This topic was at the Housing Dept and covered Child Support Services and the new Housing Dept. There was so much information on this night that I was unable to keep notes because there were a lot of handouts. Hopefully I'll be able to link to them.

Some highlights:

* The Child Support services dept acts like a collection agency for parents who are owed child support. They are more effective at collection (current & arrears) than the California average and the National average. Pretty darn impressive. They server 14,500 clients a year, helping the clients get child support from a parent (usually a father) who owes that child support to the other parent. On average, family gets $3000 a year. Most of the clients are or have been on public assistance. There were a lot more numbers given, but I one important fact is that the money collected by this department often goes to pay back the welfare being received by the client, saving the state money. The CSS dept is mandated in every county in the country. They are going to be migrating to a centralized collection system where employers, etc can pay all the withheld paycheck money to a central system.

Week two was held in the Coyote Point Museum for Environmental Education. A great place to take the kids.

This session focus on the "Environmental Services Agency" (part 1). This agency should really be called "The Miscellaneous Civic Services Department". Notes follow:

* Marsha Raines, Director of Environmental Services - city-type services in one agency. Consists of weights & measures, animal control, UC Co-op extension, county fire (contracted to Cal Dept of Fire), Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO), county library system (11 smaller cities + unincorporated -- works with peninsula library system), parks rec & trails.

This year, I applied and was accepted to the 2005 Citizens's Academy, a set of 15 "classes" where folks in SMC can learn about county government by meeting and hearing from folks running various parts of county government.

I'm going to try to blog the notes I take each night to my blog, and this is the first entry for 08/23/05.

The first session was an introductory session, describing the county history and its political and organizational structure. We heard from the County Manager, the County Counsel, Supervisor Jerry Hill, as well as received short greetings from a number of other county department heads.

Today, I went on a visit to the California state capitol with a group from San Mateo County Democracy for America. The staff in both Assemblyman Ira Ruskin (my assemblyperson) and Assemblyman Gene Mullin helped us in arranging a visit to the assembly chambers to watch this morning's session, a tour of the capitol, and (not-so-brief) visits with the two assemblymen.

Apparently the word "tax" (not "new tax" or "higher tax" - just "tax") sends some Republicans into a hyperbolic fit of irrational indignation. Absurd. Its this sort of knee-jerk politics that screws up the budget process in California so badly.

My state senator, Joe Simitian has authored a bill which is intended to keep the state or any local government entity from using or issuing identity cards with contactless communication facilities that don't meet strict security standards. It also outlaws completely the use of contactless data communications for certain types of identity documents (e.g. drivers licenses) for a period of 3 years.

The bill has the support of EFF, ACLU, and a number of other organizations. It also has my support. Please visit EFF's Action Alert for SB 682. And if you are a fellow consituent of Joe Simitian, please do contact his office and express your appreciation!

Went to the California State Democratic Party Convention as an elected delegate from the 21st Assembly District. I blogged some initial thoughts on the San Mateo County DFA website about it. I was struck by how useful it was to analyze the convention and the political party process in general from a "social networks" perspective.

Tags: irv, electoral reform

I like IRV. Let me state that upfront. But I was thinking about its practical widespread adoption and I thought of two issues that I don't see an easy solution for. I'd like to hear answers to issues around recounts and aggregating votes across multiple election offices.

Tags: homeland security, terror

There's another great document on cryptome which is the result of a FOIA request:
A list of Homeland Security Operations Morning Briefs. Amazing stuff to see what our government finds threatening and worthwhile to report.

Does this sound just a little frightening (not for the reason the government seems to think its frightening):

3. (FOUO) NEW YORK: Suspicious Videotaping of Critical Infrastructure. According to concerned citizen reporting, on 1 November, on the Verrazzano Narrows Suspension Bridge, Staten Island, the concerned citizen observed subjects filming the bridge from a car. The driver was identified as a dark skinned male. The passenger place the video camera on the dash after being signaled to stop filming by the concerned citizen. (Call-In/JRIES, 1 Nov 04; HSOC 4193-04)

My name is Gabriel Wachob, and I was recently elected as a delegate to the California State Democratic Party Central Committee from the 21st Assembly District.

I am writing to strongly urge the DNC to elect Howard Dean as DNC Chair.

Howard Dean has demonstrated an ability not only to turn out an amazingly effective grassroots effort, and raise more money than any presidential challenger in a primary, he has shown that he is *still* committed to making the party succeed even after his own campaign ended.

No other primary contender put as much effort into making the Kerry/Edwards ticket succeed as did Dean.

Last saturday I was elected to the California Democratic Party State Central Committee. I'll be joining about 1500 other California democrats in shaping the party for the next two years.

I ran for and was elected to one of the 6 male delegates positions from the 21st Assembly District to the California Democratic Party State Central Committee. This means I'm going to the state convention for the next two years. A list of other Dean-supporters elected last Saturday is here.

What I want to hear from fellow bloggers is: what should my agenda be?