Is there a failure to communicate – because the needed tools aren`t in place? City hall stuck in the 90’s.

By Pepper Parr

BURLINGTON, ON  April 4, 2012  There is a problem at city hall – the difficulty is communicating.   They want to talk, they want to be informed, they want information to come in and the want to get information out – but they don’t have all the tools they need to do all that in place.

Top staff on the sixth, seventh and eighth floors of city hall have iPads that are both personal and corporate but they can’t always get on line – because internet access on the top floors of the building just isn’t available.

Turns out that cable television access doesn’t exist in the building either,  which made it very difficult for Mayor Goldring to see what was being broadcast as he tried to stay on top of things during the train derailment.

Should there ever be a civic emergency, plans exist for the Mayor to set up an Emergency Centre with the Fire Chief where back up telephone systems would be in place and theoretically the Mayor would be able to be in communication with everyone.  There is web broadcasting capacity in the Council chamber but there doesn’t appear to be any way for the Mayor or the Fire Chief, or any other senior public official, to be able to broadcast directly to the public via the city`s web site.

Neither the Fire Chief or the Mayor is able to turn on a television set at city hall and see what the rest of the city is seeing – which has to be a major flaw in the communications set up.

We understand it is being looked into – about time.

Get cable into the building and routers up into the top floors so that staff can join the rest of the world.

 

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