It is obvious from the responses that Mr. Superti received that the Township Clerk Heidi Brunt, mayor Tony Fiore and Township Attorney Brian Nelson and a comment made by Gerry Scharfenberger at the end, that they had all reviewed my questions and had answers ready to those questions as well as a couple of questions that Mr. Superti didn't ask, such as, did former committee member Pam Brightbill receive an iPad and return it after she step down from the Committee? The answer was yes.
And I would suppose that Scharfenberger's heads-up to Fiore to address the cost analysis between the iPad vs paper study was a refernce to my asking in a follow-up email to have the study sent to me via email to review (which, by the way was never sent).
Here are my questions that Mr. Superti asked with the responses that he recieved in red. You can also listen to the audio of Mr. Superti asking these questions and listen to hear how they were answered by playing the recording below:
How many iPads have been purchased by the township and who specifically has been issued them? 6 iPads were purchased by the Township.
What was the purchase price of these iPads? Each iPad cost $625.
Was the purchase price for these iPads discounted in anyway, if so by how much? Yes, but no one knew by how much.
Who were these iPads purchased from; Did they come directly from Apple Inc. or an authorized Apple vendor (please name)? The iPads were purchased via a government contract through Computer Direct Warehouse (www.cdw.com).
Are these iPads considered township property ? Yes, they are.
Can they to be used by individuals for personal use (take and store photos, download music or games, ect...)? Yes, they can.
What happens to these iPads if Township Committee members step down from office or not relected or if a town manager leaves the employment of the township? They are Township property and are to be returned. It was stated that Pam Brightbill returned the iPad issued to her.
Did the Township purchase any kind of internet access plan over and above the purchase price of the iPads that would enable idividuals to access the internet if WiFi access is not availible to the users? Yes, the Township purchased an internet access plan but did not know how much it costs each month.
Is Town Hall wired for Wi-Fi? If so, does the public have access to the Wi-Fi network at Town Hall if they bring their own laptops, iPads or other type of smart device to a meeting at Town Hall? Yes, Town Hall is wired for Wi-Fi but the public does not have access to it becuase Town Hall is a government building and they are afraid that the public may get access to sensitive government information.
Again, I want to thank Mr. Superti for asking these questions, it is unfortunate however that he had to ask them, it would have been very simple just to respond to my intial inquiry. Instead those that run the township decided be defensive and remain silent until someone asked them directly about the purchase of these iPads. It makes it seem as if those that make up Middletown's governing body are paranoid and have something to hide.
After all, they are the ones that issued the press release touting the purchase of these iPads as money savers. They had to have known that people would question the purchase of these things when there are cheaper alternative available that would serve the same purpose.
After listening to the above audio, I do have a few follow-up question that I would like to ask for the purpose of clearifying a few answers given to the questions. I hope to be able to make it down to Town Hall one day this week to do that.
20 comments:
Mike,
Thats awesome you got finally got the answers, that is such a ridiculous expense. Unbelievable, that they buy on the government contract AND get a discount. I was very upset to hear Pam Brightbill DIDN'T get a retirement gift - how evil! What is wrong with these people?
It is horrible that they are allowed to take them home and put pictures on them. Shouldn't they have to leave them at town hall? I mean, why should they be allowed to review information for meeting at home? Such craziness!
"Town Hall is wired for Wi-Fi but the public does not have access to it because Town Hall is a government building and they are afraid that the public may get access to sensitive government information."
Oh the convenient logic of our TC!
If they were worried about someone gaining access to sensitive government information, they would not even HAVE documents on Ipads- hackers love Ipads and they are routinely hacked and jailbroken.
Cmon guys, you can make up better excuses than that.
And it is good to know that our TOWN hall has been wired for WIFI, but it is only for the convenience of the TC members and not the citizens. I mean, that TOWN part of Town Hall, just a word, right guys?
Mrs. Brightbill received her award in December, as every parting Committee member does at the end of thier term.
I still would very much like to see the cost analysis which demonstrates the $5k per year savings.
Town hall can't open wifi for the public? Any network admin worth half his stuff would be able to protect against any kind of attack that wouldn't otherwise be possible under a closed wireless system. What a cop out. We need more free public wifi stations. If I could steal data from joining the town hall network, so many people have failed.
Anon 8:20 has no idea what he is talking about besides the fact that the wifi should be open. No one claimed that the sensitive information was on the ipads, just on the network. Second, the only publicized instance of ipad hacking is jailbreaking. Jailbreaking is just the process of unlocking the bootloader, attaining superuser (root) permissions and possibly flashing a new rom on the device. This process needs to be performed with physical access to the device. Guess what? if I have physical access to the device I have the data anyways, so your point is moot.
There is little doubt that the hackers will ALWAYS be one step ahead of the public. The only way to ensure that hackers will not compromise information is by using PAPER. You do not have to have physical access to the device (Ipad) in order to hack into it. Anyone can google and see cases right here in NJ which prove the point.
However, if the township committee has already decided that the 5K or so of alleged savings outweighs the likelihood of sensitive info being compromised, then the same cost/benefit analysis needs to be done regarding the likelihood of "sensitive" information being compromised vs. the right of the public to know what is going on with their tax dollars.
It seems, as usual, that the benefit side of the equation only prevails when those benefits accrue to the convenience of the township committee members, yet the "downside" always prevails when the benefit accrues to the citizens and their right to know.
It is abundantly clear, from this, and virtually every decision that has been made in recent years, that it is the people who are working for the good of the politicians in Middletown and not the other way around.
And as a side note, if I were a betting man, I would put my money on the sophistication of the hackers vs. the sophistication of the committee members when it comes to so-called "sensitive" information. Governments all around the world have been outsmarted by sophisticated hackers- do you really think the members of the Middletown Township Committee are somehow more up to the task?
That being said, if we have already agreed to "roll the dice", let's use all this great technology to enable taxpayers to judge for themselves whether the politicians are indeed working in their interest.
Anon 2:07, can you mention one instance, as I can not seem to find any cases right here in NJ that 'prove the point'.
Here you go Tony....
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2375933,00.asp
Who else besides mike wants to even try to hack the system??? Why does anyone "deserve" to have free wifi??? It's not like its food water or shelter??? It's an accessory to life not an essential necessity... Go to Starbucks if you want free wifi, not town hall you freeloader!!!
Your PCMAG article is a bad attempt to justify your argument, the article references only the email addresses being hacked by means of the AT&T server, so anyone's iPad email could have been stolen, if your so concerned, wouldn't you think you be at bloombergs door instead of our mayors??? I guess it was just an attempt to make someone look bad for the good of the democratic party, do continue to fight the good fight, but try harder next time to find a more relevant article than just copy and pasting in a frantic rage! Maybe at some point someone will want to start a mature conversation in person, but I don't think mike graduated first grade yet!!! Keep it up armchair quarterback
Anon 9:37,
Who owns Town Hall and all that is inside of it? The residents and tax payers of Middletown, not the politicians, that's who!
We pay for it everything that goes on in Middletown through our tax dollars, if I paid to have Wi-Fi installed at Town Hall than I (and others) should have access to it.
To the two headed monster at 9:37 and 9:54-
Thanks for making good use of your coffee beak ;)
As usual, you miss the point. If the TC was so concerned with security that they would not allow the public to access what occurs in their own Town Hall, then they would not be accessing "sensiitive" info via wifi. If they choose to join the "paperless" trend as many other towns have done' they have lost the right to hide behind the "sensitive" info issue.
But of course you know that, don't you?
Now get back to monitoring criticism on the Patch. But make sure when you are attacking someone's reputation you make it clear whether you are acting in your official capacity or just a personal rant. We wouldn't want to find the taxpayers on the hook (yet again) for harassment or defamation suit legal costs arising from the stupidity and arrogance of our officials.
Or can you smell a cop a mile away like Ray OGrady?
Mike,
I am very supervised that you don't put more effort into the board of Ed since so much of our tax dollars are spent there!
Not from the desk of the mayor, in case anyone was worried, just another concerned citizen.
Gee Mike, wonder why someone wants to change the topic?
"attacking someone's reputation"
Wouldn't that involve saying things that are not true?
1.Is Mr. Morris not the Treasurer of the Middletown Democratic Club and a Democratic County Committeeman in his district???
2.From the patch - "Your name calling never ceases does it?"
That's a question not an attack on someones reputation!
3."Shows a lot about your character."
Persuades the reader to make an opinion about the prior stated question and render thier own opinion. Not an attack on reputation...
4."Hope this helps"
Ends with a respectful tone of helpfulness and understanding into a topic that seems to perplex the previous post.
Anon 11:02,
I'm a little slow tonight, your point is ???
It was a response to this:
"Now get back to monitoring criticism on the Patch. But make sure when you are attacking someone's reputation you make it clear whether you are acting in your official capacity or just a personal rant. We wouldn't want to find the taxpayers on the hook (yet again) for harassment or defamation suit legal costs arising from the stupidity and arrogance of our officials."
It was a response to this:
"Now get back to monitoring criticism on the Patch. But make sure when you are attacking someone's reputation you make it clear whether you are acting in your official capacity or just a personal rant. We wouldn't want to find the taxpayers on the hook (yet again) for harassment or defamation suit legal costs arising from the stupidity and arrogance of our officials."
Could we change our attitude, we should not only see life differently, but life itself would come to be different. Life would undergo a change of appearance because we ourselves had undergone a change in attitude.
- Katherine Mansfield
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