Got back to Mississauga and returned to a pile of Freedom of Information (FOI) results in my mailbox. Another arrived the next day. All of which leads us to New Year's Resolution #4 --"Investigation 2008".
MISSISSAUGAWATCH is expanding its Freedom of Information inquiries into other municipalties.
In a previous Blog, we wrote:
"Plans for MISSISSAUGAWATCH.ca are ambitious. One of the first things we hope to accomplish is the design of an Ontario Municipal Government Rating Scale (think Homeland Security's Advisory System --similar to the American "color-coded terrorism threat advisory scale.")."
We've designed a Citizen-Probe consisting of a series of Freedom of Information requests (10 to 12 FOI forms $50 to $60 range) with key questions regarding a local government's "bedside manner".
We designed it, now we refine it. Then we'll report using our also-designed...
ONTARIO MUNICIPAL RATING SCALE
As of this afternoon, MISSISSAUGAWATCH phoned The City of Mississauga plus four other Ontario municipalities and one city hall in another province. These five Canadian municipalities will join Mississauga as local governments being researched and FOI'ed.
With the news of a tragic shooting at the Kirkwood (Missouri) City Hall last week, I decided to include this American local government as well. I'm reluctant but I can't ignore this one. You see it's entirely possible that the Media-itself didn't bother to FOI and go beyond the usual reporting of "He said-she saids" and the government line.
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION --MUNICIPAL MIRROR
This is what I investigated today: whether a citizen could send a municipality's Freedom of Information forms to their FOI Department over the Internet (like --who wants snail-mail?) AND whether I could pay over the phone by giving them my Visa number (like --who wants snail-mail?).
Bottomline, I was testing what acrobatics a citizen had to go through to drop down an FOI in these Subject-Municipalities. Here goes.
Ontario Municipality 1 --
- The Freedom of Information form was online at their website. (CHECK)
- "Contact Us" had a toll free line for citizens all over Canada to call. (CHECK)
- You could pay by Visa over the phone. (NO. SNAIL-MAIL only)
Ontario Municipality 2 --
- The Freedom of Information form was online at their website. (CHECK)
- "Contact Us" had a toll free line for citizens all over Canada to call. (NO. My nickel.)
- You could pay by Visa over the phone. (They weren't sure)
Ontario Municipality 3 --
- The Freedom of Information form was online at their website. (CHECK)
- "Contact Us" had a toll free line for citizens all over Canada to call. (CHECK)
- You could pay by Visa over the phone. (CHECK)
Ontario Municipality 4 --
- The Freedom of Information form was online at their website. (NO)
- "Contact Us" had a toll free line for citizens all over Canada to call. (NO)
- You could pay by Visa over the phone. (NO. SNAIL-MAIL only)
MISSISSAUGA -- 5
- The Freedom of Information form was online at their website. (YES)
- "Contact Us" had a toll free line for citizens all over Canada to call. (NO)
- You could pay by Visa over the phone. (I'm to call back tomorrow...)
Non-Ontario (Canadian) Municipality --
- The Freedom of Information form was online at their website. (YES)
- "Contact Us" had a toll free line for citizens all over Canada to call. (NO)
- You could pay by Visa over the phone. (FREEDOM OF INFORMATION is FREE!)
American Municipality --Kirkwood, Missouri.
- The Freedom of Information form was online at their website. (NO)
- "Contact Us" had a toll free line for citizens all over the U.S. to call. (NO)
- You could pay by Visa over the phone. (I can't bear to contact them right now. They need time to mourn.)
So. I guess that's it...
BEWARE BEWARE BEWARE (Did I mention "BEWARE"?)
One vital point for citizens wanting or needing to know about their local government.
Beware. A couple of the above municipalities invited citizens to first see if their questions could be answered "informally" simply by asking Staff. The websites encouraged citizens to direct their questions to the appropriate City Department before going the FOI route.
Let me ask readers something. If your question was "Is my local government an evil empire?" and you raised it informally to the "appropriate" city department, ya think you'd get a "Kudos! You got us!" as your answer?
Last bit of advice... RED-ALERT when the word "appropriate" creeps off a government's communication and embeds itself into your eyeballs, FOI their use of "appropriate" PLUS the entire paragraph around it. You're welcome.
MOVING SOUTHWARD --MAUI POLICE CARS
For anyone reading down this far, first congrats on your attention span. Next. I've gotten enthusiastic feedback on my pics of Maui Police cars. So I thought that I'd share actual video of the Maui Police vehicles at the Lahaina Civic Center on February 6, 2008.
(Click here to surf directly to the clip on Google Video --or YouTube)
Signed,
The (It's almost a feeling you can touch in the air, You look all around you but nobody's there. It's been a long time now since you've been aware. That someone is watching you...) Mississauga Muse
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"The truth is that we, as a society - all of us - simply don't consider children very important. We talk a good game but we don't think kids are as important as other things, like fixing the roads." - Jim Paul Nevins (Ontario Court Judge October 4, 2001 report)
"We must employ every possible tactic to dissuade those who try to silence us with fear" ---The Mississauga News Editorial (2007-03-24)
Want (or worse, need) to learn more? Link to MISSISSAUGAWATCH.CA
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