New South Florida politicians go to 'Good Government' boot camp

[ensho]

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/elections/mh-political-rookies-bootcamp-20110831,0,561163.story


In this school of sorts, the coursework features walking tours of inner-city neighborhoods, exercises on how to balance a mock municipal budget — and a guest speaker who has pleaded guilty to charges of extortion, perjury and public-meetings violations.

Welcome to the Good Government Initiative, an effort to improve the quality of leadership in corruption-plagued South Florida.

-snip-

The program's inaugural class began meeting last week. The group comprises 19 state lawmakers, county commissioners, city council and school board members in their first term or first four years in elected office in Miami-Dade, Broward, Monroe and Palm Beach counties. In eight sessions between August and November, they will cover a syllabus ranging from land use regulations to dealing with the media.

-snip-

Participants are charged $1,500 for the course, which can be paid by their government, from their campaign funds or out of their own pocket. The program also offers scholarships.

In their first session on Friday, the students lunched in the ballroom of the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Coral Gables with political veterans, including former U.S. Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart and Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Jennifer Bailey, who spoke candidly — a reporter was asked not to listen in — about life in public office. Many of the students were particularly attentive: An AT&T outage kept them from tending to text messages and emails.
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oh crap

[SpiralHawk]

1. Goo Goo

as .twas formerly mocked...Nothing new under the Sun.

"The goo-goos, or good government guys, were political groups founded in an era when urban municipal governments in the United States were dominated by machine politics.

"The term was first used in the 1890s by their detractors."

From wikipedia...

[Laelth]

2. Good idea. k&r n/t

-Laelth

[Turbineguy]

3. It's the end

of the world as we know it.

No corruption in Florida?