To:<\/p>\n
Sorin Oprescu, General Mayor of Bucharest Municipality<\/p>\n
The members of the General Council of Bucharest<\/p>\n
Honored Mr. Mayor and Ladies and Gentlemen Members of the General Council<\/p>\n
During the first meeting of the General Council of Bucharest in the 2012-2016 incumbency, we noted that these meetings were no longer open to the public. The signatories of the present letter consider that preparing a special room destined to watching Council meetings is not in the spirit of the law and principles of participative democracy, quite the contrary. Moreover, separating citizens from local elected representatives will have a major impact on direct communication between the two categories, the council meeting being one of the main occasions when citizens are able to take part in decision making regarding the city management.<\/p>\n
A group of citizens representing the Resource Center for Public Participation wanted to be part of this meeting on July 11, 2012, but was sent into another room, on another floor, in the building where the meeting took place. They were invited to watch the meeting on screens, to which the works were streamed through webcams. According to the media, the decision to place the public outside the Council meeting room is a result of the overcrowding, because a lot of space was claimed by a podium build especially for TV crews to install their camera tripods on.<\/p>\n
Although we appreciate the care of local authorities in Bucharest for the communication with media institutions, we must remind the Mayor and his General Councilors that this should not encumber over direct communication with the citizens. Assisting to a web stream cannot, under any circumstances, replace direct contact between citizens and their elected representatives for local administration.<\/p>\n
We remind that, according to Law no. 215-2001 on local public administration, Article 42, paragraph (1) \u201cMeetings of the local council are public.\u201d Participative democracy means, therefore, that the public shares the same room with its elected representatives in local administration. Also, Law no. 52\/2003 on transparency in local public administration decision-making defines the obligation for transparency in Article 3, paragraph (e) as \u201cthe obligation of public authorities to inform and submit to public debate all normative projects, to allow access to decision making and to minutes of public meetings\u201d, while in paragraph (i) it defines a public meeting as \u201cthe meeting of administration authorities that may be attended by any interested person\u201d<\/p>\n
We ask you therefore to allow unrestrained access and the participation of any interested person to the room hosting CGMB meetings \u2013 which, we must underline here, are public meetings \u2013 as well as the possibility for citizens to express their opinion on the projects under debate. In case the room is not large enough, the Bucharest City Hall must provide a sufficiently large venue for all those interested to fit in.<\/p>\n
The solution found by the City Hall, to send citizens into a different space than their representatives, is offensive and bound to create an even greater estrangement between local representatives and those who elected them. Taking into account the mandate of trust conferred by the electors, we trust that you will admit that this situation is in contradiction with the very spirit of participative democracy.<\/p>\n
For further information, please contact Oana Preda, CeRe (Resource Centre for Public Participation) oana@ce-re.ro , 0723 547 870; and Irina Zamfirescu, ActiveWatch \u2013 irina@mma.ro , 0727 736 572.<\/p>\n
Considerately,<\/p>\n
Mircea Toma, ActiveWatch
\nMar\u0163ian Constantin, the Civic Alliance
\nRaluca Munteanu, Arhiterra Association
\nNicolae R\u0103dulescu Dobrogea, Ecocivica Association
\nMircea Gheorghiu, Obor Tradesmen Front Association
\nMiruna T\u00eerc\u0103, Kommunitas Association
\nMihai Bumbe\u015f, Spiritual Militia Civic Movement
\nIoan T\u0103nase, National Association of Citizen Counseling Offices
\nDiana Olivia Hatneanu, The Association for the Defence of Human Rights in Romania \u2013 the Helsinki Committee
\nSeptimius P\u00e2rvu, Pro Democratia
\nRoxana Wring, ProDoMo
\nNicu\u015for Dan, Save Bucharest Association
\nLiviu Mihaiu, Save the Danube and Delta Association
\nBogdan P\u0103lici, Vira Association
\nViorel Micescu, Centras
\nRadu Nicolae, the Center for Legal Resources
\nOana Preda, the Resource Center for Public Participation \u2013 CeRe
\nIoana Av\u0103dani, the Center for Independent Journalism
\nCostel Popa, the Ecopolis Center for Sustainable Policies
\nSimona Adam, the Eruption Anti-Corruption Group
\nSuzana Dobre, Expert Forum
\nCristina Guseth, Freedom House
\nSerban Sturdza , Pro Patrimonio Foundation \u2013 Romania
\nGabriel Petrescu, Soros Foundation
\nLavinia Andrei, Terra Mileniul III Foundation
\nClaudia Pamfil, the Group for Local Development
\nVlad C\u0103tuna, Make a Point
\nSimona Popescu, Romanian Academic Society
\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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