There was old Odd Couple Show courtroom scene where Felix Unger expounded upon the dangers of “assuming.” I’d encourage you to watch it because it provides an important context for the premise of this post.
Most people may have some experience with the term “off the record” as it applies to the media. Presumably that
The purpose of this blog is not supposed to be political, its a forum to discuss ethics and government in Vermont. If you want politics, you can check out my political blog over at Sugaring Off. With that said, it’s important to discuss the ethical dilemmas (and the associated procedural and policy hurdles)
Right now the Burlington City Council is deciding whether it should sell Burlington’s homegrown telecom to either an experienced and highly-regarded Canadian corporation (which has offered $30.5 million) or a well-intentioned, but inexperienced and underfunded local group (which has offered $12 million). My VPR Commentary on the merits of the proceedings, can be found here
Democracy is messy. Democracy is hard. But Democracy is hardly messy enough to ask law enforcement to attend a public meeting except in the most extreme of circumstances. And those circumstances do exist from time to time, but from media reports, they didn’t seem to exist at the recent meeting held on Lake Carmi’s (pronounced
The Vermont Supreme Court just issued its long awaited opinion regarding public records in the 21st Century. As my 10th Grade history teacher was fond of saying, “Why do we go to the primary source? Because the primary source is primary.” (He also said “Why do we go to the map?…. The map tells us
The term transparency has become a hackneyed buzzword as it applies to government. The natural inference is that a transparent government, means an ethical government. But that begs the question, why can’t we just trust that government, made up of people with good intentions, will just do the right thing? Ultimately government is made up