Candidates

Orange County Board of Commissioners

In 1994 CountyWatch reviewed the way the county commission conducts its business. Our recommendations were far reaching causing major changes to improve citizen communication with the commissioners. These recommendations included initiating re-broadcast of county commission meetings on the local cable company's local government channel. It also recommended the creation of a county lobbying ordinance requiring that lobbyists must register and record their presence and purpose when lobbying a county government representative. Since initially implemented the commissioners have seen the wisdom of this ordinance and have strengthened it. CountyWatch recommendations also resulted in the web posting of commissioner agendas and meeting minutes in a timely manner.

Gateway '01 Orange County School System Report

CountyWatch performed a detailed review of the way the Orange County School Board works with citizens. As a result of our findings we made a number of recommendations toward improving communication between the public and the school board. Almost all of these recommendations have now been implemented by the school board. These changes include: having a “welcoming” representative at the entrance to each school board meeting ensuring that agendas are available and that citizens understand the process to speak to the board during a meeting. Other changes included the posting of meeting agendas and minutes on the school board website and the recording and rebroadcast of school board meetings available on the local cable company government channel. All of these changes make it easier for citizens to get information and to communicate with school board members.

Gateway II Orange County School Board Additional Recommendations

Following our initial recommendations to the School Board, CountyWatch revisited how much progress the Orange County School Board had made 2 years later. The attached report summarized the status of all of our original recommendations. Most had been implemented. The few not yet implemented are discussed in detail in this follow-on report