Assemblymember Patty Berg has added a new, YouTube-style feature to her official Web site: two one-minute long videos in which she makes a case for two of her bills now before the state Senate.
“More and more of our public conversation happens online and in video,” Berg stated in a news release. “I want my bills to be a part of that conversation.”
Berg’s site, http://democrats.assembly.ca.gov/members/a01, also has a bill search mechanism, links to various agencies, district information and several ways to contact the Democratic Assembly member from Eureka.
In short videos, she makes her arguments for Assembly Bill 682, related to HIV testing, and AB 64, which deals with disaster relief.
According to a news release, the Web site additions are part of Berg’s ongoing efforts to digitize and use technology to make government more transparent and more accessible.
Berg, who serves as chairperson of the Assembly Aging and Long-Term Care Committee, often jokes about the difficulty she has with technology, but remains committed to its use nonetheless.
Earlier this year, she mobilized a mass e-mailing effort to encourage North Coast residents to contact the California Transportation Committee to protest the loss of highway dollars for a long-delayed U.S. Highway 101 bypass project in Willits. The effort yielded “significant response,” the release notes, and the commission later voted to provide funding for the Willits project.
“There was a time when politicians shouted from the back of trains,” Berg stated. “We don’t know what the future will bring, but we know that right now the Internet is the place to be.” |