Beyond the simple need for a citizen to review the legislation before it passes if the legislation were archived online with a operating status it would allow people like me who seem to always get contradicting statements from police offers regarding things (skateboarding is one that comes to mind) to actually get the real answers.
Or!
Would this take away city officials (police included) power of using city legislation for their benefit at their leisure?

Oh! I know! I know the answer!

Portland: The City that Works

An update, from Karla Moore-Love, the council clerk:

Yes, we're working on that process here in the Auditor's Office and hope to have the links available soon.

I sure hope it's soon. Scott was asking about more timely posting of council videos last fall, and was told "maybe by April." We're still waiting on that.

Amanda Fritz got a similar "we're working on it" response via Randy Leonard over a month ago, too. (http://www.amandafritz.com/node/715)

He informed me the Auditor's Office and Council Clerk have been working to add this capacity for some time, and hope to provide it very soon.

The Sit-Lie ordinance is on the Mayor's page of PortlandOnLine today, but not linked from the front page, so interested citizens looking for it would need to know the Mayor is in charge of the Police bureau. It even took me two guesses to find it - my first click was on the Auditor's page.

b!X stated calling for links on the Agenda literally years ago. I don't know what's taking so long - even I, a 49 year-old mother, can put links in my blog correctly 95% of the time.

Until the Auditor's office starts doing it, I'll keep putting as many links as I can find (in the time available) in my regular Next Up at City Council post, usually published late Friday or sometime on Saturday depending on how early the Agenda is posted on PortlandOnLine.

Doggonit Amanda... that's the end. Now I know EVERYONE in Portland is younger than I am. Poop.

What I was told, way back when, was that such functionality was awaiting a working status of "efiles", a system outof the Auditor's office.

Well, efiles exists and works. I've used it for other things over the past year.

At this point "soon" isn't good enough of an answer from the Auditor's office. They owe us more than that.

Oh, hah. Except, at the moment, efiles appears to be down.

This makes me so furious I want to shit my pants. Fucking bollocks. Arse!

And so begins my weekend wind-down...

I agree, b!X. I just sent this response:

Thanks for the update. In looking into this myself, though, I've learned that many people have gotten the same "soon" answer.

Blogger b!X says he was told ages ago "that such functionality was awaiting a working status of "efiles", a system outof the Auditor's office. Well, efiles exists and works. I've used it for other things over the past year. At this point 'soon' isn't good enough of an answer from the Auditor's office. They owe us more than that."

Amanda Fritz got Randy Leonard to look into it, and he reported back well over a month ago that it would be "soon."

So I have to ask—when is soon? What system is being put into place? If it's a matter of html links, it doesn't seem like it would take very long. But if it's a new system or process, I'd like to find out the details, like who's working on it (is it an in-house project, or is the IT Bureau putting it together? who's in charge of making sure it happens?), who called for the change, and what it might look like.

thanks!
Amy