Charles Halpern Letter to ICOC

Dear Members of the ICOC:

I reviewed the agenda for the January 6 meeting with concern and surprise. I find that the Bagley-Keene Open Meetings Act is still not being complied with and that the Committee is being invited to rush into the core of its work without having laid an appropriate foundation.

I write to encourage you to take charge of the mission of the Institute and to begin to function as a deliberative body, allowing due time for serious consideration of complex issues, with public involvement in the manner prescribed by California law.

I suggest that the ICOC take the following steps:

1. Clarify the scope of the program.

Though there is an unfortunate ambiguity in the intertwined provisions of Prop. 71, it is clear that the Institute for Regenerative Medicine is not limited to supporting embryonic stem cell research. It is authorized to support a broad range of medical research intended to cure or mitigate disease. How will the ICOC define the mandate? Will the construction grants that are likely to loom large in the first year's...