Sad News: Center for Governmental Studies is Closing Its Doors

The following statement arrived via email:

CGS Statement of Tracy Westen and Bob Stern 

With some sadness, but with considerable pride in our accomplishments, we
are closing the Center for Governmental Studies’ offices after 28 years of
service in the public interest. The recession has depleted our funding, and
we cannot continue to operate CGS in its present form. The CGS board and
leadership have therefore reluctantly concluded that it is necessary to
close.


CEO Tracy Westen and President Bob Stern, along with several former CGS
staff members, will complete pending CGS projects and move on to other
ventures. Tracy plans to continue his work on governance reform and online
democracy. Bob expects to continue his work as an expert consultant, public
speaker and political commentator in governance issues.

We have many people to thank for their invaluable contributions: our
brilliant Chairman Emeritus, Rocco Siciliano, and current Chair, Stephen
Rountree, who together guided CGS over the past 28 years; our wise board of
directors, who volunteered many hours of time to support our efforts; our
talented staff and interns, many of whom have moved on to distinguished
careers; our many funders, who enabled us to contribute our creative
energies to the public interest; and countless elected officials, civic
organizations and citizens across the nation, who worked to implement our
recommendations. Some of our recent staff have found new positions; others
are seeking new and challenging opportunities; and many hope to continue
working in the broader public interest. (Our board, staff and funders are
listed at www.cgs.org.)

Tracy Westen and Bob Stern can be reached as follows:
·         Tracy Westen, Vice Chair and CEO: 
[email protected],
310-913-1395 (c)
·         Bob Stern, President, 
[email protected], 310-573-1889
(h), (310) 382-0904 (c)
Our CGS website (
www.cgs.org) can still be accessed, as can our
PolicyArchive (
www.policyarchive.org), Video Voter (www.videovoter.org) and
ConnectLA (
www.connectlahousing.org) websites. Our books and reports are
available for free downloading at 
www.cgs.org and www.policyarchive.org.

Over the years, we have been guided by a two-fold principle: that 21st
century democracy can only be improved by efforts both to reform the
underlying structures of government and to use new communications
technologies to inform citizens and help them participate in their
governments. To this end, CGS has researched and proposed governance
reforms and built new systems of online digital democracy. Focusing
initially on California, CGS has also used its expertise to advise state
and local governments across the nation.

Over almost three decades, CGS created a number of important projects:
·         California Commission on Campaign Financing, which
published landmark reports on California state, local and judicial
campaign financing, drafted the model laws which became Propositions
68 and 208 on the 1988 and 1996 state ballots, and published the most
comprehensive set of ballot initiative reforms in the nation.
·         California Citizens Budget Commission, which in 1995 and
1998 recommended dozens of state budget reforms, some of which have
now been enacted and some which are still being debated for
implementation.
·         California Citizens Commission on Higher Education, which
made important recommendations, now needed more than ever, for
solving California’s debilitating “boom-and-bust” cycle of funding
for higher education.
·         California Channel (
www.CalChannel.com), the nation’s
largest satellite-fed, public affairs cable television channel, now
serving close to six million homes with gavel-to-gavel coverage of
the state legislature’s floor sessions and committee hearings,
governor’s press conferences and occasional California supreme Court
oral arguments, and operated 24 hours a day by the California Cable
Television Association.
·         National Center on State and Local Campaign Finance Reform,
which published books, studies and charts on the public financing
laws of all the 50 states and numerous detailed reports on individual
state and local campaign financing systems.
·         Democracy Network, the nation’s first and largest online
source of candidate debates and voter information, which CGS
prototyped in 1994, launched in 1996, built a Spanish-language
version for Venezuela in 1998, installed in the nation’s first
digital cable network, Time Warner’s state-of-the-art “Full Service
Network in Orlando, Florida, partnered with AOL and 1998 and 2000 to
offer candidate information to millions of users, and operated in
partnership with the National League of Women Voters and
Grassroots.com through 2001.
·         PolicyArchive (
www.PolicyArchive.org), the world’s largest,
free, online source of public policy research, now providing instant
access to over 33,000 public policy documents.
·         Video Voter (
www.videovoter.org), a way for cities and
states to offer candidates and ballot measure committees free
opportunities to communicate their views to the public in
video-on-demand formats, via broadcast television, cable television,
YouTube (“centgov”) and the Internet —opportunities which New York
City, Los Angeles, Santa Monica and other cities now provide on a
continuing basis.
·         ConnectLA (
www.ConnectLAHousing.org), the nation’s first
website to provide low income communities with access to information
on affordable housing, jobs, healthcare and government services.
·         Digital Democracy (
www.digidem.org), an online prototype
for a new system of digital, citizen-to-elected official
communication.
·         HealthVote and CalHealthReform, websites operated in
partnership with the California HealthCare Foundation to inform
voters of legislative and ballot initiative measure developments in
healthcare.

In addition, CGS published over 70 books and reports on a wide range of
campaign finance and governance topics, including in-depth studies of laws
in California, Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, North Carolina
(judicial) and Wisconsin, as well as local governments Albuquerque, Los
Angeles (city and judicial), New York, Portland, San Francisco, Suffolk
County, New York, Tucson and 15 other local California jurisdictions. CGS
also administered the Council on Governmental Ethics Laws (COGEL),
pioneered the field of online campaign filing and disclosures, and proposed
innovative campaign finance reforms.

In other areas, CGS co-founded the Voting Studies Institute with USC to
develop verifiable voting systems, explored online ballot initiative
circulation, built websites for NextTen, LA Health Action and California
2000 and published a report, based on over 100 interviews, calling for the
creation of a new Sacramento Policy Center.

We are proud of this record. However, all good things must come to an end.
Happily, endings often have a way of becoming exciting beginnings.

Best wishes to you all, and thank you sincerely for your loyal support over
the years.

Tracy Westen                                     Bob Stern
Vice-Chair and CEO                           President

I have relied on CGS reports over the years, especially about the initiative process and about public financing.   I have also enjoyed working with Bob and Tracy on some projects, including some pro bono amicus briefs in the Supreme Court (including in McConnell v. FEC).  I wish them the best of luck on their new endeavors, and will miss the fine research produced by CGS.

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