-
Notifications
You must be signed in to change notification settings - Fork 0
Expand file tree
/
Copy pathabout.html
More file actions
199 lines (193 loc) · 12 KB
/
about.html
File metadata and controls
199 lines (193 loc) · 12 KB
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML>
<!-- /*
This file is part of Scorecard, Copyright 2013-2014 Dan Robinson, Nancy Wallace and John Holland.
Scorecard is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.
Scorecard is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU Affero General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU Affero General Public License
along with Scorecard. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
*/
--!>
<HEAD>
<META HTTP-EQUIV="CONTENT-TYPE" CONTENT="text/html; charset=utf-8">
<TITLE></TITLE>
<META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="LibreOffice 3.5 (Linux)">
<META NAME="AUTHOR" CONTENT=" ">
<META NAME="CREATED" CONTENT="20140121;19030000">
<META NAME="CHANGEDBY" CONTENT=" ">
<META NAME="CHANGED" CONTENT="20140209;390000">
<META NAME="AppVersion" CONTENT="12.0000">
<META NAME="Company" CONTENT="">
<META NAME="DocSecurity" CONTENT="0">
<META NAME="HyperlinksChanged" CONTENT="false">
<META NAME="LinksUpToDate" CONTENT="false">
<META NAME="ScaleCrop" CONTENT="false">
<META NAME="ShareDoc" CONTENT="false">
<STYLE TYPE="text/css">
<!--
@page { margin: 1in }
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; direction: ltr; color: #000000; widows: 2; orphans: 2 }
A:link { color: #0000ff; so-language: zxx }
-->
</STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY LANG="en-US" TEXT="#000000" LINK="#0000ff" DIR="LTR">
<P ALIGN=CENTER STYLE="margin-bottom: 0.14in"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman, serif"><FONT SIZE=3><B>About
this scorecard</B></FONT></FONT></P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0.14in"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman, serif"><FONT SIZE=3><B>Origin</B></FONT></FONT></P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0.14in"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman, serif"><FONT SIZE=3>This
scorecard was begun in 1989 by the Montgomery County League of
Environmental Voters (MCLEV) of Montgomery County, Maryland. A
coalition of environmental, conservation, and civic groups created a
county-level version of the state’s Maryland League of
Environmental Voters Scorecard, and “granddaughter” of the
national League of Conservation Voters Scorecard. That scorecard,
for 1991-1994, was effective in communicating the real political
behavior of Council members to the general public. The scorecard
educated the community on the important environmental votes, and
provided clear and transparent accountability to the voters on the
Council members they had elected. When the chips were down – who
really stood up for the environment, for the average citizen, and for
the future? Many volunteers spent hundreds of hours painstakingly
discussing, researching, documenting, and publishing that scorecard
in booklet form.</FONT></FONT></P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0.14in"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman, serif"><FONT SIZE=3><B>Today</B></FONT></FONT></P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0.14in"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman, serif"><FONT SIZE=3>With
the advent of the Internet, we can now make this accountability tool
available easily to everyone, and include many more issues across the
spectrum of progressive concerns. The reader can link to websites to
learn more about each vote’s factual background and political
landscape, and become involved on issues of their choosing. The
scorecard can also be updated continuously throughout the four-year
Council session, to help voters and the press understand the actual
values being implemented by their representative, regardless of
rhetoric and symbolic actions. The local Green Party of Montgomery
County created this scorecard software, and populated it based on
information from many activist groups, the general media, and Council
records. As with the original scorecard, the intent is to educate
the public on issues of critical local importance; and provide a
clear record of when our elected officials stood up for our
environment, our people, progressive values, and the future.</FONT></FONT></P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0.14in"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman, serif"><FONT SIZE=3><B>Call
for Increased Council Transparency</B></FONT></FONT></P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0.14in"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman, serif"><FONT SIZE=3>In
research for this scorecard, we found that the transparency of County
Council votes is dismal. The final vote on a bill is posted in the
online Council records, while the earlier votes in committee and
amendments -- all public, official votes -- are not online. This
lack of transparency functions as a cover for the deal-making when
real decisions are made on the content of the bills, and members’
votes are hard to determine. Then, members use unanimous final votes
for press releases and the public, while their true influence may
have been the opposite. This lack of transparency includes the
following, which we recommend improving by the Council with online
posting of all official votes:</FONT></FONT></P>
<OL>
<LI><P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0.14in"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman, serif"><FONT SIZE=3>Votes
on amendments in the full Council voting sessions</FONT></FONT></P>
<LI><P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0.14in"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman, serif"><FONT SIZE=3>Votes
on amendments in the six standing committees</FONT></FONT></P>
<LI><P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0.14in"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman, serif"><FONT SIZE=3>Titles
of bills written to hide the purpose and impact on the citizens.
For instance, a $900,000 special exemption from a county hotel tax
proposed in 2010 to benefit a single company was titled “rental
transient tax," which created an apparently objective
redefinition of transient but it was in fact a tax subsidy to
benefit one company, which is also one of the richest companies in
the world (Bill 44-10, for Lockheed Martin). Fortunately, the
Council’s original denial of this classic pork barrel handout was
confirmed with a second denial by the Council, but the misleading
title problem continues.</FONT></FONT></P>
<LI><P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0.14in"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman, serif"><FONT SIZE=3>Budget
amendment votes. They have no identifying number or tracking system
even for full, final Council action, and so are also nearly
impossible to find. Multi-million-dollar decisions become virtually
invisible to the voting public.</FONT></FONT></P>
</OL>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0.14in"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman, serif"><FONT SIZE=3>By
using detailed information from first hand press coverage of the
various sessions, activist leaders, and issue websites, we present
the substantively critical votes to document when our Councilmembers
showed their true positions on issues. It might have been an
amendment in committee, an amendment during full Council
consideration, or a final vote. When an illuminating vote is not
available and the only recorded vote was unanimous, the issue might
not be included unless the issue itself is of major importance. This
is not meant to be a comprehensive record of votes on an issue, but
to capture the political role played by our elected officials on an
issue for electoral visibility.</FONT></FONT></P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0.14in"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman, serif"><FONT SIZE=3><B>Explanation
of votes</B></FONT></FONT></P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0.14in"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman, serif"><FONT SIZE=3>The
votes chosen for this scorecard include issues that were considered
important by progressive leaders because of their impact on the
county’s environment, communities, individual rights, sustainable
economy, and our core values of justice, freedom, equality, and
transparency.</FONT></FONT></P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0.14in"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman, serif"><FONT SIZE=3>Each
Councilmember’s score is the correct number of desired votes
(“desired vote” is explained at the bottom of each bill’s
description), divided by the number of votes that particular member
voted. If a committee vote is included, then members not on that
committee do not have that vote counted for or against them. If a
member abstained or was absent for a critical vote, it is counted
against them unless they were absent for a significant personal
reason, since their job is to vote even if difficult, and not avoid
that responsibility by absenting themselves from the room. If a
member was not on the Council at the time of the vote, the entry is
Not Applicable, and the votes is not counted for or against them.</FONT></FONT></P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0.14in"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman, serif"><FONT SIZE=3><B>Please
use this software!! Copyright information</B></FONT></FONT></P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0.14in"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman, serif"><FONT SIZE=3>This
scorecard is copyrighted but free public use is encouraged under the
terms of the GNU Affero GPL, in accordance with the Green Party
position supporting open source software. The software is
copyrighted by John Holland, Dan Robinson, and Nancy Wallace. It is
intended to be usable easily by other organizations, with
instructions for configuration and data entry in the code. The code
is Free Software/open source, so it is</FONT></FONT></P>
<UL>
<LI><P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0.14in"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman, serif"><FONT SIZE=3>Available
for anyone to use</FONT></FONT></P>
<LI><P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0.14in"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman, serif"><FONT SIZE=3>available as source code</FONT></FONT></P>
<LI><P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0.14in"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman, serif"><FONT SIZE=3>Allowed to be modified and improved as long as the resulting product is also Free Software, available under the same terms</FONT></FONT></P>
<LI><P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0.14in"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman, serif"><FONT SIZE=3>Allowed to be redistributed as long as these terms and conditions are preserved</FONT></FONT></P>
</UL>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0.14in"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman, serif"><FONT SIZE=3>The
software package includes documentation.</FONT></FONT></P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0.14in"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman, serif"><FONT SIZE=3>The
source code is available via Git at
<A HREF="https://github.com/jholland-vin-dit/Scorecard">https://github.com/jholland-vin-dit/Scorecard</A></FONT></FONT></P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0.14in"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman, serif"><FONT SIZE=3>This
product is intended to spread accountability of elected officials to
their constituency, without charge. </FONT></FONT>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0.14in"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman, serif"><FONT SIZE=3><B>More
information and contact:</B></FONT></FONT></P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0.14in"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman, serif"><FONT SIZE=3>Please
contact the Montgomery County Green Party to request addition of
votes, to volunteer to help with the scorecard issue tracking, and
with any questions about the content of the votes:</FONT></FONT></P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0.14in"><A HREF="mailto:mocogreen@gmail.com"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman, serif"><FONT SIZE=3>mocogreens@gmail.com</FONT></FONT></A></P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0.14in"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman, serif"><FONT SIZE=3>For
more information and to help with the Montgomery County Green Party,
see:</FONT></FONT></P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0.14in"><A HREF="http://www.montgomerycountygreenparty.org/"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman, serif"><FONT SIZE=3>MontgomeryCountyGreenParty.org</FONT></FONT></A></P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0.14in"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman, serif"><FONT SIZE=3>The
final responsibility for the choice and accuracy on votes is with the
Green Party of Montgomery County, Maryland.</FONT></FONT></P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0.14in"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman, serif"><FONT SIZE=3><B>It’s
Your Government!</B></FONT></FONT></P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0.14in"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman, serif"><FONT SIZE=3>It’s
your government – you pay for it, you elect it, you live with its
decisions. Please use this scorecard to make all life better.</FONT></FONT></P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0.14in"><BR><BR>
</P>
</BODY>
</HTML>