UPDATE: Schipske to Hold Inaugural "Open Up Long Beach" Community Meeting
- Details
- By Brian Addison Follow @FoucaultDude
- | Monday, 06 February 2012 06:58
9:00am | Today will mark the inaugural Open Up Long Beach Community Meeting, an initiative started by Fifth District Councilmember Gerrie Schipske in an attempt to make government more "open, transparent[,] and collaborative with its residents."
Following the Obama Administration's dedication to "unprecedented levels of openness in Government," Schispke feels that Long Beach, via her website and project, now has an opportunity to engage its residents on what can be done to truly make the City more diaphanous in its operations and structure.
Hope lies in the belief that such a process will not only encourage and ensure more citizen participation in local government but will spur creative, entrepreneurial businesses as it has done in several other cities such as New York's recent "hack-a-thon" and Washington D.C.'s "unconference."
The first meeting of Open Up Long Beach will be held tonight at 6:30pm in the El Dorado Community Center at 2800 Studebaker Road. Participants will review what some other cities are doing to open their local governments and to brain- storm about what needs to be done in Long Beach. Plans for a CityCampLongBeach (Transparency Camp) will also be discussed.
The meeting and project is open to any resident of Long Beach. For more information, please contact the council office at: 562-570-6932 or log onto: www.openuplongbeach.com.
January 16, 7:30pm | Fifth District Councilwoman Gerrie Schipske released the following statement today:
Click here to view our policies covering the Long Beach city council.Today, I am launching OpenUpLongBeach.com – a website and a project to make the City of Long Beach more open, transparent and collaborative with its residents.
From the White House with the ‘Open Government Initiative’ to States and cities across the US, more and more levels of government understand the need to create an unprecedented level of openness, transparency and public participation to strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in government. Now Long Beach has an opportunity to engage its residents on what can be done to truly make the City the most open, transparent and collaborative local government in the US.
This process will not only encourage and ensure more citizen participation in local government but will spur creative, entrepreneurial businesses as it has done in several other cities where open government was launched. Readily accessible government data allows businesses to assess whether or not to locate here and/or to expand.
I was the first councilperson to publicly post my schedule and to provide city documents through my blog. I have also pushed for the City to open the collective bargaining process and to provide more data on the City website.
The first meeting of Open Up Long Beach will be held on Monday, February 6, at 6pm in the El Dorado Community Center. Participants will review what some other cities are doing to open their local governments and to brain- storm about what needs to be done in Long Beach. Plans for a CityCampLongBeach (Transparency Camp) will also be discussed.
The meeting and project is open to any resident of Long Beach. For more information, please contact my council office at: 562 570-6932 or log onto OpenUpLongBeach.com.
Thank you for having the courage and honesty to shine a disinfecting light upon our City Hall.
You give civil service a good name and help those who have suffered a loss of confidence in leadership and government, hope for better days.
We know that this is not easy for you. We have seen some of the powers that be try to place a target on your back. Thankfully they always fail.
We are also proud when we watch you ask the fair questions, and raise many legitimate concerns at council.
Thank you for not selling out. Thank you for remaining objective, honest, dedicated and down to earth.
City Hall still has a problem, private email accounts being used to avoid accountability and fair disclosure. We need to prohibit these accounts because they are being abused.
Thanks for being part of the solution. Nice work.
Your question seems to infer some kind of dissatisfaction or suspicion of what Gerrie is doing. Do you somehow imagine a private site would be less honest or less credible than the (your words) City's own official government sites?
Those who say "Where were you when...?" and "Why didn't you do this earlier?" have little clue of the difficulties one has in an at times amateurish city government to make a change. I read all your email to your constituents, of which I am one, and support all your varied efforts (you do not limit your representation to one issue) to improve the lives of us in District 5. Ignore the charges of anything being related to new campaigns. Keep up the good work. You have many supporters.
They often try this when the deal stinks. Also, these Emergency matters rarely qualify as such.
Thanks for asking Staff for more disclosure and detail.
It was unpleasant to listen to The Mayor and DeLongO trying to distance themselves from your concerns. They are just as big a part of the problem.
Nice work ! Give 'Em Heck for us !
"The man has been a lawfully elected president for what 3 years -- why in the world are his academic records of any importance or significance especially when many republicans don't even have academic records as made clear by their stupidity."
Nice to know if you are a Republican and her constituent she considers you stupid.
"...your party (Republicans) demonizes a lawfully elected president solely because he is black." (Elipses not hers).
So if you disagree with someone of color you are racist according to Schipske. And she is trolling for for cash and votes from you.
Wonder if they'll be at the meeting.
@Dennis I saw that facebook post too and you are taking it out of context. You sound like a crybaby, why don't you take your ball and go home. Seriously whining over a facebook comment? This isn't junior high.
Quite frankly you don't need to criticize Republicans to get your point across. I and many in this city are a thousand times more honest and open then the liberals who occupy those seats behind the golden rail.
Remember when you open up City Government, it also means opening up a can of worms, including the part and tactics the unions use to get their way, and how the City Council appeases the unions by giving them what they want. Nothing else has contributed more to the demise and finances of this City than the control the unions have over the City Council.
When you start something, you better be willing to have everything put on the table. Hopefully; a Grand Jury Investigation will do more to bring sunshine to this City than anything else, because a bad name would do more to clean up Long Beach then any feel good initiative or "Open Long Beach".