2 Responses to “Funding Additional Aldermanic Websites with Taxpayers Dollars – Really?”
Hello
Whether or not the taxpayers fund this drop in the bucket expense is just the smoke and mirrors of the upcoming election. Yet another straw dog for politicians to bluster about. Perhaps we should set up a blue ribbon panel to study this and get back to us in a year or so.
The real money to be saved is the millions squandered every year by inefficient, ineffective city managers. Departments are growing unchecked by elected officials that do not understand all the intricacies of various services the City provides. The day to day operations of our City have become bloated with lazy managers that are never held accountable for the very waste they knowingly create. I am not calling for the privatization of services. If we want to save money, we should find a safe forum for City staff to make their case for improvements to the work they do. That way we can get to the real savings that taxpayers deserve.
I totally agree with you statement about wasting taxpayer dollars, but in my opinion, the vast majority of Aldermen have no idea what they are approving. Three year budgets are a joke, and only provide cover for elected officials to blame it on the other council.
Harley, thanks for sharing your thoughts — I hear you…and I’ll work to address this.
Joe
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Funding Additional Aldermanic Websites with Taxpayers Dollars – Really?
The debate is on.
To fund, or not to fund, additional web sites for Aldermanic offices to share their opinions with their ward residents. That is the question.
Some background before you answer. The City of Calgary provides each Alderman space on The City’s website that he/she can post electronic information.
This makes sense – it’s a clean, efficient, effective way to share information and to provide valuable notifications that affect their Wards.
But….some Aldermen have chosen to create their own version of a more personal website. In my case I set up telljoe.ca because I wanted to, in addition to other communication messages, gather feedback on what is important to Calgarians.
In doing so, I certainly would NOT expect Calgarians to pay for this site. My choosing to create a separate site is my decision, and as such, is paid by me – not the taxpayer, including the development of the site and its ongoing maintenance.
It became readily apparent that some of my Council colleagues expect taxpayers to pay for their self-created sites that they openly admit to using as a tool to “share their opinions.” I do not agree with this position at all. Why would Calgarians be saddled with the costs of Aldermanic electronic soapboxes? If we want a communication tool outside of what the City already provides, then I believe we pay for it ourselves. Period.
If we continue down this path, Calgarians will find themselves paying for 14 websites even though only one of them is relevant to the Ward they live in. If you agree that we must run this city like a business, tell me what business would allow the costs of 14 individual opinionated websites to be charged back to the shareholders? In this case, Calgarians?
As I have said in other cases of wasting taxpayer dollars, every time Council approves unnecessary spending, it chips away at our ability to provide the core services Calgarians expect from us.
If we as Alderman decide we want an additional website – we pay for it. This issue is pretty black and white to me.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 27th, 2010 at 6:53 pm and is filed under Survey Comments. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.