Open Government to the People
- The City will make public (published on the Internet and through other convenient media for public review) a manual for citizens, business owners, and school children/parents to explain how to interact with government for activities such as: putting out trash; securing a business privelege license; applying for school transfers; and obtaining permits for park and recreation purposes (e.g. picnics, ball fields, etc.). These manuals should be translated into non-English languages.
- The City will make public (published on the Internet and through other convenient media for public review), in a timely manner, agency regulations, Executive Orders, proposed bills and City Solicitor opinions so these important documents can receive public scrutiny and comment.
- The City will competitively bid all contracts (except for sole-source contracts and emergency contracts) to help eliminate "Pay-to-Play" in Philadelphia. All non-competitively bid contracts must receive exemption approval from the Philadelphia Board of Ethics. Professional service contracts associated with debt financings should be competitively bid unless the Treasurer and City Controller certify to City Council and the Board of Ethics that a specific negotiated professional service agreement with a specific provider is in the best financial interest of the City due to a specified complexity, novelty or timing constraint involved in a proposed financing.
- The City will require that any nonprofit that receives direct or indirect funding from the City to disclose publicly an accounting of its expenditures for the previous fiscal year and a budget projecting expenditures for the current fiscal year. The City cannot provide grants to non-profits unless there was a competitive, open, publicized bidding process for those grants. All such grants must be awarded using objective standards and a Board comprised of non-profit leaders that have never received grants from the City.
- The City will create, vis a vis the Office of the Managing Director, a customer service commission that will survey residents who have sought help from city agencies. A baseline poll will determine current levels of customer satisfaction. If 5% increases in customer satisfaction are not met in two out of four quarters of any given year (for a minimum increase of 10 percentage points per year) until a 90% satisfaction rating is achieved, management and staff will be fined, demoted, or fired.
- The City will work with private foundations and non-profit organizations to ensure that a Philadelphia print newspaper of record will always be published daily and available to the voters of Philadelphia regardless of profit margins. The City will publish important public notices in free newspapers or community newspapers to ensure all residents have access to public information, not just the well-to-do.
- The city will establish or update its open records law, such that the actions, meetings and records of all city governmental entities, boards and commissions, whether appointed or elected, are open to the public, and that complete access to all records, financial and otherwise, are provided to the public.
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A Philadelphia Print Newspaper ?
The City should not be in the newspaper business. I know that point does not say that specifically, but the way that medium is going, such an open ended commitment will put it there eventually. The publisher of the NYT has said he doesn't know if there will be a print version published in five years. (there's no study that says those without internet access are buying and reading newspapers)
The focus on free and community papers is good. Perhaps adding a statement that the city will continually evaluate the media it uses to disseminate public notices, etc., to adapt to changing public usage would suffice.
Competitive Bidding
Suggest that all bids for city services should be competitive except when its less than $10,000 (otherwise, bids will need to go out for staples and pens, not a good way to spend time). The feds set a threshold; I think its ok for one to be set for the city.
...but no caps on professional contracts
Good idea to have a threshhold for bidding for goods, but it shouldn't apply to professional service engagements, even if below $10,000. Too many "cousins, uncles and nephews" end up being hired for relatively small amounts and don't provide any real value to the City.
All professional service contracts should be let based on some sort of competitive RFP or RFQ process (price being one factor, but expereinece and expertise also factoring into the decision) unless the services are required for a transaction that features novel, unique, and/or unusually complex issues or faces some sort of unprecendented timing urgency such that a competitive RFP/RFQ process would not be in the City's best interest.
transparent voting process
The city shall get rid of the secretive black box voting process on the Danaher electronic voting machines, which have proprietary software, don't have proper certification, security from hackers and fraud, frequently hang up causing long lines at the poll, are run by corporations who influence politicians and election commissioners into buying these unreliable, very expensive devices. They are very costly to maintain, upgrade, store, etc. Many states have gotten rid of these machines, in favor of paper ballots (run thru an optical scanner) which can be verified by the voter, audited, and used for a proper recount if necessary. (Note that Chester County was able to do a recount of a very close election because of paper ballots.)
career politicians
political positions to be held up to a ten year term. This includes Council Persons. Their staff may have a max period up to 5 years. Fresh ideas to attract modern people.
Career Politicians
Absolutely. There needs to be term limits on the tenure of Councilpeople. We do it for the Mayor, why should the folks down the hall not be held to the same standard?
Perfect Statement. The
Perfect Statement. The leaders of this city are getting older and haven't had any fresh ideas to move this city or allowed it's citizens through their legislation decissions forward in decades. We need new leaderhip to fesh ideas.