Wallingford council OKs $1,000 for planning office online access

As posted online on MyRecordJournal.com Tuesday April 17, 2012

Posted: Tuesday, April 17, 2012 12:41 pm | Updated: 1:08 pm, Tue Apr 17, 2012.

Russell Blair

WALLINGFORD – The Town Council approved an appropriation of $1,000 to add internet access to the Planning and Zoning office, but whether or not the Internet is set up will be decided by the mayor.

During a budget workshop for the department, Acting Town Planner Kacie Castello said that having the Internet in her office would increase efficiencies.

“Email would be extremely helpful,” Castello said Tuesday. “A lot of state agencies communicate via the Internet.”

Currently, Castello and other town offices without Internet access have to go to the Program Planning office on the third floor of Town Hall to conduct business on the web.

The proposal to add the money passed by a 5-4 vote, with Republican Councilors Craig Fishbein and John LeTourneau joining Democrats John Sullivan, Nick Economopoulos and Jason Zandri to approve the funds. Republicans Robert Parisi, the council chairman, Rosemary Rascati, Thomas Laffin and Vincent Cervoni opposed the funding.

LeTourneau said he was concerned that Castello and Linda Bush, the former town planner, were using home computers and personal email accounts to conduct town business.

“That’s crazy, not in this day and age,” he said.

Wallingford Councilors start getting through to mayor on Web’s benefits

As published in the Record Journal on Thursday March 15, 2012

By Dan Ivers
Record-Journal staff
divers@record-journal.com
(203) 317-2275

WALLINGFORD - An influx of technologically-savvy town councilors may be pushing the town closer to embracing the Internet and other advancements.

Last week, Mayor William W. Dickinson Jr. broke from his usual stance on technology when he allowed the town’s current operating budget to be posted on its website. The move came after public pressure from councilors, including Republican Craig Fishbein, who has advocated for greater transparency in the budget and tax collection processes.

At a Town Council meeting on Tuesday, Fishbein and a bipartisan group of councilors continued the push by asking Dickinson to make his upcoming budget proposal available online after it is released April 1. Dickinson resisted, but promised to weigh the benefits of the posting against the lost time it might create for town employees.

Technology Director Donald Rowe, summoned by the council to explain what posting the budget might require, said it would take about 10 minutes uploading an existing electronic copy.

The embrace of technology, or lack thereof, has long been an issue in town. Dickinson, a Republican in the midst of his 15th term, prefers to keep access to technology at a minimum in Town Hall, where internet access is available in offices only if required by state or federal law.

Dickinson could not be reached for comment Wednesday, but admitted at Tuesday’s meeting that he is in the minority on the issue.

“It’s got to meet a useful process. It’s got to meet a useful endeavor for the people,” he said. “I obviously do not march to the step of perhaps the rest of the world on this issue ... We don’t jump just because someone else does it. We take our time and think it through.”

Historically, his position has been divisive in town and on the council, but many current officials agree that support for advancements may be at an all time high, partially due to a group of councilors that openly questions the mayor’s resistance.

Democrat John Sullivan, who joined the council in 2009, said he believes the change is partially due to the addition of Fishbein and other Republicans, who may be more willing to challenge Dickinson than some of their fellow party members.

“I think we’re witnessing a real change in the so-called Republican paradigm,” he said. “We just have some people who are now used to working with technology either at home or through their jobs.”

The current group of Republicans also includes newly elected Thomas Laffin, who is the youngest member of the council at 32 and described himself as in favor of incorporating more technology into the town’s operations. He and Democrat Jason Zandri, a 42year-old information technology worker, replaced veteran councilors Vincent Testa and Jerry Farrell Jr. last year.

“I think there’s a way to advance everything,” said Laffin. “But it’s not going to ever happen at a council meeting. That (discussion) was a waste of time. It has to be done through education of the administration.”

While many councilors agreed that the town should go further with its use of the internet, they praised Dickinson for his willingness to post the operating budget to the town website. While councilors can look to pressure him, the decision is ultimately his, and some believe his cautious approach will be an asset moving forward.

“He’s the mayor, and the town is in great shape,” said Laffin.

Sullivan also praised Dickinson for his relatively favorable response to the latest calls for a change in philosophy.

“We’ve moved the rock up the hill farther than we’ve ever moved it before at this point. At some point we’ve got to be satisfied with the direction we’re moving in,” he said.

Republican John Le-Tourneau said he did not believe that more support for advancements among Republicans would have any major influence over Dickinson’s approach.

“I see this as a bipartisan effort to do what we can to get the information out to the public,” he said. “It really is not politically driven.”

“We’ve moved the rock up the hill farther than we’ve ever moved it before at this point.”
—Town Councilor John Sullivan

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Sullivan

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Fishbein

Budget proposal will be posted online

This story was published in the Record Journal on Tuesday April 3, 2012. The Record Journal already has the budget online and I have a link to it in a prior post. As you can see from the expedited way the newspaper was able to get their hands on a printed copy, scan it in, and post it online inside of six hours that it would take the town no time at all to do the same with the digital copies of the segments of the budget book that they already have. 

By Mary Ellen Godin
Record-Journal staff
mgodin@record-journal.com
(203) 317-2255

WALLINGFORD — After announcing his $145.1 million 2012-2013 budget proposal, Mayor William W. Dickinson Jr. announced that the 150page document will be available online.

The decision is a reversal of Dickinson’s earlier opposition to the idea, when he doubted many residents would view the document and questioned whether it might occupy technical staff’s time.

Dickinson said Monday that making the document available on the town’s website was the least of the town’s concerns. Despite his recognition that more people are gaining access to information online, he still feels it is one more burden on the town.

“We’re dealing with another thing that absorbs staff and time,” Dickinson said. “There are still people without the Internet.”

Dickinson did not say when the document would be posted online. The budget proposal was not online Monday evening.

The longtime debate over the use of Internet technology has heated up in recent years as Town Councilors and former employees have made it public that only two computers in Town Hall have Internet access, putting a strain on some employee functions. Town Council members are split on Dickinson’s hard line against technology in Town Hall.

Democratic Town Councilor Jason Zandri was incensed to learn Monday morning that Dickinson would be announcing the budget Monday afternoon. Zandri, who works in Manhattan, had no way to get to the announcement in time.

“Due to this situation, I will not be able to attend the press conference,” Zandri stated in an email to Dickinson’s office.

In a later phone interview, Zandri said putting the budget online would allow him to review the document from his computer. Instead, he has to send someone to pick it up. An online budget proposal could help bring people to the upcoming public hearings and save money in printing costs.

“If this was posted now, people could open it up and start looking it up,” Zandri said. “Here’s an example of technology in the office that’s a cost savings.”

According to officials in the Finance Department, the town spent $1,500 to print 200 copies of last year’s budget. The office provides copies to the Wallingford Public Library and the town clerk’s office for the general public. It also mails about a half-dozen copies to those who can’t get to Town Hall.

Finance Director James Bowes said he still has to send out the printed budgets and make them available to the public. He hasn’t determined how many he will print. But when it comes to allowing technology, if a department can prove a need, Dickinson will approve it.

“It’s absolutely a good thing,” Zandri said when he heard the mayor was going to upload the spending plan. “It gives the appearance of transparency. Now the public can look that up and ask informed questions at the public hearings.”

Councilors, mayor spar over online technology

As published in the Record Journal, Wednesday March 14, 2012

By Dan Ivers
Record-Journal staff
divers@record-journal.com
(203) 317-2275

WALLINGFORD — Town councilors sparred with Mayor William W. Dickinson Jr. Tuesday night over whether to post information about the town budget and local properties on the town’s website.

Councilors Craig Fishbein, Jason Zandri, John LeTourneau and John Sullivan criticized Dickinson’s resistance to posting his budget proposal, which is due April 1. Dickinson argued that the document would be available on paper, and a lack of demand for it over the years proves there is no justification for the time that employees would need to post an electronic copy on the website.

“I don’t understand where the need is. Who is calling for this?” Dickinson said. “The information is available to people if they want it. Every duty, everything that each department is involved with, takes time. We have less staff — any addition of duties comes with the burden of justification.”

Technology Director Donald Rowe was summoned by the council to explain what posting the budget might require, and he estimated his office would spend about 10 minutes uploading an existing electronic copy.

Last week, Dickinson agreed to post an electronic copy of the current operating budget online, but he repeated his opposition to the posting of his proposal for 2012-13. He said that compiling the documents places additional responsibilities on the town’s finance department and he is concerned about setting a precedent.

The bipartisan group of councilors, however, pushed back, saying the move would show taxpayers that the town is committed to transparency.

“This is an opportunity for people who care about their town, and pay their taxes on time, to get an idea of where their money is going,” said Sullivan, a Democrat.

Dickinson is the town’s executive officer and is not obligated to follow recommendations of the Town Council. He said he intends to weigh the benefits of posting the document against the burdens on town employees, but he reiterated his opposition to furthering technology simply to “keep up with the Joneses.”

“It’s got to meet a useful process. It’s got to meet a useful endeavor for the people,” he said. “I obviously do not march to the step of perhaps the rest of the world on this issue ... We don’t jump just because someone else does it. We take our time and think it through.”

Earlier in the meeting, councilors sparred with Dickinson over his recommendation to endorse an application by the South Central Council of Governments for a grant to help establish a regional property database among its 15 member towns. The database would include information on individual properties in each town, as well as general information on local highways, zoning, demographics and economic development.

Dickinson said the town would not release information on individual properties, mostly out of concern for citizens whose addresses are protected, such as police officers, judges and Department of Correction employees.

Some councilors objected to the limited participation, saying much of the same information is already available through non-government websites, and that spending money to publicize such a limited amount of data is not worthwhile.

“Either the Internet is evil or it is not,” said Fishbein, a Republican. “This seems like something that, at least in its limited form, is of no benefit.” Zandri, a Democrat, criticized Dickinson’s position as a stand against technology, and said the town would be missing out on a rare opportunity.

“I presume that you are probably as resistant to a keyboard as somebody with a bag of peanuts that has a peanut allergy,” he said. “I think to not take the opportunity to expand on and add to a service when it costs us nothing is a shame.”

The council ultimately voted 5-4 not to endorse the grant application, with Nicholas Economopoulos, Robert Parisi, Rosemary Rascati and Vincent Cervoni casting votes in favor.

Councilors, mayor spar over online technology

As published in the Record Journal, Wednesday March 14, 2012

By Dan Ivers
Record-Journalstaff
divers@record-journal.com 
(203) 317-2275
WALLINGFORD — Town councilors sparred with Mayor William W. Dickinson Jr. Tuesday night over whether to post information about the town budget and local properties on the town’s website.

Councilors Craig Fishbein, Jason Zandri, John LeTourneau and John Sullivan criticized Dickinson’s resistance to posting his budget proposal, which is due April 1. Dickinson argued that the document would be available on paper, and a lack of demand for it over the years proves there is no justification for the time that employees would need to post an electronic copy on the website.

“I don’t understand where the need is. Who is calling for this?” Dickinson said. “The information is available to people if they want it. Every duty, everything that each department is involved with, takes time. We have less staff — any addition of duties comes with the burden of justification.”

Technology Director Donald Rowe was summoned by the council to explain what posting the budget might require, and he estimated his office would spend about 10 minutes uploading an existing electronic copy.

Last week, Dickinson agreed to post an electronic copy of the current operating budget online, but he repeated his opposition to the posting of his proposal for 2012-13. He said that compiling the documents places additional responsibilities on the town’s finance department and he is concerned about setting a precedent.

The bipartisan group of councilors, however, pushed back, saying the move would show taxpayers that the town is committed to transparency.

“This is an opportunity for people who care about their town, and pay their taxes on time, to get an idea of where their money is going,” said Sullivan, a Democrat.

Dickinson is the town’s executive officer and is not obligated to follow recommendations of the Town Council. He said he intends to weigh the benefits of posting the document against the burdens on town employees, but he reiterated his opposition to furthering technology simply to “keep up with the Joneses.”

“It’s got to meet a useful process. It’s got to meet a useful endeavor for the people,” he said. “I obviously do not march to the step of perhaps the rest of the world on this issue ... We don’t jump just because someone else does it. We take our time and think it through.”

Earlier in the meeting, councilors sparred with Dickinson over his recommendation to endorse an application by the South Central Council of Governments for a grant to help establish a regional property database among its 15 member towns. The database would include information on individual properties in each town, as well as general information on local highways, zoning, demographics and economic development.

Dickinson said the town would not release information on individual properties, mostly out of concern for citizens whose addresses are protected, such as police officers, judges and Department of Correction employees.

Some councilors objected to the limited participation, saying much of the same information is already available through non-government websites, and that spending money to publicize such a limited amount of data is not worthwhile.

“Either the Internet is evil or it is not,” said Fishbein, a Republican. “This seems like something that, at least in its limited form, is of no benefit.” Zandri, a Democrat, criticized Dickinson’s position as a stand against technology, and said the town would be missing out on a rare opportunity.

“I presume that you are probably as resistant to a keyboard as somebody with a bag of peanuts that has a peanut allergy,” he said. “I think to not take the opportunity to expand on and add to a service when it costs us nothing is a shame.”

The council ultimately voted 5-4 not to endorse the grant application, with Nicholas Economopoulos, Robert Parisi, Rosemary Rascati and Vincent Cervoni casting votes in favor.

District to study use of student-owned technology

A reminder of what is missing from Wallingford. I am not suggesting, necessarily, that we have to keep up with the Smiths and the Joneses but we should be doing what we can to keep ahead of the Flintstones

As published in the Record Journal, Tuesday March 13, 2012

By Kimberly Primicerio
Record-Journal staff
kprimicerio@record-journal.com
(203) 317-2279

SOUTHINGTON — Over the next six weeks, parents, students and educators serving on the school district’s technology advisory committee will research the use of student- owned technology in classrooms.

The committee found out on Monday the work it faces. The group will look into the district’s current technology policy and will decide if anything needs to be changed regarding student use of cellphones, e-readers and computer tablets in the classroom.

The school system is trying to determine if any of this increasingly popular technology should be embraced in the classroom as an aid to the education process. By April 20, School Superintendent Joseph V. Erardi Jr. hopes to have the group present its findings and recommendations.

“We’ll have some deep conversations,” Erardi said at the committee’s first meeting, at Plantsville School. “It’s a simple task, but it’s complicated.”

He said it’s possible the committee could establish no new practices, but he doesn’t think that would be a good outcome. Taking controversial positions on technology is OK, Erardi said.

Before research tasks were divided among committee members, the group looked at school technology protocol and shared opinions.

Suzanne Hodges, a science teacher at the high school, said student-owned electronics are stored in lockers and are not to be used during the school day. Exceptions are made in some classes for tablets and e-readers.

Debbie Miller, a technology analyst at the elementary schools, called the existing policies antiquated.

“The cellphone policy is unrealistic,” said Cheryl Hilton-Campbell, a committee member who is PTO president at Kelley School.

Hilton-Campbell said that while the cellphones shouldn’t be on and should be stored in lockers, that’s not what’s really going on in the schools.

“I think we need to establish ethics on how to use the technology responsibly,” she said. “The technology needs to be used, but it’s vital to use it the right way.”

Spencer Richards, PTO co-president at Kennedy Middle School, agreed and said children need to be learning and using the technology.

As the conversation continued, it came out that schools prohibit the use of cellphones but many allow e-readers. Teachers are finding out that many students, even children in elementary school, have their own e-readers.

Pam Aldi, assistant principal at Kennedy Middle School, said that as long as teachers are monitoring students, the e-readers help students with reading. It makes them feel comfortable at their reading level since other students can’t see what they’re reading. Text can also be enlarged and sentences can be highlighted, she said.

Abigail Harris, a sophomore at Southington High School, said technology use is inevitable, and students, faculty and administrators need to move on together.

After the exchange of opinions, committee members were assigned jobs. One group will talk with personnel in other school districts to find out how they embrace technology and what works for them.

Another group, including students from the high school, was tasked with coming up with survey questions. Such questions will ask teachers and students if they have certain devices and what they use them for. The surveys will give the committee numbers to work with and a good idea of how ubiquitous technology has become.

Erardi said the group’s mission is not to create a new policy through its findings and suggestions, but to come up with practices. The practices will be presented to the Board of Education and, if the board finds them appropriate, a new policy on technology will be crafted.

The committee will meet again on April 2.

Plan to put mayor’s budget online renews Wallingford tech debate

As published in the Record Journal Tuesday March 6, 2012

By Dan Ivers
Record-Journal staff
divers@record-journal.com
(203) 317-2275

WALLINGFORD — The Town Council has engaged in a brief debate over whether to post Mayor William W. Dickinson Jr.’s budget proposal on the town’s website after it is unveiled next month.

In the context of a discussion about Councilor Craig Fishbein’s plan to include details on changes in spending for each town department on annual tax bills, fellow Republican John LeTourneau proposed posting the budget online. Dickinson, at the council meeting last week, voiced his opposition to the idea, saying he doubted many residents would view the document and questioned whether it might occupy technical staff’s time.

While placing documents related to the budget process is commonplace in most towns, Wallingford is far from typical when it comes to technology. Internet access is available in a handful of Town Hall offices, but only where state or federal law requires it.

Similar debates are nothing new in Wallingford, where councilors and employees are split on Dickinson’s stringent attitude toward technical advancements.

“I agree that not every employee in Town Hall needs a terminal on their desk,” Le-Tourneau said. “But when we have the town clerk’s office having to go up to the third floor to check an e-mail account, it’s absolutely ludicrous.”

Former Town Planner Linda Bush, who retired last week, called the policy “very frustrating” during a recent appearance on local public access television, saying employees at Town Hall wasted a significant amount of time waiting to use two Internet-enabled computers. On Monday, Dickinson said he believed the town would be able to accommodate Le-Tourneau’s request, but defended his approach toward adding any additional duties for employees.

“The question is time constraints. It’s a question of what has to be accomplished,” he said. “If we had a lot of people asking for the budget and we were spending a lot of money mailing it out to them, you’d look for ways to avoid that cost. We don’t have that. We’re responding to something that probably isn’t a problem.”

Dickinson’s approach to technology is nearly the opposite of that of another local chief town executive, Southington Town Manager Garry Brumback. In his first two budgets, Brumback has set aside $1.15 million for systems upgrades and to transfer work formerly done on paper to computer. He said he plans to expand the number of online and computerized services in Town Hall over the next few years to mirror the online services already prevalent in the private sector, envisioning a virtual Town Hall “My hope is that in three years, people will forget they only had access to Town Hall through brick and mortar,” Brumback said last week.

His end goal is for most Town Hall business to be completed online — eliminating the need for most people to visit Town Hall unless they choose to do so.

In 2010, the Wallingford Town Council formed an Information Technology Committee, which met several times to discuss potential improvements.

The group eventually passed on a report to Dickinson that recommended an audit and cost-benefit analysis of the town’s telephone systems, as well as an effort to post property records available in the assessor’s office on the town website.

Both suggestions failed to move beyond the discussion phase, however, and the Informational Technology Committee appears to have been disbanded. It has not met in nearly a year, and co-chairs Fishbein and LeTourneau said it is unlikely to be reformed.

Instead, the council will likely deal with technology-related issues, such as that regarding posting the budget proposal online, on an individual basis. The issue was tabled and will be revisited at its meeting next week, and Le-Tourneau said he was confident he would have enough support to pass the measure.

Jason Zandri, a newly elected Democrat, said he believed the resistance to a move as simple as uploading an already completed PDF document was evidence of a larger aversion to technology, rather than a decision about money or employee efficiency.

“For him, it’s a principle thing,” he said. “It’s shortsighted. We can sit there and argue all day how many people are going to access this online, but if we don’t put it up there, it won’t be any more than zero.”

For some councilors, however, a desire to have the budget online does not equate to total disagreement with Dickinson’s wider approach. Fishbein said that he supports the posting for the sake of public transparency, but values close inspection of any move that might require some investment of taxpayer funds.

Dickinson “is very frugal and I think he is the best protector of our taxpayer dollars,” he said. “He is certainly willing to have a conversation. His question always comes around to ‘Show me the benefit or the cost savings to the town.’ ”