#good-government — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #good-government, aggregated by home.social.
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Tonight the Thousand Oaks City Council unanimously approved its 2026 committee assignment roster.
Each councilmember represents your interests on a number of internal and external panels and commissions. These panels tie our city into regional, statewide, and national organizations where we meet colleagues, talk through issues of mutual concern, and learn of new solutions that directly benefit Thousand Oaks residents.
My assignments for the coming year include:
- Capital Facilities Committee (internal)
- Conejo Open Space Conservation Agency (COSCA)
- Clean Power Alliance (CPA, also serve on CPA’s Finance Committee)
- Ventura Council of Governments (VCOG)
- Ventura County Regional Energy Alliance (VCREA)
- Ventura Regional Sanitation District (VRSD, current chair)
- National League of Cities Energy, Environment, and Natural Resources Committee (NLC EENR)
- League of California Cities Environmental Quality Committee (Cal Cities EQ)
Most of the assignments are identical to last year’s. There are a few exceptions:
- Mayor pro tem Engler and I swapped positions on VCOG, where I now serve as primary delegate and he serves as alternate.
- Councilmember Gutierrez picks up new assignments: On the Ventura County Continuum of Care board; on NLC’s Finance, Administration, and Intergovernmental Relations Committee (FAIR); and on the board of Community Action of Ventura County (applied for and approved by the county Board of Supervisors).
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A quotation from Franklin Roosevelt
Government is competent when all who compose it work as trustees for the whole people. It can make constant progress when it keeps abreast of all the facts. It can obtain justified support and legitimate criticism when the people receive true information of all that government does.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945) American lawyer, politician, statesman, US President (1933-1945)
Speech (1937-01-20), Inaugural Address, Washington, D.C.More info about this quote: wist.info/roosevelt-franklin-d…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #fdr #franklinroosevelt #franklindroosevelt #franklindelanoroosevelt #democracy #facts #feedback #freepress #freedomofthepress #goodgovernment #governance #government #publicservice #publictrust #trustee #truth
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Ever see that classic horror movie where "The call is coming from inside the house"? Sometimes the ethics commissions themselves are trying to weaken campaign finance, lobbying, and conflict of interest laws. Read @ProPublica's article https://www.propublica.org/article/ethics-reform-legislation-blocked-statehouses
#CampaignFinance #GovernmentEthics #Lobbying #ConflictOfInterest #GoodGovernment #Advocacy #Politics
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Formerly uncontroversial take: It’s bad when an administration shuts down an investigation in which the border czar is on tape accepting a $50,000 cash bribe stuffed into a food bag.
The first article of impeachment of Richard Nixon during Watergate was for the exact same thing.
Two important differences: Back then conservatives cared about respect for established law, and Congressional Republicans had backbones.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/20/us/politics/tom-homan-fbi-trump.html?unlocked_article_code=1.n08.yC0T.ny9UERUCQ7QY&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/20/us/politics/tom-homan-fbi-trump.html?unlocked_article_code=1.n08.yC0T.ny9UERUCQ7QY&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
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A quotation from Herbert Hoover
The duty of public men in this Republic is to lead in standards of integrity — both in mind and money.
Dishonor in public life has a double poison. When people are dishonorable in private business, they injure only those with whom they deal or their own chances in the next world. But when there is a lack of honor in Government, the morals of the whole people are poisoned.
Some folks seem to think these are necessary evils in a free government. Or that it is smart politics. Those are deadly sleeping pills. No public man can be just a little crooked.Herbert Hoover (1874-1964) American engineer, bureaucrat, US President (1929-33)
Speech (1951-08-30), “Concerning Honor in Public Life,” Iowa Centennial Celebration, Des Moines, Iowa (radio broadcast)Sourcing, notes: wist.info/hoover-herbert/18705…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #herberthoover #badgovernment #cleverness #corruption #freegovernment #goodgovernment #government #graft #immorality #integrity #morality #necessaryevil #politics #publicfigure #publicservice #publicservant
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On a whim... I asked Google Image to tell me more about this, and got an AI reply:
#justice #GoodGovernment
Attributed to George Washington -
This seems exactly right....
On an historic courthouse in our nation's first Capitol... Etched in Stone:
"THE TRUE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE IS THE FIRMEST PILLAR OF GOOD GOVERNMENT"
#justice #government #GoodGovernment vs. #evil #TrumpVirus #tyranny #oligarchy #psychopathology #truth
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The effect of a good government is to make life more valuable, — of a bad one, to make it less valuable. We can afford that railroad, and all merely material stock, should lose some of its value, for that only compels us to live more simply and economically; but suppose that the value of life itself should be diminished!
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) American philosopher and writer
Speech (1854-07-04), “Slavery in Massachusetts,” Anti-Slavery Celebration, Framingham, MassachusettsSourcing, notes: wist.info/thoreau-henry-david/…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #thoreau #badgovernment #goodgovernment #government #humanlife #life #values
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In this webinar on missing people services provided by #CADepartmentOfJustice -- excellent and informative! Quarterly topics, sign up for the next one on Medi-Cal fraud and abuse.
#DOJ #RobBonta #GoodGovernment
https://oag.ca.gov/care/demystifying-the-doj -
Boom! #DemsDoingStuff all over the country. Get involved, we've got a long way to go.
#Democrats #Democracy #GoodGovernment #FightFascism -
kind of seems like a huge good government issue in a broligarchical age that america's financial disclosure forms top out at "more than $50 million"...
#HowardLutnick #Trump #DonaldTrump #corruption #uspol #uspolitics #broligarchy #broligarchs #finance #government #goodGovernment
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Thanks to my colleagues on the Thousand Oaks City Council for selecting me as mayor for the next year. As I said at tonight’s reorg meeting, it’s our duty on Council to ensure city government works for all residents.
And congratulations to Al Adam and Connie “Tie” Guttierez, sworn in tonight to the first councilmembers in city history to serve in districts.
I’ve appreciated the way Al Adam handled meetings in a fair and efficient way in the past year as mayor.
And I am thrilled to say Tie will now be my colleague as well as my friend.
Last but not least, congratulations to Mikey Taylor, the city's new mayor pro tem.
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Come to the City Council's annual reorganization meeting next Tuesday evening! Each year the Council selects a mayor and mayor pro tem for the coming year. This year's event also will see the swearing-in of new councilmember Connie "Tie" Guttierez. There will be a reception in the lobby afterward. All are welcome!
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To counter right-wing narratives about government, I think it's important to boost achievements of government workers, including government scientists.
USDA Agricultural Research Service's Yan Ping (Judy) Chen and Jay Evans received the 2024 People's Choice Award at the Service to America Awards tonight.
https://servicetoamericamedals.org/honorees/yan-ping-judy-chen-and-jay-d-evans/ #Bees #Entomology #Agriculture #GoodGovernment #Science
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Journalism is not extremism:
Russia’s prosecution of a journalist is alarming, and so is the use of ‘closed courts’
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/29/russian-journalist-who-covered-navalny-trials-jailed-on-extremism-charges
#AusPol #Journalism #GoodGovernment #ReportersSansFrontiers #Transparency #Accountability #Justice #FairAndDueProcess -
Someone in Kenosha was bored, in the best possible way...
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CW: Tiktok
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Thoughts for those who will be forced to discuss #fascism this #holiday. We must not ignore it.
Remember, you should not be trying to change the mind of the person you are talking to; their mind is like concrete, completely mixed and permanently set:-)
The goal is to point out the problems with their position to everyone around them, and there will be others listening.
That way you are helping to inoculate those people and stemming the spread of the #contagion. #democracy #goodGovernment -
I just have to say our local and state governments rock when it comes to elections and voting access.
Just got an email from the county clerk listing all the ballot drop boxes and polling places planned for fall 2024 and asking our input on whether there are underserved locations where there should be more polling places/drop boxes.
Add this to automatic delivery of mail ballots to every single registered voter. And it's almost like we're trying to make voting available to everyone...
https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/COBOULDER/bulletins/3652354
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It’s things like AirNow and weather.gov that remind me of an guy I knew from a cheeseshop. He used to be in the Navy, was responsible for the weather forecast. He liked to observe, “The National Weather Service isn’t trying to sell you anything.”
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Public officials should avoid direct financial ties to entities with business before them. This isn’t complicated.
#goodgovernment
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RT @unusual_whales
JUST IN: Another Congressman has reported trading during the banking crisis.Josh Gottheimer, part of the Financial Services committee, sold 15k in Silicon Valley Bank. $SIVB collapsed the next day.
Gottheimer also sold 30k in $SCHW, Charles Schwab Corp, on March 6 & March 14.
https://twitter.com/unusual_whales/status/1650604431581257759 -
There is a simple way for public officials to avoid even the appearance of a conflict with fossil-fuel corporations and other special interests:
Don’t have have direct financial ties to them in the first place. #goodgovernment
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RT @RAWitt2
Great Power w/o #Accountability => TyrannyTop public officials, from #SCOTUS to Congress, shouldn't hold individual stocks. Justices should be bound to a strict #ethics code & unseated for willful …
https://twitter.com/RAWitt2/status/1649597343644405762 -
Lawlessness has consequences. Every day Nigerians are coming out into the streets to protest the election. APC, uneasy about its soiled “victory,” is sounding shrill and desperate, as though still in campaign mode. It has accused the opposition party of treason, an unintelligent smear easily disproved but disquieting nonetheless, because false accusations are often used to justify malicious state actions.
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@John
#RoboDebtStuartRoberts #RobodebtCabinetSolidarity #ExcusesToLie #Robodebt #GoodGovernment #AusPol
Hypothetical: "And while a cabinet minister, bound by cabinet solidarity, all the options open to you in your reply to the question required you to knowingly lie to the Australian people?" -
https://techcrunch.com/2023/02/01/valuebase-backed-by-sam-altmans-hydrazine-raises-1-6-million-seed-round/ I’m excited to see better property valuation tech get funding. An upsetting amount of this work is still pen and paper today #taxreform #goodgovernment #realestate
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Public Comment on the Rainy River Watershed Withdrawal
https://twitter.com/lvgaldieri/status/1478795253108912128?s=20
My written comments ran to five pages, so instead of posting them here, I put them online as a PDF, which you can read here. I also made a three-minute comment in the live session hosted by the Bureau of Land Management and the US Forest Service this afternoon. My comments focus mainly on the story I’ve been pursuing for the past few years — a story of corruption. The first couple of paragraphs convey the general idea:
Federal lands in the Rainy River Watershed should be withdrawn from disposition under US mineral and geothermal leasing laws for the proposed initial twenty-year period, if not permanently. This is an overdue decision, grounded in science, economics, law, and environmental ethics.
Why, then, hasn’t it already happened? How did this withdrawal process, which started in 2017, go off track? Agency records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act show clearly that a foreign mining company, Antofagasta plc, acted to prevent the withdrawal; and from 2017-2021, members of Congress and the executive branch ran political interference on its behalf. Decisions taken behind closed doors during that period served foreign private interests, not the American public interest. The agencies now have an opportunity to rectify the situation.
I end with three recommendations:
The announcement on October 20, 2021, that the Biden administration will complete the “science-based environmental analysis” was encouraging. Given all the political interference, the two-year study really ought to have been started all over again, from scratch, in the interest of scientific integrity. At the very least, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack should release – unredacted — the preliminary findings of the canceled two-year scientific study, so that they can be compared with the new and complete analysis.
As agencies work toward a science-based decision on the twenty-year withdrawal, they also need to take additional steps to restore public confidence and guard against undue influence. As a first step, the USDA Inspector General could review Secretary Perdue’s decision to cancel the 2017 withdrawal process and report on scientific independence, ethical conduct, and political interference at the agency.
Finally, the agencies can help raise standards. Industry repeatedly assures us that non-ferrous mining in the Rainy River Watershed and elsewhere can be done “responsibly,” and there are a growing number of calls, from Congress and from within the Biden administration, for “responsible mining” for the transition to renewables. How should government respond? Rigorous and practical guidance for agencies on the law and ethics as well as the technical and scientific aspects of “responsible mining” would be a good start.
Here is a recording of my three-minute live comment, which tracks all this pretty closely. Video is cued to the mark.
https://youtu.be/jThQgcFySC8?t=8859
#BoundaryWaters #corruption #environmentalEthics #ethics #ethicsOfMining #goodGovernment #governmentFailure #Water