At the annual reorganization Thursday, both Council President Bridget Rivers and Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs held up the administration's Information Technology and Media division for special attention in 2013.
"I believe IT is the key," Rivers said as she announced plans for an Information Technology Committee.
The council developed a committee system in 2010, with three members each assigned to four committees, Administration & Finance, Economic & Community Development, Public Safety and City & Neighborhood Services. The former two consistently reported back to the governing body, while the latter two were more spotty in reporting. The council also had a system of liaisons to nine other entities, including the Cable TV Advisory Board, which is linked to the Media division. Assignments for 2013 have not yet been announced.
The mayor said IT and Media will have "press releases and updates" in 2013 and she also announced the possibility of a blog "to provide some factual city news."
The IT division is headed by Chris Payne, formerly of the Plainfield school district. He accomplished the long-awaited overhaul of the city web site, including a ".gov" designation. When hired, he was assigned to the mayor's office, but the council created by ordinance an IT division under the Department of Administration & Finance in order to conform to the city's special charter, which calls for all operations to fall under three departments. There is now a separate Media division, also under Administration & Finance, to cover the local cable channels, but schedules are out of date and recent council meetings were taped but not broadcast.
When he came to City Hall in 2010, Payne dubbed the new operation "DoIT," but not all promised has been done as yet. It became apparent that the broad range of technical, creative and administrative tasks could not all be done with the initial staff and equipment, and a consultant was brought aboard. The Media side got a boost when Lamar David Mackson became head of the Plainfield Cable Television Advisory Board, but its blog has not been updated since last June and the status of its membership is unclear. The last press release on the Media site dates back to November 2011.
So if there really is to be a focus on IT and Media as suggested Thursday, it appears some housekeeping is in order first - that is, if the divisions are to function as intended and not just to become PR arms for the mayor and council president, both of whom are seeking re-election this year. The board needs members, the TV schedule must be updated, Payne must state his present goals and budget needs and most of all, the purpose and chain of command needs clarification. And the IT Committee needs objective members who will act first as elected representatives to serve the people's interest. Anything less will perpetuate the current malfunction.
--Bernice
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Operation Sieve.
ReplyDeleteBridget Rivers needs a news flash. There already is an IT Committee. I was put on it three years ago, but the committee never met. Perhaps Sharon had other plans, but making sure IT in Plainfield worked was not one of them.
ReplyDeleteBob Bolmer, MA
Bernice,
ReplyDeleteI have requested to be on the council's IT Committee--I have an extensive background in media, and I am familiar with the systems, etc., as I was the first director (for the public access station). I have also requested to be on the Recreation Committee, as I have been able to uncover illegalities and fraud in that division. In addition, I have requested to be the chair of the Public Safety Committee and the PMUA Committee. I think an oversight role is important, and I think it behooves us to have no conflicts that would prevent us from serving impartially--meaning no family, spouses, significant others, etc. I look forward to an energetic year.
Rebecca
"it behooves us to have no conflicts that would prevent us from serving impartially--meaning no family, spouses, significant others, etc" Oh please, ....snort .... don't make me laugh .... holding my side .... you are killing me.... I have not heard something as funny as this .... gulps for air ... since the Bill Cosby went off the air. giggle...giggle .. cough.
ReplyDelete@GB: I was being serious. I have no conflicts--I do not have any family members or spouse or significant other in any of the departments/divisions I mentioned in my comment. I think impartiality is important--for example, if my significant other was employed by the police division, or my brother worked in the recreation division, I would not serve on those oversight committees. I don't think it would be appropriate for me to do so. I will get a legal opinion from our acting corporation counsel.
ReplyDeleteRebecca
I can tell you running IT basically by yourself for even a small organization (my company is all of 7 people) is a lot of work. It's kind of a death by 1000 cuts thing. Setting up a web server - no problem, also setting up the database server - no problem - mail server, dns, tech support. Install hardware, manage vendor contracts. Initiate a cost savings measure to move more services online (like phones). Each thing requires some weeks or months of prep work and planning. And everything needs to be monitored all the time. Plus as a government I'm sure there are regulatory and reporting requirements above and beyond what a normal IT person would be used to. I'm pretty good at what I do and there's no way I would feel good about being the sole IT person for an entire city - and if I was - it would be a job that would command a salary well north of 100k - probably not what the job pays.
ReplyDeleteThere's also a good argument to be made for shared services - most of these things...the backend and monitoring bits are going to be identical for every municipality - it would make a lot more sense to hire a group of people for the state and have them run all the "standard" services for the various municipalities.