NORWALK, Conn. – Norwalk council members are joining the 21st century three years after their counterparts in New Haven, said Councilman David Watts (D-District A), who referred to an animated version of the Stone Age in response to a “partisan” attack on the topic from fellow Councilman David McCarthy (R-District E).
Watts and Minority Leader Travis Simms (D-District B) on Tuesday received the first iPads to be issued to council members, Watts said. A third one is available, with a goal of getting iPads to every council member by the end of the year, he said.
This coincides with the establishment of official city email addresses for council members, in response to Freedom of Information Act and privacy concerns stemming from the lawsuit filed by the Al Madany Islamic Center against the Zoning Commission, Watts said.
Using iPads will save the city money on paper, he said.
“There’s no real reason to print these huge documents,” he said at Tuesday’s council meeting. “I think it will save the city a lot of money that we move to email communications and pdfs instead of printing out paper. I think it’s definitively a step in the right direction, if we can conscious decision to reduce the amount of paper that City Hall puts out.”
The city delivers council packets by hand, he said.
“We’re using horse and buggy technology when we have these packets hand delivered,” he said. “There’s no reason in having someone spend the money on having someone drive the packets to our house. Harry Rilling, I got to give him credit. This is definitely green technology that he gets, on the environment.”
The celebratory mood was squashed by a midnight email from McCarthy to NoN.
“If someone needs an iPad, they should buy it,” McCarthy wrote. “I find it the height of arrogance that someone would make a grand show of turning down the stipend and then demanding an iPad from the mayor and council funds from the BET (Board of Estimate and Taxation) for personal use. Take the 50 bucks and do with it what you will. Or get a job.”
What about saving paper?
“I’ve tried very diligently to use an iPad to minimize printing,” McCarthy wrote. “Matt Miklave and I both requested to not be sent paper copies last session. Given that you need to refer back and forth if you actually want to understand and participate, it proved futile to do so except for the simplest of meetings.”
We sent the comment to Watts for his response.
“Nobody knew that he felt this way,” Watts said, promising a reply.
On Wednesday, he said he thought better of it, sayiing that his first response wasn’t “Christian.”
Last winter was terrible, he said. Council packets are left on the porch or the step, and if it’s raining or snowing it turns into a “soggy noodle,” he said.
“Here it is 2014 and we are just catching up with what other cities are doing,” Watts said. “There’s no legitimate reason where we have to have a courier deliver packets by hand. Dave McCarthy is a just partisan guy. Last year I was at the same place he was. … But a lot of Republicans came out and voted for me and the numbers prove it. I won in a landslide. It’s told me that everything is not Democrat or Republican.”
There’ no partisan rancor on the council this year, he said.
“It’s too boring for Dave McCarthy. Maybe it’s too quiet; he wants to throw a grenade because people are getting along,” he said. “… He is like the one guy who shows up to the party and messes it up for everybody. Everybody decides they want to go home. He needs to get out of the ‘Captain Caveman’ mentality and join the 21st century. We need to lose the paper and move to electronic documents and only print when we have to. … This is a policy change. He is turning policy into something politics and he’s turning it into something personal.”
Majority Leader Jerry Petrini (R-District D) said he didn’t know who would get the third iPad reportedly up for grabs.
“I was approached by the IT department a few weeks ago with the offer of getting an iPad and I turned it down because I have one of my own,” Petrini wrote in an email. “I didn’t see the need to carry two of them. I did, however, agree to get a new city email address that I could use for all of the city’s business that I do instead of using my own. I am still waiting for it.”
Watts said he already had two iPads when he accepted the one from the city. Zoning Commissioners were recently informed that they would have to turn over access to their personal emails and their peronal computers because of a subpoena, he said.
“Maybe I don’t want people going through my personal computer,” he said.
But, he said, the new email address comes with its own lack of privacy. The city can check his email at any time, he said.
The email format for council members is the same as other city employees: first initial, last name, @norwalkct.org.
Emails sent to 11 council members Wednesday night resulted in bouncebacks from every address except [email protected] and [email protected].
Meanwhile, the Norwalk Housing Authority is also planning a switch to iPads.
“A number of agencies are going to iPads,” Executive Director Curtis Law said to the board of commissioners. “… It is proving to be much more cost effective.”
He promised to take it slow, which resulted in hearty laughter.
“We’re going to look into this, maybe have a prototype. I was hoping that one commissioner would volunteer. Then we thought we would do, once we had everyone comfortable, that we would always have a book here on the table. A reference book. When you think about the time that we spend Xeroxing these books and everything and the time that we have to turn around delivering all of this, we have found some of the boards are moving toward iPads.”
The wave of the future also included the threat of using Skype. One commissioner said that would give everyone the opportunity to dress in a business fashion from the waist up, like television commentators do.
Law said the agency might try to get a grant to pay for the iPads.
“We will have training,” Law said. “Therapy if needed.”
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