Tuesday, March 15, 2011

CIRM Posts Key Information in More Timely Fashion

The California Stem Cell Report has grumped mightily about the lackdaisical posting of important public information about matters that are to come before the directors of the $3 billion California stem agency.

Today, however, we are pleased to report that CIRM performed much better in advance of last week's meeting. Agency staffers should take some pride in that accomplishment.

We are referring to the posting on the CIRM web site of information that provides background, justification, dollars and cents and more on the matters that the 29 directors must act on. Without that information well in advance of a governing board meeting, the public, scientists, biotech businesses and policy makers are basically shut out by CIRM.

Normally we try to follow the posting of the background information on a daily basis. However, we were at sea until Sunday March 6. When we logged on to the CIRM web site at that time, we were pleasantly surprised to find a passel of information for the March 10 meeting.

As we examined the documents, they appeared to have been posted primarily March 3 and 4. To double check, we asked Melissa King, executive director of the governing board, about the dates.

She replied,
"Most, if not all, of it was up by Friday, 3/4. I was pushing for that."
While not all the important information was there, such as CIRM Director Jeff Sheehy's proposal on the role of the chair, most of the major stuff was available to the California public and CIRM stakeholders. It represents a step forward for CIRM. We hope the effort will continue into the future.

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