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Just to clarify a couple of points:

This proposed amendment requires two things:

1: Legislators are required to be physically present in their geographic district when they cast legislative votes

and

2: They must be at a location which is publicly accessible.

I specifically left out in the proposed amendment any method for accomplishing these requirements since that could bog us down in outdated technology in years to come.

What I envision is a publicly accessible local (in-district) office for each legislator which is equipped with two-way video and audio links to the capitol in Salem.

Constituents would have local acces to their legislator when the legislature is in session, and the legislator would participate in committee meetings and floor sessions exactly as they do now, but over a broadband link. Other legislative participants would have their video/audio available at each loation, so the public would essentially be 'in the room' with all participants.

This is not actually 'telecommuting' in the traditional sense of 'work from home', but more of a business 'net meeting'.

If the concern is not having enough 'face time' to interact with other legislators, this could be done by having intermittent meetings at the Capitol but only work sessions would be permitted. - No voting until they returned home and had fulfilled the local public access component.

The full 49-word text of the proposed amendment is

"Beginning no later than January 1, 2015 all sessions of the Legislative Assembly shall be held in such a manner that all voting members of the Legislative Assembly shall vote on Legislative Issues only while physically located at a publicly accessible place within the geographic district which they represent."

This is probably not something the legislature will do willingly themselves, so it is up to the citizens of the state to move this forward.

More information, signature sheets and instructions are available at OregonOpenLegislature.org (my apologies for the amateurish web site - it's not my thing)

posted 3 years, 6 months ago
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