COPs Program

The Citizens' Oversight Panels (COPs) are an organizational structure designed to empower the citizen to take control of a huge government that is seriously out of control. Even those responsible for understanding what these bodies are doing are overwhelmed by the sheer immensity of the problem. However, with citizen volunteers, we can turn an intractable problem into a managable one.

As a COPs panelist, you will become a fixture at the meetings of a particular board, council, or other body, not to mention specific elected officials. We may also have panels that will oversee specific outsourced contracts, work that would normally be done by governmental institutions, but for some reason contracted out to the lowest bidder, or perhaps to a friend or campaign contributor, you know how it works.

Being a panelist is not an endorsement by the Club, or the Democratic Party of San Diego County. However, panelists who complete their term of service may list it on their resume and in any election materials. As you can imagine, being on the Citizens' Oversight Panel for a particular body will be a huge asset when going into an election against an entrenched incumbent.

This oversight responsibility was well recognized as crucial to our democracy, and was originally called the "Council of Censors". Please see the following website for the historical documents with regard to this organ of our historical founding fathers: http://www.councilofcensorspa.org/

The framers of the 1776 Pennsylvania constitution did not trust solely to "a mere demarcation on parchment of the constitutional limits of the several departments of government" to protect the people against oppression and tyranny. They introduced a special organ of government for this purpose, called the council of censors. The censors were charged with the duties of inquiring whether the constitution had been preserved inviolate, and whether the government had performed their duties properly without assuming unconstitutional powers. They were also to inquire whether the public taxes had been justly levied and collected, in what manner they had been spent, and whether the laws had been duly executed. They were empowered to send for persons, papers, and records, to pass public censures, to order impeachments, and to recommend to the legislature the repeal of such laws as should appear to them to have been enacted contrary to the principles of the constitution. Furthermore, they were empowered to call by a two-thirds vote a constitutional convention to amend any article of the constitution which might be defective, explain such as might be thought not clearly expressed, and add such as might be necessary for the preservation of the rights and happiness of the people.

If you have any further questions, please call Raymond Lutz directly, at 619-820-5321.

• Which boards and councils are we considering? See Our Region for a start. We are still working on this list, so if you have a body you think is important, we are interested!
  • El Cajon City Council
    • Cops ECPAC
    • Cops Safety Center
  • Department of Planning and Land Use
    • Blackwater Potrero
• Brochure you can help distribute to promote COPs: COPSBrochure.pdf
• Article on COPs in East County Californian: News Article ECC011107
• COPs Rationale Document: COPs_Proposal_V2.rtf
• News Release: COPS to Police Local Govt. NewsRelease1-06-07-FINAL.doc; NewsRelease1-06-07-FINAL.pdf
• Application to become a panelist: PanelistQuestionnaire.doc; PanelistQuestionnaire.pdf

Resources

• http://www.nfoic.org - The National Freedom of Information Coalition -- has summaries of laws in all states with regard to access of documents.
• The organization Californians Aware (http://www.calaware.org) is focused on making sure governmental agencies comply with the Brown Act, the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), and the California Public Records Act (CPRA). They will be excellent partners as we move forward in our citizens' oversight.
  • Calaware recently performed audits of law enforcement agencies and found that they performed very poorly in terms of releasing information that is available to the public by law. See Calaware Law Enforcement Audit Report
• California First Amendment Coalition: http://www.cfac.org
• California Government Code: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/calawquery?codesection=gov

• Laws regulating meetings and information disclosure
  • The Brown Act - regulates how meetings are run, public notice, no outside meetings, etc.
    • Closed Session Details - When are closed sessions allowed, and how are they to be conducted.
  • California Public Records Act - requires the disclosure of information from public agencies and bodies.
    • CPRAon Law Enforcement Records - If you need to request law enforcement records, what is allowed.
  • First Amendment
    • Top10_FirstAmendment.pdf: Top ten points on First Amendment rights
  • Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
    • FOIA as amended in 1996: http://www.usdoj.gov/oip/foia_updates/Vol_XVII_4/page2.htm
    • How to make a FOIA Request: http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20060313/news_1m13howto1.html
• Public Citizen is an excellent resource for tracking federal congressional members.
  • Congressional scorecard
• CALPIRG is an excellent resource for tracking California legislative members. It also scores Federal Senate and House records.
• http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/ - Official legislative action page.
• http://www.agacgfm.org - Association of Governmental Accountants promotes an initiative for citizen-centric reporting.
• The Nation provides issues tracking: http://capwiz.com/thenation/issues/

• District Attorney of the County of San Diego, Bonnie Dumanis
  • Special Operations Division, Public Integrity Unit: 619-531-4051
    • Leon Schorr - Talked on the Phone.
    • Mr. O'Toole
• Are speakers from the public required to provide their name and address in order to speak?
  • I asked this question to the State Attorney General's office, and I received a call from Ted Prim. He said that his office informally advises the public that members of the public do NOT need to identify themselves or provide their address. He said that to get an official written opinion on this issue would require a request by a member of the assembly or senate and then it would take six months to complete.

• Dunn & Bradstreet run a website called the Selectory ( http://www.selectory.com ) the has a powerful search tool for parent companies and their subs in North America (including Mexico & Canada). An alternative site is http://www.referenceusa.com . both require paid memberships, but could prove an invaluable tool for researching board members and their spiderweb of affiliations.

COPs Projects And Citations

• Government Access Channel
• Valle De Oro CPG
• Potrero Planning Group
• Bechtel In Monroeville - War profiteer Bechtel invades Monroeville in spite of public outcry. They came to us for ideas to resist the takeover.
• Blackwater Potrero - With fierce public opposition, Blackwater pulled out! WE WON!
• Blackwater Otay - Blackwater's secret facility in Otay Mesa -- We blew the whistle!

COPs Administration Notes

• COPs Video Squads - notes for logistics of creating video of governmental meetings.

-- Raymond Lutz - 07 Jan 2007