OK-SAFE Action Forum October 1st, 2009 – Training!

The next OK-SAFE Action Forum will be Thursday, October 1st, 2009.

 

Oklahomans are aware of the growth of big government and have been stirred to action.  They’ve rallied together and protested to make their voices heard in the public square. Some folks are ready to move on to the next step, [getting involved in the OK legislative process], but  may be asking themselves, “How do I do that?” 

 

The next OK-SAFE Action Forum will be something all Oklahoma grassroots activists can use – a no-spin training session on “Citizen Involvement in the Legislative Process”, focusing on the Oklahoma Legislature.

 

Topics will include:

• Civic responsibility
• Introduction to the Oklahoma Legislature website
• How a bill is introduced
• The course of a bill in the legislative process
• Bill tracking
• How to lobby

The bad policies of the federal government are implemented at the state level – the states can fight back, IF enough citizens understand the legislative process and get involved. 

Our rights have been given to us by God, not man, but “man” is working feverishly to remove those rights.

 

The Oklahoma Capitol belongs to the people; who typically lobbies the OK legislature, however, are multinational corporations and big government special interest groups.

 

This needs to change.  The people must take back their civic responsibility and become involved in the legislative process.

 

Make plans today to attend this training meeting.

 

Date: Thursday, Oct. 1, 2009

Time: 6:45 pm to 8:15 pm

Location: Hardesty Regional Library, 8316 E. 93rd St., Tulsa, OK (93rd & S. Memorial) 

Disclaimer: The Hardesty Library (TCCL) is a meeting place only and is not a sponsor of this meeting. The TCCL system takes no position on the subject matter of meetings held in library facilities.

Gov’t blocking open records requests?

This is a perfect example of the problem with MOUs (Memorandum of Understanding) and other information sharing agreements public (government) agencies have with other public (government) agencies and with the private sector – a shut-off of open record requests and an end to transparency in government.

 

The quote below from a ‘liberal’ new site is interesting due to the response to an open records request to the Colorado Fusion Center:

[Source: http://centerforinvestigativereporting.org/articles/arethingsanydifferentindenver]

 

The Center for Investigative Reporting sought to examine documents from fusion centers in both Denver and St. Paul to better understand what roles they played in the security preparations for last year’s Democratic and Republican national conventions. But authorities in Colorado refused a public-records request sent by CIR.

The Colorado Information Analysis Center is run by the state’s Department of Public Safety. In a response letter, Spokesman Lance Clem said that releasing the records would be contrary to the public interest and “not only would compromise [the] security and investigative practices of numerous law enforcement agencies but would also violate confidentiality agreements that have been made with private partner organizations and federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.”

[Highlights, bolding and underlines added.]

 

This should be a warning about efforts to change the open records laws.  The more access the government gets to outside data/databases, the increased likelihood of legislation to block disclosure of it’s (the governments) activities, due to the private sector’s “proprietary information.”

 

This lack of transparency should be another argument against increasing public/private partnerships and the expansion of MOUs (and more Non-Disclosure Agreements) under which public functions operate.

 

OK-SAFE, Inc.