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.
