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Californians Aware is, according to the notice on its web site, "a nonprofit organization [recently] established by Terry Francke, former general counsel of the California First Amendment Coalition, to help journalists and others keep Californians aware of what they need to know to hold government and other powerful institutions accountable for their actions. Its mission is to support and defend open government, an enquiring press and a citizenry free to exchange facts and opinions on public issues. In short, Californians Aware will be a center for information, guidance and initiatives in public forum law."

Mr. Francke spoke this afternoon with California Politics Today about the need for openness and transparency in the operations of the "Working Groups" that will be established to do the essential work involved in allocating the $3 billion provided under Proposition 71 for embryonic stem cell research, the construction of additional facilities in which to conduct that research, and the ethical and administrative standards to be used in the operations of these groups.

The Bagley-Keene Act is a provision in California law designed to ensure that the operations of government organizations, especially those with decision-making authority, are transparent and open to the public and its scrutiny.

Mr. Francke and his organization are working to ensure that this law, or something very like it, governs the operations of the Working Groups that will advise the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), operating under the direction of the Independent Citizens' Oversight Committee (ICOC), as established by Proposition 71, as to how the Institute should spend the $3 billion authorized by that initiative to be used to find cures for a wide range of terrible diseases through research with embryonic stem cells and other bio-medical means.

According to Mr. Francke, "The first order of business, I think, is to try to find out what the response is to the question or the urgent request we posed yesterday, that is, are they going to be prepared to put on their agenda for the next meeting a policy decision to impose rules like those of the Bagley-Keene Act upon the operations of these working groups."

Towards the end of the interview, which mostly dealt with ensuring openness and transparency in the operations of the Working Groups as an ethical imperative, there emerged an additional reason for conducting the work of these groups under the bright sunlight of public awareness, one that could be in the direct self-interest of the members of the ICOC. That justification was that if the Institute spends $3 billion in public money (which will cost at least $6 billion in taxpayer funds to provide) and DOESN'T find the cures that were promised as the basis of passing Proposition 71 in the first place, then the 29 independent citizens overseeing that expenditure will be better inoculated against after-the-fact criticism and recrimination than if the Working Groups are allowed to do their work in secret, as they are allowed to under a strict reading of the provisions written into Proposition 71 by its author or authors, whoever they actually are.

You can listen to the comments of Mr. Francke, founder and general counsel of Californians Aware, in their entirety by clicking here.

To access a closely-related interview with Center for Genetics and Society Program Director Jesse Reynolds, click on "Jesse Reynolds, Program Director at Center for Genetics and Society, calls for more openness and stronger conflict-of-interest rules for stem cell research Institute."