While looking up the contact info for some of the current supervisors, I came across some info that I didn't realize was so readily available on SFGOV. I'm not sure how recently some of this has been added – maybe it was a while ago and I just didn't know about it – but I was favorably surprised by the level of useful detail about the Supervisors' voting records.
Here is the main page that lists members of the Board of Supervisors by district with their contact information:
http://sfbos.org/roster-members
Now click on "your" Supervisor's photo. In my case, living in District 8, it's Supervisor Jeff Sheehy. Clicking on his photo takes you to this page:
http://sfbos.org/supervisor-sheehy-district-8
Now, scroll down to the heading "Additional Information", and under it, click on "See my legislative history", and it takes you to this page:
From that link, you can readily see the following:
• How many pieces of legislation Sheehy has sponsored, and their descriptions
• A description of every piece of legislation he's voted on, and how he voted
• The type of each piece of legislation (resolution, ordinance, hearing, or motion, from what I see at a glance)
• The history of each piece of legislation (dates it went before various committees, what its final outcome was, etc.)
• In some cases, a link to the video showing the particular part of the relevant meeting where that item was discussed and voted on, including public comments if there were any
This is some pretty useful and well-organized information. It would be interesting to know to what extent this increased transparency is leading to more people paying attention to what happens at Board meetings. I suspect it may have something to do with the press mention I got after testifying in public comment last Tuesday, as well as a representative of the campaign against the flavored tobacco ban (I'm going to meet with him on Monday). Not that similar press coverage and contacts never occurred before, or are guaranteed to happen now, but it may be that going to Board meetings and speaking is now a more effective means of activism than ever. Not mainly as a means of lobbying the supervisors, but as a means of visibility and communicating the libertarian message to the public.
It could be both a fun and an educational meeting activity to go down the list of legislation sponsored by each Supervisor and assign each of their measures a letter grade, then periodically publish overall grades of their respective legislative records in terms of legislation introduced (I say introduced rather than voted on, because the Supes vote on many more items than they introduce, and the number of votes would make evaluating all of them a much more prohibitively time-consuming exercise). For instance, newly elected (Nov. 2016) District 9 Supervisor Hillary Ronen has already during her less than a year in office sponsored 92 pieces of legislation, but meanwhile has cast over 1,000 votes.
Love & Liberty,
((( starchild )))