----- Forwarded Message -----
From: John McMillan <mcmillanj@att.net>
To: State Senator Sarah Eckhardt 2020 <sarah.eckhardt@senate.texas.gov>; Center for Science In the Public Interest <cspi@cspinet.org>; Joe Biden <info@joebiden.com>; media@mjfortexas.com <media@mjfortexas.com>; yellowdog@txdemocrats.org <yellowdog@txdemocrats.org>; info@traviscountydemocrats.org <info@traviscountydemocrats.org>; webmaster@democrats.org <webmaster@democrats.org>
Sent: Wednesday, September 16, 2020, 08:18:52 PM CDT
Subject: 9-16-20 more ideas for you for possible new state laws in Texas
Children's Ombudsman Offices | Office of the Child Advocate
September 16, 2020
Dear State Senator Sarah Eckhardt,
This evening while pursuing research to find out which state agencies of Texas currently employ an ombudsman, an item National Conference of State Legislatures (see above link) appeared on my computer screen.
The above webpage states that the Texas Health and Human Services Commission employs a Children's Ombudsman.
This is the first time I have ever read that factual information about a "Children's Ombudsman" office of any state agency of Texas.
Senator Eckhardt, I would like to recommend that you ask the Texas Legislature to approve funding for additional promotion of the Children's Ombudsman office throughout our entire state, with a special emphasis on educating children, single-parent mothers, grandparents, and uncles and aunts around our state about the vital role held by that Children's Ombudsman office. Children, single-parent mothers, mothers, fathers, grandparents, and aunts and uncles could also be provided with a toll-free phone number for that office that they could carry in their wallet and use when needed.
I would also like to raise the question of whether you believe that the current Children's Ombudsman office in Texas is sufficient to address any and all issues that arise relating to services designed to serve children in our state.
The webpage from the National Conference of State Legislatures might offer you information about Children's Ombudsman offices of other states of the U.S. that possibly are more successful than Texas has been at helping to protect the legal and human rights of children and to ensure that children are adequately served by state agencies in their state.
Other points I would like to offer you in your noble role as State Senator for District 14 in our state:
---Do you believe there should be additional state agencies of Texas that employ an ombudsman who addresses complaints and concerns from Texan residents? I am posing this question because my quick googling effort this evening obtained information for me about only one state agency, the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, that has an ombudsman. I am sure there are many Texans who will give up on trying to have a dialogue with another state agency---the Texas Department of Public Safety law-enforcement agency, for instance---if they cannot find an e-mail address or phone number for a cited "Ombudsman" at that state agency.
---Do you believe there should be one official State of Texas "OMBUDSMAN.TEXAS.GOV" (or some similarly named) website that exclusively lists each and every one of the ombudsmen employed by any of the State-owned institutions or agencies, along with information about the role of each such ombudsman and contact information for each such ombudsman? That type of consolidated and focused website for Texans and others seeking to contact an ombudsman affiliated with a state agency would be very helpful.
--I hope you will be willing to contact an official of the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio who reportedly has opposed legalization of so-called "medical marijuana".
I am one law-abiding CONSERVATIVE-left-wing constituent of yours who is appalled by the insidious manner in which legalization of "medical" marijuana has been exploited by the "marijuana-community" of Austin and elsewhere to serve as a basis for decriminalizing marijuana production, sale, and consumption in our state.
I hope you will be willing to consider courageously sponsoring a new bill that eliminates ANY context in which a resident of Texas, regardless of whether they suffer from epilepsy or are citedly "terminally ill", is permitted to consume any quantity of marijuana under ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. I also urge you to please ask your staff whether the dozens of "hemp" products now available in chain supermarkets such as H.E.B. supermarkets of San Antonio, Texas, are also exacerbating the problem of an alarming apathy toward the pervasively injurious increased presence of marijuana and other related products and related industries in our state.
---I urge you to please sponsor a new bill that will require each and every county government and each and every city government in Texas to meet or exceed state-mandated minimal standards for e-mail-access accountability by any and all Texans, and any and all visitors to Texas. I noticed in a recent year that when I visited the website for Howard County, Texas, for instance, I was not able to find ANY e-mail address on any of that county government's webpages. To me, ALL Texan counties and ALL Texan municipalities should be accountable to taxpayers for offering e-mail-friendly official websites that make it very easy to directly send an e-mail to an official of that county government or city government.
The following "website" for the Howard County Clerk's office in Big Spring, Texas, provides only one total e-mail address for a county official:
Howard County Clerk's Office Texas
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That e-mail address is for their county clerk, Donna Wright: donna.wright@howardcountytx.com
When I googled "Howard County Commissioners", I was provided with yet another website that was very lacking in detailed factual information:
"Howard County Commissioner - Big Spring, TX (Address, Phone & Hours)
"Howard County Commissioner - Big Spring, TX (Address, Phone & Hours)
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I get the impression that some or many counties in our state attempt to save money by choosing not to sponsor an official and exclusive multi-department county government website containing contact information about each and every one of their county government departments and offices, along with e-mail and telephone contact information for each and every county government official in that county. This is very alarming to me, since it severely undermines that county government's ability to offer "transparency" to residents that fosters full civic involvement in their county by any and all residents of that county and other Texans.
---I forget whether I mentioned this to you before, but in your new role as a State Senator serving all residents of Travis and Bastrop counties and our entire state, you have a golden opportunity for helping to protect many thousands of Texans from the risk of their contracting heart disease.
You can do that by co-sponsoring or sponsor a new bill before the Texas Legislature that requires each and every company in our state that produces a food or beverage for sale in a store to eliminate high-fructose corn syrup from their list of ingredients:
6 Reasons Why High-Fructose Corn Syrup Is Bad for You
Senator Eckhardt, I hope that these tentative public-policy recommendations are helpful to you in your very influential new role as my and many others' duly-elected State Senator for District 14.
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Senator Eckhardt, I would also like to raise the public-policy issue of whether you as our new State Senator for Travis and Bastrop counties plan to sponsor a plan to reduce the risk of forest fires in Bastrop County (or anywhere else in our state) in the future. Is there anything the State Government of Texas and Texas Legislature can to to help prevent a FUTURE forest fire in Bastrop County, Texas, that is as disastrous as the most recent one was?
---Another issue I would like to call your attention to:
Should state law in Texas be strengthened to significantly REDUCE the number of occasions per year in which an emergency room physician or a law-enforcement agency Sex Crimes Unit or a trained sexual-assault forensic-exam nurse in our state is legally permitted by the State Government of Texas to decline to authorize or decline to provide a rape-evidence exam on a Texan resident or visitor to Texas who requests a forensic-swabs DNA-traces rape evidence exam on himself or herself?
It is possible, Senator Eckhardt, that other U.S. states currently offer greater legal protection for the legal right and human right of a self-identified rape victim (myself, for instance) to obtain an actual forensic medical-evidence rape-exam on himself or herself.
Best Wishes,
from north Austin resident and longstanding criminal-law complainant John Kevin McMillan.
My solo-occupancy efficiency-apartment-unit home address ever since June 21, 2019:
Pebble Creek Apartments, 8805 North Plaza Drive, Apt. 2418, Building 17, Austin, TX 78753.
Home phone: (512) 342-2295.
Cell phone: (512) 993-7305.
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John Kevin McMillan
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