* The synopsis for SB 1647…

Amends the Judicial Privacy Act. Provides that “judicial officer” includes retired justices and judges. Effective immediately.

Senate Floor Amendment No. 1
Provides that “judicial officer” includes actively employed and former or deceased justices and judges (rather than actively employed and retired justices and judges)

The bill passed the Senate unanimously and is heading for a House committee hearing tomorrow.

* But check out who “lists” themselves as “opponents” on the GA’s Dashboard system…

I’m kinda thinking that wouldn’t have happened under the old paper system since signing the names of legislators would be considered forgery and it would be fairly simple to catch and prosecute violators.

And it also makes me wonder how many other electronically filed witness slips may be forgeries.

* So, perhaps Cook County should keep this in mind…

The Cook County Board of Commissioners is considering an ordinance that could transform access to and transparency of the legislative process in local government.

It’s a brief proposal, but it could mean dramatically heightened public access to one of the largest units of local government in the nation.

Ordinance 17-3293, introduced by Commissioner Larry Suffredin representing the County’s North Side 13th District, puts in motion the development of an online “witness slipping” system. Such a system would allow Cook County residents and advocacy organizations to easily weigh in on pending legislation as it moves through committee by registering their opinion and perhaps providing online testimony on specific pieces of legislation.

       

9 Comments - SAP - Monday, May 15, 17 @ 10:24 am: Looks like they need some sort of password system for the witness slips - Rocky Rosi - Monday, May 15, 17 @ 10:33 am: Larry is a good man and very smart but this is grandstanding. Food for thought, add all the names of lobbyist meeting with politicians and topics discussed on the Internet for the public to see. - Rod - Monday, May 15, 17 @ 10:50 am: I think the overwhelming number of slips submitted on bills in committee are legitimate. Generally they do reflect the mobilized sentiment of the public on a variety of issues. An example of this would be HB 2541/SB1657 the Gun Dealer Licensing Act bill. In every situation when this bill was going to go before committee massive slip postings in opposition to the bill were filed and numerous ones in favor by supporters of the bill for the vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee. Groups like the Illinois Firearms Manufacturers Association (IFMA), or even owners of various gun stores slipped in opposition as did Chicagoland chapter of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence in favor of the bill. I would call the electronic slip process democracy in action. - winners and losers - Monday, May 15, 17 @ 10:51 am: Remember when House Bill 2808 (changing all of the Illinois school funding formulas) passed House committee, the Chair stated there were NO witness slips. This was because HB 2808 was not posted to the Committee for hearing that day, so all of the witness slips filed previously on HB 2808 just disappeared. So the fact that over 20 times as many people filed witness slips opposed to HB 2808 as compared to those in favor, suddenly there were NO witness slips. Almost no one knew about the hearing where the Committee vote on HB 2808 took place so no one testified against it (or even raised any doubts about it). - Exhausted - Monday, May 15, 17 @ 11:24 am: Clicked on the picture link and landed on the SB1657 witness slips; copy and pasted proponents and opponents into Excel and the numbers are funny, unless I just don’t understand this witness slip stuff. Of 10,736 names, 815 were exact duplicates, spelled exactly the same. This would not take in to consideration J. Smith and John Smith as the same, so potentially I quite a few more exist. 26 on the list were confused or having technical difficulties, signing on both for and against sides. Those 26 made up 62 of the names. The top multiple listings were 21 names making up 133 votes/listings or whatever the term is. 66 proponents and 67 opponents, ironically. One name is listed 13 times, all opposing. These “game players” destined to “win” are really destroying the system, in my opinion. - Anonymous - Monday, May 15, 17 @ 11:36 am: The bigger problem with online witness slips is that they are allowed to be filed by people who do not live in Illinois or have any standing to be filing slips on particular issues. - crazybleedingheart - Monday, May 15, 17 @ 1:05 pm: ==people who do not live in Illinois or have any standing to be filing slips on particular issues.== Hope that “or” was intended as an “and.” - Anon 123 - Monday, May 15, 17 @ 3:27 pm: Illinois residency has never been a criteria for appearing as a witness or registering a position on any bill before the Illinois General Assembly. - Anon 123 - Monday, May 15, 17 @ 3:33 pm: Nor is it in any other state legislative body that I have lobbied. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.