By Pepper Parr
November 5, 2015
BURLINGTON, ON
This is a change – a welcome one – we think.
Now we know how to reach the people at city hall we want to talk to – sort of gives a new wrinkle to that phrase “You can’t beat city hall” but at least we can write them
No postage necessary.
The city is in the process standardizing city email addresses to make them more intuitive by using firstname.lastname. Part of that process includes retiring old format city email addresses.
As of Nov. 9, 2015, all city staff email addresses must follow the format of first name.last name (example: John Doe, John.Doe@Burlington.ca). All emails following the old format of last name, first initial (example: John Doe, DoeJ@burlington.ca) will be discontinued and will not reach their destination after Nov. 9, 2015.
Effect on the public is expected to be minimal as the new email address format has been in use since 2012.
If anyone is looking to email a city staff member and does not know his or her email, please call 905-335-7600 for assistance.
The street address will remain the same – email addresses are being standardized.
When the Shape Burlington report was published in 2010 one of its comments was that city staff was hard to get through to and there was a suggestion made at a public meeting that the staff directory should be put on line – that way it would be easy to find who you wanted and email them.
That idea got the kibosh from one of the General Managers on the payroll at the time.
This new protocol isn’t going to make any difference to Tom Muir who was promised a meaningful response” from Mayor Goldring to the several questions he had as to why the city failed to vote on a development application from ADI Development Group. The best the Mayor, who has several email addresses, was able to do was thank Councillor Marianne Meed Ward for answering Muir’s questions and copy Muir
Which does give a who new dimension to the phrase “meaningful response”
Adding…for those of you who didn’t vote Liberal…you will be the first ones to point the finger at anything that Justin and his gender balanced team do wrong. But be reminded…we are being governed by human beings and as long as we are…there will always be 2 opinions and agreement to disagree but the complete turn around with this elected party is that we can connect with them and vice versa. Our council needs to take a hard look in the mirror. Look at Councilor Craven and Meed-Ward who can’t stand each other. Surely, Craven voted Conservative…he is equally secretive, politically self serving and does NOT listen or connect on a human level with his consituents. Change your tone Craven!!
new email addresses won’t make a difference…many councillors don’t reply anyway..we know that…from Mr. Muir and when they do..just adds to our frustration to be reminded of how self serving they are…starting with the Mayor…our non-leader!! Burlington council are ‘experts’ in legalistic backlash…I hope that they have been tuning into our new Federal leader who was sworn in yesterday. They may have noticed how he is about the people…not about himself. The National had a great interview with Justin Trudeau last night…OMG – he is a real person!! Dear Burlington Council…how about that for a concept. Real people governing real people!!