Tuesday, May 08, 2007

No word on the bagel man, but I hear Tim Schofield is in...

Council response. Responses to Council. Stenographic machine output.
_ _ _ _ _ a comment by ... _ _ _ _ _
> Are you aware that all the Council meetings and hearings held in the Ianella Chambers are on video. available on internet? http://cityofboston.gov/citycouncil It doesn't go back before some date, like last year.
yup, the transcript of the stenographic machine output would allow people to extract and comment on the councilors' remarks. Bidding would get competitive more up to date stenographic vendors' services and software. The current stenographic services vendor uses older
technology and software. More up to date stenographic technology and software would put closed captioning up for people with hearing loss and put the stenographic output on the council website allowing better opportunity public comments. References
http://www.aaert.org/ http://resources.martindale.com/mhes/categoryHome.jsp/1010005/ http://www.tribalresourcecenter.org/personnel/details.asp?35
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All government documents should be posted to the internet and freely available without requests! There are states that do this already. Our State Supervisor of Public Records, Alan Cote, has already proposed this, and also proposed scanning archives to have all govt
docs, state and city, digitized. NO MORE PUBLIC RECORD REQUESTS NECESSARY, NO MORE DISCOURAGEMENT VIA HUGE COPYING AND SEARCHING CHARGES. You might call his office and see what the progress is 617 727-2832
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If the City posted the stenographic output of these machines (and minutes and reports received, etc.) to the city website, the public could have ready access without having to file a request, and they could select the parts in which they were interested. If a hard copy
were desired or needed, it could be downloaded and printed out by the person wanting the hard copy. It seems that too many government agencies are still looking for ways to do business under the cloak of darkness and use things like cost and inconvenience to discourage
people from asking for information. If the notion that the best disinfectant for government business is sunshine, then organizations like the City of Boston should WANT to make this information available to as many people as possible and not just to those who can
afford $270/meeting.
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In the alternative, and consistent with both the letter and the spirit of the law, posting this output to the city's website so that folks could choose for themselves what they wanted to download and print would be acceptable.
_ _ _ _ _ From: Ann.Braga@cityofboston.gov _ _ _ _ _
Attached please find the City Council's response to your request for information pursuant to GL c4 s7(26); GL c66 s10 through 18. http://www.sec.state.ma.us/pre/preidx.htm In your April 24, 2007 request of the City Clerk and stenographer Ellen Fritch, you requested the
stenographic machine output for the City Council meeting of either April 11, 2007 or April 4, 2007. As the department that has the contract with the stenographer, I am responding to your request. I have calculated the costs necessary for the copies of the physical
output of the stenographer's machine (paper tape). To make a photocopy of the machine output takes approximately one hour of staff time to copy thirty minutes of Council meeting stenographic output. The hourly wage of the lowest paid staff person capable of completing
this task is twenty-five dollars per hour. Each meeting lasted approximately three hours, requiring six hours of the staff person's time to make copies of the original stenographic output, at a total cost of $150.00. Additionally, the copies themselves will cost $0.20
cents per page at an estimated 600 pages, totaling $120.00. The check would need to be made out to "City of Boston" and sent to me. Please contact me regarding whether you will want the copies to be made. We will begin processing your request upon receipt of the
funds. Sincerely, Ann Hess Braga, Staff Director Boston City Council http://cityofboston.gov/citycouncil Ann.Braga@cityofboston.gov Ann.Braga at cityofboston.gov

I think Dan has run a few times now. He ran at-large in 1997 and 1999 and then ran for the district seat at least twice too. He is a good dude though.