Comments: Really confusing, but I agree with the author, one simple solution: Open the workgroup to the public, Gov. McDonnell!
But will the Uranium Group to be fair and balance to the public about the studies or regulations of uranium mining to the taxpayers, listed below are quotes from different ones which are confusing in themselves but according to Mr. Kent we are confused, while the facts are listed below:
A. Cathie France, the group's chairwoman and deputy director of the Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy, insists this is all to make things easier for the group. "It's not because we don't want to be transparent," she said.,
CF:
further explained that the group would not hold meetings, though the group will publicly update the Commission on four occasions.
CF :
The group’s records won’t be available, either, France said, because they are “confidential governor’s working papers
B: Gov. Bob McDonnell's: uranium working group will be doing its work outside the light of public scrutiny. Next statement: "I have directed the group ... to allow thorough opportunity for public participation in its work."
C: Del. Donald Merricks: “I’m concerned about the transparency part.…We may need to talk about that.” (Thanks goodness Del DM is making sense in this, hope he can change it!)
D: Martin Kent's Letter to Del Ware: Incorrect conclusions on the process (talking about us), (don't think so)
Conclusion: The meetings will be behind closed doors, will throw us bones called public meetings and the working group are pro uranium mining! Write all senators, delgates, the governor, all members of the working group and tell them to Keep the Uranium mining ban and open all meetings to the public!
Editorial: Uranium group will keep secrets
The working group created by the governor to study uranium mining will hide much of its work from the public.
Cartoons and mad scientists' labs aside, uranium does not glow in the dark. That's too bad because Gov. Bob McDonnell's uranium working group will be doing its work outside the light of public scrutiny. It could use the illumination.
Virginia Uranium Inc. wants to mine the ore in Pittsylvania County and has asked the General Assembly and governor to lift a moratorium.
Lawmakers and the governor chose caution and delayed the decision this year. That gives everyone time to digest fully the science and the risks. A National Academy of Sciences study released mere weeks before the General Assembly convened warned that a lot more needs to be known before anyone concludes mining could be done safely.
In January, McDonnell formally announced his support for postponement and created a working group to study the issue further. In his announcement, he said, "I have directed the group ... to allow thorough opportunity for public participation in its work."
The work group has other ideas. It invokes the oft-abused governor's working papers exemption to the Virginia Freedom of Information Act to keep its work out of the public eye.
Virginians whose health and environment are most at risk if uranium mining goes badly, and who stand to gain tax revenue if it goes well, will be kept in the dark.
When the working group gathers scientific data or commissions expert reports, it will keep most information secret. The group promises to take public comment at meetings, but much of its deliberation will be behind closed doors.
Cathie France, the group's chairwoman and deputy director of the Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy, insists this is all to make things easier for the group. "It's not because we don't want to be transparent," she said.
The governor promised thorough public participation. If he, France and the rest of his working group truly want to be transparent, they will make sure that crucial data will be seen by people beyond the governor's office.
Read more:
http://www.roanoke.com/editorials/wb/306123
Another stealth workgroup? Really?
By: | GoDanRiver
Published: March 12, 2012
seems like only yesterday I was writing about a workgroup the governor designed to advise a public body that would operate outside the Freedom of Information Act.
Ah yes. Those were the days. I mean, they’re still the days. Did you see it?
Deputy Director of the Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy Cathie France, who will lead the group, further explained that the group would not hold meetings, though the group will publicly update the Commission on four occasions.
The group’s records won’t be available, either, France said, because they are “confidential governor’s working papers” that are “prepared for him, at his direction, for him to make a decision.”
(Perhaps just a quibble, but Caldwell noted that “ultimately, it is the General Assembly that must decide whether or not to lift the uranium moratorium,” So if the group is just deliberating scientific facts, then what decision is McDonnell going to make?) The governor’s office claimed the workgroups were not subject to FOIA.
When the reformcommission’s workgroups were criticized, the governor’s spokesman at the time, Tucker Martin, said,“More voices are being heard. More opinions are being considered. That kind of transparency can be difficult for some to properly conceptualize, as it is a relatively new way of doing business at the government level.” And while you try to figure out exactly howa new kind of transparency that involves doing things out of the public eye actually works, consider France’s additional comments: “It’s not because we don’t want to be transparent,” but getting comments via the Web makes it easier for group members to share information, she told the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Of course, it’s easier to do business behind closed doors. It would be easier if members of a public body could meet whenever and wherever they wanted to talk about anything they wanted. It would be easier if they didn’t have to take minutes or notify the public about their meetings.
It would be easier if government’s had unlimited amount of time to answer requests for records.
It would be easier if government just had to post requests for proposal or other public notices on their own websites instead of in the newspapers.
It would be easier if government could hold electronic meetings however they wanted.
Those last three were proposed by the governor’s Task Force on Local Government Mandate Review and the Government ReformCommission, as was another proposal fromthe ReformCommission in 2010 to eliminate the FOIA Council.
But easier isn’t better. It’s not even right. It’s not what the public wants or expects. Efficiency in government should not come at the expense of public accountability.
Thank goodness Del. Donald Merricks, R-Chatham, who is on the Coal and Energy Commission and whose district will be directly affected by a decision on the mining moratorium, spoke up and said, “I’m concerned about the transparency part.…We may need to talk about that.”
Indeed we should, Del. Merricks. And the governor’s office should (a) knowthat already and (b) be thinking of ways to increase transparency during a process that will have lasting implications for Virginia, not thinking of new kinds of transparency that “can be difficult for some to properly conceptualize.”
Open the workgroup to the public, Gov. McDonnell!
Rhyne is executive director of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government.
Learn more at www.opengovva.org.
Read more:
http://www2.godanriver.com/news/2012/mar/12/another-stealth-workgroup-really-ar-1759167/
From FB Friend:
