Today's Windsor Star has an article about Councillor Alan Halberstadt walking out of an in-camera meeting after being accused of leaking information on his website.
Congratulations to Alan for refusing to buckle to the secrecy obssessed Council. I agree with him that it was an inappropriate topic to be discussing at an in-camera meeting. If a Councillor wishes to make such an accusation then they should have the guts to do so at an open public meeting.
For anyone interested - the blog post in question is located here.
I didn't realize the fact the Sam Schwartz was in town and consulting with Council would be considered a state secret worthy of discussion at in-camera proceeding. If Council wonders why the citizens of Windsor are increasingly concerned about their conduct in-camera, you could find no better example of why.
As I have often disclosed here in the past, I designed and manage Alan's website for him. The idea for a blog as part of the site was first discussed early on in the planning for the last municipal campaign. Alan was intrigued by the idea and soon took to blogging like a duck to water. A journalist by trade, Alan immediately recognized the connective value of the blog in his efforts to communicate with his constituents.
Following the campaign, Alan decided to keep his website as a tool to reach out to the residents in his ward. The site was redesigned with that task in mind, and continues to evolve to this day.
After the election, I reset the site tracking software used to record traffic. Since that time, 13,444 unique visitors have viewed the website. (the tracking software records each visit from an individual ip address only once per day. If you visited the site at 8 am, 12 noon and 6pm, the software would only record 1 "unique" visit from your ip).
Since re-launching the website, here is a list of some of it's accomplishments:
1. Alan has had several citizens from around the community post Guest blogs;
2. he's interviewed others as part of his Council Chat series of blog videos;
3. added a Weblink section for websites in and around the Windsor Region (including a new section of Blogging Councillors from across Canada and around the world);
4. created a "Service Centre" of features that assist Windsor residents. It includes direct links to 311 info, the City of Windsor website, the newly launched Bizpal services, City of Windsor job postings, City and School News (news, press releases and community info from various Windsor sources aggregated by RSS and updated hourly), and location info for the Ward 3 Customer Care Centre located at the Optimist Community Centre on Ypres;
5. Alan has received and responded to numerous emails, submitted through the site, from Ward 3 residents dealing with a wide variety of concerns and issues;
6. Run a regular series of Windsor Essex County Environment Commission Public Service videos regarding responsible water use;
7. Alan's election platform from the last campaign is posted for reference by all
8. A Community Calendar has been added, along with a link to the City of Windsor Calendar.
The content and control of the site remain with Alan. I simply handle the technical and administrative aspects of the site.
All of this and not a $250,000 dollar communication budget in sight.
If you believe in open and transparent municipal government, take a few minutes to write a Letter to the Editor for the Windsor Star. Let everyone in Windsor know how you feel. Help support Alan in his efforts to reach out to everyone in Windsor.
