9:00am | Today will mark the inaugural Open Up Long Beach Community Meeting, an initiative started by Fifth District Councilmember Gerrie Schipske in an attempt to make government more “open, transparent[,] and collaborative with its residents.”

Following the Obama Administration’s dedication to “unprecedented levels of openness in Government,” Schispke feels that Long Beach, via her website and project, now has an opportunity to engage its residents on what can be done to truly make the City more diaphanous in its operations and structure.

Hope lies in the belief that such a process will not only encourage and ensure more citizen participation in local government but will spur creative, entrepreneurial businesses as it has done in several other cities such as New York’s recent “hack-a-thon” and Washington D.C.’s “unconference.” 

The first meeting of Open Up Long Beach will be held tonight at 6:30pm in the El Dorado Community Center at 2800 Studebaker Road. Participants will review what some other cities are doing to open their local governments and to brain- storm about what needs to be done in Long Beach. Plans for a CityCampLongBeach (Transparency Camp) will also be discussed.

The meeting and project is open to any resident of Long Beach. For more information, please contact the council office at: 562-570-6932 or log onto: www.openuplongbeach.com.

January 16, 7:30pm | Fifth District Councilwoman Gerrie Schipske released the following statement today:

Today, I am launching OpenUpLongBeach.com – a website and a project to make the City of Long Beach more open, transparent and collaborative with its residents.

From the White House with the ‘Open Government Initiative’ to  States and cities across the US, more and more levels of government understand the need to create an unprecedented level of openness, transparency and public participation to strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in government. Now Long Beach has an opportunity to engage its residents on what can be done to truly make the City the most open, transparent and collaborative local government in the US.

This process will not only encourage and ensure more citizen participation in local government but will spur creative, entrepreneurial businesses as it has done in several other cities where open government was launched. Readily accessible government data allows businesses to assess whether or not to locate here and/or to expand.

I was the first councilperson to publicly post my schedule and to provide city documents through my blog. I have also pushed for the City to open the collective bargaining process and to provide more data on the City website.

The first meeting of Open Up Long Beach will be held on Monday, February 6, at 6pm in the El Dorado Community Center. Participants will review what some other cities are doing to open their local governments and to brain- storm about what needs to be done in Long Beach. Plans for a CityCampLongBeach (Transparency Camp) will also be discussed.

The meeting and project is open to any resident of Long Beach. For more information, please contact my council office at: 562 570-6932 or log onto OpenUpLongBeach.com.

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