Dorie Gallagher said: "...I would also like to see the attorney and lobbyist paided only for invoiced hours of work as needed and not on a yearly contract. Those invoices should be public record clearly stating what is being billed and I totally agree that citizen participation is needed in all areas of operation."
Having watched a lot of contract lobbyists at the legislature, I've seen that it's a lot different kind of work than, say, lobbying at the city council. At city hall, there are appointments and business hours, where billing by the hour is reasonable. At the capitol, the day goes from early in the morning till the last one goes home the next morning. There are some appointments that can be made, but a lobbyist spends most of his/her day hanging around, picking up comments and trends and rumors. Meetings might be catch-as-catch-can, in the hallways, walking from hearing room to hearing room. In walking from capitol to state office building, some amount of work goes on in the tunnel under the street. During conference committees, lobbyists are there, just waiting to see what happens and being ready for whatever questions may be tossed out by the conferees. So how does someone go back to the office and reconstruct the day in terms of hours or minutes worked? It's all work for them during that time, not just a face-to-face with an elected official or staffer. It's reading and writing and strategizing and listening and talking and who knows what else. Hence, the contract, not a billing by hour. I would suspect, however, that contracts have a "not to exceed" section. Probably in days gone by, they were open-ended, but I would imagine that has changed. That is totally reasonable, since if the work is that much more than anticipated and approved, the contract lobbyist would need to go back to the client for discussion and approval to continue. An example might be if the legislature goes to a special session, and park board issues would be on the agenda in the special. linda higgins old highland senator, district 58 REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
