CGS-authored
California's landmark stem cell research program has the potential to produce some Nobel Prize-winning science. But it doesn't win any prizes for how it handled its first two meetings.
The Independent Citizens Oversight Committee (ICOC), which alone will handle $3 billion of grants sanctioned by Proposition 71, skirted the state's public notice requirements and was forced to truncate its first gathering.
The ICOC's second meeting on Thursday wasn't much better. During the session, citizens raised concerns about open meetings, conflicts of interests and the oversight of $3 billion, but were largely ignored. This unwieldy, 29-member panel then proceeded to cede even more power to Robert Klein II, the Silicon Valley developer who wrote Proposition 71.
Along with serving as ICOC chair, Klein will now add interim president to his title, giving him more clout in picking staff, a permanent president and a headquarters for the newly formed California Institute of Regenerative Medicine.
To be sure, any new bureaucracy faces hurdles in getting started. The trouble is, this one is developing clone-like characteristics of Klein's nonprofit group, the California Research and...
The Independent Citizens Oversight Committee (ICOC), which alone will handle $3 billion of grants sanctioned by Proposition 71, skirted the state's public notice requirements and was forced to truncate its first gathering.
The ICOC's second meeting on Thursday wasn't much better. During the session, citizens raised concerns about open meetings, conflicts of interests and the oversight of $3 billion, but were largely ignored. This unwieldy, 29-member panel then proceeded to cede even more power to Robert Klein II, the Silicon Valley developer who wrote Proposition 71.
Along with serving as ICOC chair, Klein will now add interim president to his title, giving him more clout in picking staff, a permanent president and a headquarters for the newly formed California Institute of Regenerative Medicine.
To be sure, any new bureaucracy faces hurdles in getting started. The trouble is, this one is developing clone-like characteristics of Klein's nonprofit group, the California Research and...