From the Urinal Gayzette
One of Matt Kelty’s supporters last week learned the hard way that it’s not wise – or proper – to politick from a taxpayer-funded office.Deb-Ann Smith, executive assistant to New Haven Mayor Terry McDonald, sent an e-mail this month asking a number of people to attend a meet-and-greet with Kelty at her home. Though Smith works for New Haven, her home will be annexed into Fort Wayne this fall.
The only problem is that Smith sent the e-mail from her New Haven city account, from her city computer.
This prompted Kevin Knuth, Allen County Democratic Party chairman, to file a complaint and records request with McDonald.
“You don’t use taxpayer-funded equipment for those types of things, period,†Knuth said.
Though state law specifically forbids public safety officers from campaigning on the job, it is less specific for other employees.
So, I have to ask a question – does the law apply to John McGauley? He uses tax-payer funded equipment to surf the blogs (and post comments) day after day while “on the job”. Or how about Deputy Mayor Mark Becker and Greg Leatherman, Deputy Director of Community Development? They’re on my blog fairly often as well.
Maybe it’s time a complaint was filed with the city for employees wasting our tax dollars to surf the blogs? It could be backed up with access logs of the IP addresses and further, the complaint could ask for internal records that would back it up.
If they want to watch, let them watch at home on their dime.
Surf’s up! – AWB
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Do we really want to discourage public officials from joining in the blogosphere?
Jeff brings up a good point. Blogs can often be a glimpse into the thoughts and perspectives of the community, and I think that limiting access from public computers would be a mistake.
Jeff,
Are you a property owner? Taking a stance on taxes at the City-council meeting against income taxes was a thoughtful idea… 9/11/07.
It would be better to rid Indiana of all property tax.
It is either property taxes or income taxes. Not both.
Lets share all the wealth, income taxes.
Let’s all do our best to accomplish land ownership, savings, intergrity, independence, and prudent tax savings for everybody.
In a perfect world, we could give everyone everything right now.
Bobett,
Yes I am a property owner. My comments during the city council meeting were to inform the council that if they choose to enact one of the three lousy options given to them by the state then they are likely to make a bad situation worse.
Under those scenarios nearly everyone with a job will be paying higher taxes. That’s not the kind of reform most people are looking for. On top of that, it does nothing to address the real problem – spending. So you and I both know that if they shift part of the tax burden from property to income taxes, they will continue to spend money they don’t have and we’ll end up paying more taxes in the long run.
I’m certainly not against property tax reform but simply calling a bad plan “reform” doesn’t make it so. That’s what I was trying to say…