Recall Petition Approval
Good news today. It looks like the mayor and city administrator were not able to find anything wrong with our blank recall petition. They denied our first draft because it was only written in English. We got it right on the second try with our bilingual version. Here is a copy of the approval letter.
http://home.earthlink.net/~rrodartejr/mcrg/letters/PetApproval.pdf
posted by Rafael Rodarte @ 9:29 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
Hello,
Mr. Rodarte,
I have a few helpful websites that are extrememly informative and actually established to protect and defend as well as educate the public's right to know and encourage public participation in their local governing. I believe you may be able to assess further activities and approach even a broader range of the responsibilities that McFarland's City Leaders have beyond those that you have already approached. Such as the Freedom of Information Act and the Brown Act that which these City Leaders are required to take into consideration by law on every decision or action that ever comes into play within the City Government. You may even learn that there may be a great deal more of unethical activity than what you have already been able to expose. Such as, according to the Brown Act, whenever there are more that two City Council Members to meet outside any City Council meeting in one location, they are bound by law not to discuss any City activities or issues in regards to their leadership positions. I wonder if the Mayor and the other two most recently
elected City Officials have ever met outside the Chambers of City Hall and perhaps discussed and City issues. If so, they are guilty of violating the Brown Act and could be subject to Civil Claims filed by any citizen formed group or governmental watchdog group should they provide some efficient proof. On some occassions, there have even been entities such as media sources like the Bakersfield Californian, or other groups such as League of Women Voters who have
filed claims on behalf of the public after City Officials attempted to deny access to public records. I could go on and on of the possibilities. For now, I have two websites for you to check out and anyone that may have an interest. One is CalAware which has been established by a very good ethical and moral individual who advocates open governing and has based his career on the public's right to know. His name is Terry Francke and his organization though fairly new, has many resources and offers programs that could benefit the public. You can read the entire Brown Act and the Freedom of Information act on his website. His experience and professional expertise is without doubt, very invaluable to citizen formed groups such as the one you have been able to form within our community. Mr. Francke has well over 20 years legal experience in the study of the Brown Act alone and has even authored in the revision of the Brown Act some years ago. He was former General Counsel for the California First Amendment Coalition which is the other website I am providing. CalAware website could help you learn how to develop a citizen watchdog organization and offers workshops and seminars some voluntary and some could be promoted for a very reasonable price. Yet, even if there is no interest in promoting or attending these programs, Mr. Francke is always available to speak with anyone no matter if you happen to be simply a concerned citizen, he is always willing to offer a moment of his time to answer any questions that you may have regarding the Brown Act or the Freedom of Information Act. So if you have any questions in that regard, if you call his hotline and he happens to be busy at that moment, you can definitely count on him returning your call because you became a priority as soon as you chose to first contact him. If I had the means, I would have attempted to try and have one of his programs centered in our community. He is also familiar with the City of McFarland after I became acquainted with him seeking some information from him in the past. He is quite gracious and though he is a very respected and important governmental advocate, he will always take some time out to assist anyone bearing an interest in open government even if your simply a concerned citizen. To gain his website simply type CalAware which is how I do it or I believe it may be www.calaware.org and check out The California First Amendment Coalition or CFAC. I don't have their www. address but you should be able to find it by simply typing CFAC. Hope this is helpful! I'll try and send some more websites at a later time.
Thanks for the reference! I will read through this website over the weekend and see if Mr. Francke is willing to assist us in obtaining documents.
Hello again,
I thought it might be helpful to give you an email address if you have questions for Mr. Terry Francke of CalAware. I am sure he would be very willing to answer any questions you might have. The email address is terry@calaware.org. You may also find more information by simply googling the name Terry Francke and learn how reputible he is in the area of open forum government. There is also another issue you might be interested in called the Sunshine Ordinance laws. CalAware's full title is Californian's Aware, "Center for public forum rights", so you'll know when you hit the right site. Good Luck!
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