The Greensboro Partnership has agreed to help with the cost of federal lobbying representation. We are in the process of developing a Request for Proposal (RFP) to go out for solicitation November 10, 2010. You can find a copy of the draft RFP in the Clerk's Office. Once a finalist has been determined, Council will have a chance to vote on the contract and whether to go forward to engage federal lobbying representation as directed at the work session.

We also had Greensboro Mayor Pro Tem Nancy Vaughan back in June of 2010, want to and did eliminate the wasteful spending of a state lobbyist in Cam Cover off of the budget. Here is that post CLICKHERE.

Five months later, it looks like we have the City of Greensboro, which did a great job of not rehiring a state lobbyist to save taxpayers money, with direction that they did back in January to probably have to double or even triple the taxpayers money it is going to cost to have a federal lobbyist which should be what our federal representatives are there to do for us like House Rep. Howard Coble,House Rep. Mel Watt, House Rep. Brad Miller, Sen. Richard Burr and Sen. Kay Hagan.
Below the fold is a post from earlier in the year on TRIADWATCH when they had brought up this topic of hiring a federal lobbyist in a briefing agenda.
_________________________________________________________________________________
The briefing agenda for the City of Greensboro for January 26, 2010 has a interesting topic #3 as you can see from above . It looks like council wants to look at hiring a lobbyist to represent them on the federal level.

We have seen this past year in the town of Winston Salem and the county of Forsyth hired a Washington D.C. lobbyist firm in The Ferguson Group CLICKHERE.

Below is from the Forsyth County agenda.
JANUARY 12, 2009 – GOVERNMENT CENTER – 7:30 P.M.

15. Resolution Authorizing Execution of an Agreement Between Forsyth County and the Ferguson Group, LLC for Federal Lobbying Services


Commissioner Bailey moved for adoption of the Resolution Authorizing Execution of an Agreement Between Forsyth County and the Ferguson Group, LLC for Federal Lobbying Services. Commissioner Conrad seconded the motion, which was approved by a vote of five (5) to two (2). Commissioners Whisenhunt and Linville voted in opposition.

Sam Hieb from Piedmont Publius CLICKHERE has a post with a title called "stuck with the tab" back on December of 2007, talking about the lobbyist firm that is used in Forsyth County.

Come to find out it looks like the Ferguson Group represents a lot of towns and counties all over the state of North Carolina. Come to find out High Point N.C. is one of the clients. Who knew? How much wasted taxpayer money does this cost?

Before hiring a federal lobbyist there should be plenty of questions to ask, like:

Why does any city or county need to hire a federal lobbyist?

Does the lobbyist company have many other clients or are you one of the few?

Will the lobbyist company have an experienced lawyer or a young gun handling your case?

Will there be any conflicts of interest with other clients?

Like Cam Cover the state lobbyist for Greensboro in her relationship with time warner and the issue with tiered pricing in Greensboro back last year.

What is the return on investment with hiring this lobbyist company?

These are just a few of the questions that should be asked.

Below is from a NY Times article called "Hiring Federal Lobbyist, Towns Learn Money Talks" CLICKHERE

Great point Mr. Phillips. I agree 100% with that. It will be interesting to see how this briefing goes next week and if anything comes out of this. Now we know how this briefing went in now in November they want to send out a RFP to hire a federal lobbyist. Government waste at it's best.Let's all understand what is going on with this program in that we have TAXPAYERS MONEY BEING WASTED TO GO AFTER TAXPAYERS MONEY. This is a great example of wasteful spending on the part of our local governments that needs to stop.

Tim Phillips, president of Americans for Prosperity, one of several Washington watchdog groups critical of earmarks, said it was local politicians' mandate to make their needs known — and the job of members of Congress to look out for them.

"If you're a mayor or a city councilman and you have to hire a lobbyist, what a gross admission of failure on your part," Mr. Phillips said. "I would think they have a fiduciary responsibility to not put taxpayer dollars into lobbyists when they're elected to be, really, the lobbyist for the people."

Greensboro City Council Might Hire a Federal Lobbyist Group for Representation, REPOST

Doc 012110



The briefing agenda for the City of Greensboro for January 26, 2010 has a interesting topic #3 as you can see from above . It looks like council wants to look at hiring a lobbyist to represent them on the federal level.

We have seen this past year in the town of Winston Salem and the county of Forsyth hired a Washington D.C. lobbyist firm in The Ferguson Group CLICKHERE.

Below is from the Forsyth County agenda.

JANUARY 12, 2009 – GOVERNMENT CENTER – 7:30 P.M.

15. Resolution Authorizing Execution of an Agreement Between Forsyth County and the Ferguson Group, LLC for Federal Lobbying Services



Commissioner Bailey moved for adoption of the Resolution Authorizing Execution of an Agreement Between Forsyth County and the Ferguson Group, LLC for Federal Lobbying Services. Commissioner Conrad seconded the motion, which was approved by a vote of five (5) to two (2). Commissioners Whisenhunt and Linville voted in opposition.

Sam Hieb from Piedmont Publius CLICKHERE has a post with a title called "stuck with the tab" back on December of 2007, talking about the lobbyist firm that is used in Forsyth County.

Come to find out it looks like the Ferguson Group represents a lot of towns and counties all over the state of North Carolina. Come to find out High Point N.C. is one of the clients. Who knew? How much wasted taxpayer money does this cost?

Before hiring a federal lobbyist there should be plenty of questions to ask like

Why does any city or county need to hire a federal lobbyist?
Does lobbyist company have many other clients or are you one of the few?
Will the lobbyist company have a experienced lawyer or a young gun handling your case?
Will there be any conflicts of interest with other clients?

Like Cam Cover the state lobbyist for Greensboro in her relationship with time warner and the issue with tiered pricing in Greensboro back last year.

What is the return on investment with hiring this lobbyist company?

These are just a few of the questions that should be asked.

Below is from a NY Times article called "Hiring Federal Lobbyist, Towns Learn Money Talks" CLICKHERE

Tim Phillips, president of Americans for Prosperity, one of several Washington watchdog groups critical of earmarks, said it was local politicians' mandate to make their needs known — and the job of members of Congress to look out for them.



"If you're a mayor or a city councilman and you have to hire a lobbyist, what a gross admission of failure on your part," Mr. Phillips said. "I would think they have a fiduciary responsibility to not put taxpayer dollars into lobbyists when they're elected to be, really, the lobbyist for the people."


Great point Mr. Phillips and agree 100% with that.It will be interesting to see how this briefing goes next week and if anything comes out of this.

Sunshine Week Is Here , Public Online Information Act Is Here , Sunlight Foundation Is Here To Help

Happy Sunshine Week!


We have some very good news today in the fight to make government transparent and accountable.

Right now, I'm up on Capitol Hill with a lot of Sunlight's staff to announce the Public Online Information Act. This new legislation will require Executive Branch agencies to publish all publicly available information on the Internet in a timely fashion and in easy to use formats.

When we get this thing passed, it will represent a sea change for one very big part of government. Everything you need to know about the bill - including a great, short video - is here:

 http://thePOIA.org

Put simply, government information is still way too hard to find, difficult to understand, expensive to obtain in a useable way, and often available in only a few locations. We need good information available online, 24/7, to hold our government officials accountable - and that's not even close to what we have right now.

It's the 21st century for crying out loud, and we expect to find just about any kind of information online at any time. I can book an airplane ticket from my laptop at 1 a.m. and I can check my latest credit card transactions, view the weather forecast, or get local traffic reports from my phone. I can even buy shoes off a website and have them delivered to my house less than 24 hours later.

However, if I want to look up most government information, I have to travel to Washington and view it on paper or on the screen of a bulky vintage computer in the basement office of a government building, open only on weekdays from 9 to 5. Or I have to file a formal request and wait for weeks or even months for a response - and this is for government information that is already required by law to be made available to the public! This can no longer be the way Washington operates.

The solution to this problem of government information access is, of course, the Internet, and today we're excited about introducing the Public Online Information Act as one big step in the right direction.
http://thePOIA.org

We also want to make clear that we couldn't have gotten to the point of introducing a bill like this without your public support.

Each of you has supported the Sunlight Foundation in some way since our founding 4 years ago - from making sure Congress reads their bills to looking up government earmarks in your spare time or tracking lobbying contributions - and we can't thank you enough.

We're going to continue to need all of you, plus tens of thousands more, to make sure legislation like the Public Online Information Act gets passed, and on Thursday, we're going to be announcing a national, non-partisan campaign that will help us do that.

We hope you'll join us. Stay tuned!

Sunlight Foundation CLICKHERE


Ellen Miller

Co-founder and Executive Director

Sunlight Foundation

_________________________________________________________________________________


TRIADWATCH would like all the readers to get involved this is very important for all of us to understand the way our government works and the more sunshine on government the more informed we are.

Sunlight Foundation Highlights Triadwatch on Post About Plane Trip To D.C.

The Sunlight Foundation has a section of their web site called "Local Sunlight Spotlight" CLICKHERE . They wanted to spotlight the post on the ethical issues that came about because of the plane ride to D.C. which involved a local developer and local elected officials.If you would like to see what was written in the past about this issue CLICKHERE , with a title "Developer Roy Carroll's Plane Will Sit on Tarmac While The Mayor and Chairman Ponder Ethical Standards."

Below is two paragraphs from their website on what the Sunlight Foundation is about:

The Sunlight Foundation was co-founded in 2006 by Washington, DC businessman and lawyer Michael Klein and longtime Washington public interest advocate Ellen Miller with the non-partisan mission of using the revolutionary power of the Internet to make information about Congress and the federal government more meaningfully accessible to citizens. Through our projects and grant-making, Sunlight serves as a catalyst for greater political transparency and to foster more openness and accountability in government. Sunlight’s ultimate goal is to strengthen the relationship between citizens and their elected officials and to foster public trust in government. We are unique in that technology and the power of the Internet are at the core of every one of our efforts.

Our work is committed to helping citizens, bloggers and journalists be their own best government watchdogs, by improving access to existing information and digitizing new information, and by creating new tools and Web sites to enable all of us to collaborate in fostering greater transparency. Since our founding in the spring of 2006, we have assembled and funded an array of web-based databases and tools including OpenCongress.org, FedSpending.org, OpenSecrets.org, EarmarkWatch.org and LOUISdb.org. These sites make millions of bits of information available online about the members of Congress, their staff, legislation, federal spending and lobbyists.

Triadwatch would like to thank the Sunlight Foundation for having this post be a part of their blog and to highlight this for other people all over the country to ask ethical questions to situations like this one that came up in Guilford County N.C. .

Transparency Transparency Where Have You Been? Here Comes The Sunlight Foundation

When it comes to Transparency, there hasn't been a time like the last four weeks since our movement for an open government began.
We're on the verge of having two government transparency bills to rally behind in the House and Senate.
*the White House is hosting the Open Government Initiative to seek our best ideas in making government more open and participatory.
*thousands of new government data feeds are available through Data.gov (and we're making sure technologists around the country use it with the Apps for America 2 competition).
*the Speaker of the House has required an unprecedented level of disclosure for House Member expenditures.
*people are checking out the makeover we gave the Supreme Court. (Their website that is.)
Big month! ...and that's just the tip of the iceberg.

What's beyond exciting for me as the new engagement director at Sunlight is to be able to jump in with all of you and keep this momentum up in Congress, in every government agency, and into the states. Were the DC summer humidity not already so overpowering, one might conjur rapidly growing snowballs. But I digress.

We want to make sure you know what's going on - and more importantly, hear what you have to say - so below is a first in what we'd like to be a bigger and longer conversation with you about what's happening to open our government because of your support.Our aim is simple: make sure we're all as informed and engaged as possible because we are taking on a monumental mission, and it's going to take all of us.

We have a lot to do to turn our government into the transparent and accountable body it was always intended to be, but there are great strides being made every day as we bring our elected leaders into the Sunlight. Take a moment and be optimistic - even if you do work in politics!

I just called a CVS on Capitol Hill and they're all stocked up on sunblock. It's a good thing, because through this summer and beyond, we're thrilled to be working with you all to make sure our leaders need much, much more of it

.Jake Brewer

Engagement Director, Sunlight Foundation CLICKHERE

jbrewer@sunlightfoundation.com

More Sunlight...

- Thousands of you joined Sunlight to demand that Congress actually Read the Bill they write before it's allowed to have an impact on our lives. Amazing that congress has been allowed to operate this long without reading their legislation, but we have been seeing great progress toward making that a requirement. We just received word that there is now bipartisan sponsorship for a new 72-hour rule bill to be introduced next week. Granted, it's ridiculous that we need a law to tell those elected to serve us that they must make time to read legislation before signing it, but since we do, we'll make sure our voice is heard with a goal of delivering at least 15,000 petition signatures.

- On the Senate side, we're finally seeing headway on S.482 which will require Senate offices to report their campaign finances online. This is another no-brainer, folks. Thankfully, the Majority Leader's office has asked that it be pushed through. Sunlight's "lobbyist that lobbyist's love to hate," Lisa Rosenberg, is keeping us updated on what actions we can take, and we'll be sure to do the same for you.

- Nearly 1,000 technologists around the country have now joined Sunlight Labs in discussing, sharing, and creating applications for government through the Labs' first and now SECOND Apps for America competition. This is truly remarkable. Much of the data underneath government lies only in dark, locked recesses, and this growing army is on the front lines of shining Sunlight where it's never been before. Remember that scene in Indiana Jones where the government hides the Arc of the Covenant in that big warehouse? These guys are digging it out. Join the conversation if you're a developer; it's at least as fun as World of Warcraft ...maybe more.

- In rethinking transparency in government, we're also rethinking what it looks like. At least online. The latest in our Redesigning Government series - the Supreme Court - has gotten a lot of attention, and it's no surprise that the White House's Data.gov looks an awful lot like our mock ups. Have other ideas for sites we should help the government rethink? Send your suggestions our way!

- Our Transparency blogger network continues to grow, and we were excited this week to meet with folks from the Open Kansas Initiative. It's the type of work that we think can be replicated by active citizens in every state, and we're going to be working with people in as many states as possible to support and connect these efforts. One quick way to stay informed is to join our Transparency Blogger list-serve if thinking and writing about Transparency is up your alley.

- With House member expenditures being made open and online (an important first step in disclosure), lobbying parties heating up for the summer months (baseball tickets are all the rage apparently), and with quarterly earmark disclosures coming soon, there's going to be a lot more from our Real Time Investigations team and Party Time blogs. These are some of the crucial places online where reporters and citizen journalists come to get the scoop underneath government stories, so if you have a lead or get party invitations, please send them along
- Over the next few weeks, we're going to be launching several new insanely useful web platforms that we're eager to work with you on. Keep an eye out for the redesign of OpenCongress.org and the launch of a nationwide initiative we're calling Transparency Corps!

(this post was approved by Mr. Brewer for posting on Triadwatch)