Is the City Doing Its Part?

I have provided links in the blue capitalized words to support the text of this campaign response.

Al Joseph, candidate for City Council, has released his position on Telecom and Technology services and how the City needs a plan to assist in this area, you can read that HERE. Mr. Joseph is subtly proposing the City get into the business of providing “free WiFi” and that creates a slippery slope. As it stands the City has more projects that affect true quality of life that are hanging in the wings and are over BUDGET and getting into the business of providing internet and phone services should not be on the radar. The Federal Government has a PROGRAM for low income individuals to receive basic phone services (including cell phones) to ensure everyone is able to report emergencies. Also, we have Frontier Communications, Time Warner and our locally owned Southern Coastal Cable, all of which provide internet and either landline phone service or phone service via the internet. These companies all pay a franchise fee (which is passed on to the subscribers as part of the bill) and pay a licensing agreement to have access to the public rights of way to spread their service throughout town. Do we want to take the chance of sending one of these companies running by delving into the very heart of what they provide to us?

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The City has an ever growing budget–36 Million Dollars this year, an 8 million dollar increase from the 28 Million dollars in 2012. How much more can our shrinking population be asked to pay for basic Government services? A property tax millage increase was approved this year to assist in balancing the budget that the Democrat majority on Council refused to cut by ONE DOLLAR. We need to be streamlining the Government so that our citizens and businesses can flourish and not be penalized with more and more fees and taxes. In a Utopian view—free wifi for everyone sounds good, a nice platitude and voter enticement, in reality “it ain’t gonna happen”. Mayor Scoville proposed this very idea when he ran for Mayor in 2009 and it was never acted upon or approved by Council. We have many businesses that provide WiFi hotspots around town for their customers and that is a win win for everyone. You support a local establishment and they help you stay connected.

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Mr. Joseph also says in this release that the City is derelict in not providing the following services:
• e-tax payments
• real property information with mapping
• register of deeds
• family court
• alarm registrations
• parks and recreation online registration`
• Government Information Systems, like Google Maps, but for land management and use

These services are provided by the County and the City does not need to duplicate them. The County WEBSITE provides etax payments (property taxes are billed by the County who then forwards to the City its portions of) the assessors’ office link provides a full spectrum of property information and GIS mapping of, Family Court is not a City issue, the City does not have organized sporting and outdoor events that need registration. The City has a GIS Mapping individual, MATT MILLWOOD, on staff who provides for the City what is needed for planning purposes and if a resident needs access they can utilize the County’s services, and the GIS page for the City provides a link to the County’s services. Could the City provide a link on its website that takes you to the County to access the other services, yes and it ends there.

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In short, Mr. Joseph is proposing expanding our Government but fails to lay out the details as to how we are going to pay for this. I believe issues like this should be addressed through foundations and private enterprise looking to give back to the community. City Hall, the Law Enforcement Complex and other City and County endeavors could provide hotspots yet they have chosen not to. A few places that come to mind that offer hotspots are Coffee Break Café, Thomas Café, McDonalds, Kudzu Bakery (I am sure there are others I am just not aware of them), if you need to avoid data charges on your phone, get a snack or lunch and make use of these businesses that graciously offer this convenience.

We need to focus on running the day to day operations of the City and not delve into “dangling carrots” to the voters, especially not using the programs that are already in place and are already being paid for through the taxpayer base. Please vote for Richard Powers, Tom Winslow and Lee Padgett on November 3rd. Together we can make a true difference in Georgetown.