This month I was going to talk about the housing needs, statistics, trends both local and national, and the new demographic data that has come out of the 2020 Census. Well, the 2020 Census data has not yet been published and then I received a very special email yesterday. An email that contains a YouTube Link and an Excel Spreadsheet. The Excel Spreadsheet just could change the way we interact with our State Legislature. The video and the Excel spreadsheets were developed by State House Representative Logan Phillips. House Dist. 24, Okmulgee, Okfuskee and Hughes Counties. Logan’s work has made it a real no-brainer to track every piece of legislation coming out of our State Capital.
As many of you know, economic development (ED) offices across Oklahoma live and die by the state laws and state programs for ED. So that means each year every ED professional does his and her best to keep up with the bills going through the Session. ED offices pay for services that help keep us informed, we also use our State Association (the Oklahoma Economic Development Council) to help keep us up to speed.
What Representative Phillips has done is a major paradigm shift in information flow. It’s not that he’s revealing anything new, what he’s done is make it instantly available to anyone citizen or company that has access to the Internet. YES, I know all the bills and actions are already on the Internet. But not in a very user friendly fashion. Citizens of Dist. 24 (and the rest of the State for that matter) this is a big deal.
I think the last time I wrote an article about a member of the State Legislature and what he or she has done was back in 1992 when Don McCorkle led the charge to pass the Quality Jobs Program. It is a real pleasure for me to say that in my humble opinion, Logan Phillips has set a new mark in how to be a legislator and a leader. Now that the citizens have this tool and instruction on how to use it, we can’t cry foul when something gets passed that shouldn’t have never seen the light of day.
Thank you Logan Phillips, well done Sir.
Start by watching this video that explains the spreadsheet, how it works and how to use it.
Youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3z6b2N-nE0
The spreadsheet is maintained and managed by Rep. Phillips in Google Drive. He will keep it updated in what is called a shared drive, and he is sharing it publicly.
Here is the link:
If you have a gmail account and/or use Google Drive this will be easy. If you have no idea what that is, you can reach out to our office or directly to Representative Phillips.