In a quick policy reversal, Mayor Art Ward said Tuesday that he has relaxed restrictions on internet use imposed by his predecessor.
“I have undone it,” Ward said.
Ward said that he opted to return to the city’s former policy because municipal departments were finding it difficult to do necessary work on the web and learning that most of the abuses found by Mayor William Stortz weren’t quite what they seemed.
“Used in the appropriate manner,” Ward said, the web “is an incredible tool for city business.”
In one of his final acts in office, former Mayor William Stortz ordered “lots of things” blocked so that city workers could not access most internet sites at work.
Stortz said at the time he ordered whole categories of websites, from restaurants to entertainment, blocked to try to improve productivity, save a little money and send the right message to the public that ultimately pays for it all.But Ward said that making it more difficult for municipal workers to do their job isn’t helping taxpayers.
“It was limiting their ability to do their jobs,” Ward said.
A report prepared for Stortz found city workers were looking at an astounding array of questionable websites, including HornyMatches.com and perfectlovercalculator.com.
But Ward said that city workers didn’t actually see most of those sites.
What actually happened, he said, is that they tried to access the sites but couldn’t, because the city has long had a system to block as many improper sites as possible without hindering access to most of the web.
Ward said he will get regular reports from the city’s computer experts about who is accessing which websites. If somebody abuses the system, he said, he’ll take the appropriate steps to punish him through the personnel office.
But, he said, there’s no point to blocking most of the web when it makes the city government operate less efficiently.
Among the sites blocked by Stortz that are now accessible to city workers is the Bristol Blog, a Bristol Press blog. It was the wide interest by municipal employees in the blog that initially spurred Stortz to limit access to the web.
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Copyright 2007. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com
24 comments:
THEY NEED THEIR HORNYMATCHES.COM. THEY'RE ENTITLED TO IT!!
This is only the start of greater things to come for us City workers.
Thank you voters! Thank you Artie! BestBuy is having a big online sale.
no your not
Doesn't make sense: why would anyone try to access a website when they know that they are blocked.
And it still takes time, city time.
And, what about the new ones that pop up every day?
Ward is sending one powerful message: if you are a city worker, I'll take care of you because I need your vote.
This is excellent news. I need a date for the weekend, but by the time I get home and go online all the good online matches are taken or have gone offline. But now I can find the hotties who are online while I'm at work.
"Ward is sending one powerful message: if you are a city worker, I'll take care of you because I need your vote"
-Actually replace "ward is" with "Democrats are" and you have it right everywhere in general.
Now I can pay my bills online while my boss checks out all the fishing sites. A win-win arrangement.
Thanks Mayor Ward, if I lived in town I would vote for you.
Since the bosses are probably the biggest offenders, who is going to do the monitoring?
I am waiting for the first disciplinary action.
I applaud Mayor Ward for this move. The web is no more misused then the telephone. I am sure what needs to be blocked is being blocked and I voted for Johnson!
The adult content sites are still blocked (horneymatches, match, etc) but the local sites aren't (steve's blog, bristolct.com, etc)
Stortz misled everyone into believing this was a widespread constant problem. He convenently left out that most of it was pop-ups that made it through the filter, not people actually visiting the sites.
Art is watching carefully with the reports he's getting from IT. No one will get away with anything inappropriate.
THEY NEED THEIR E-BAY AND MACYS.COM. HEY ITS CHRISTMAS!!
If I remember correctly, Stortz indicated that there were close to 500 accesses to one Web site alone in the month of September.
Were these all city business? Were these just reading, or submitting comments?
Keep in mind that this was ONE MONTH.
If there is a policy, who is monitoring it?
Why are we spending critical staff time when it is documented that the workers are trying to access the sites contrary to city policy?
Seems like pandering to me, and it is just the tip of the ice berg!
Ward is sending one powerful message; city employee access to the web is a necessity in this day and age, and he's smart enough to recognize that fact. His plan to monitor accessed web sites and punish the abusers is a good one.
It's pretty obvious that some people are just living for the moment that Mr. Ward does something wrong so they can bash and jump all over him. So far, Mr. Ward has continued to disappoint them. Keep up the good work Mayor Ward!
Has anyone actually thought that Stortz move was less about porn sites and more about the fact that information related to the election was leaking out of city hall?
Will "open government Ward" make regular reports available to the public on the use of the internet??
I doubt it!
"Ward is sending one powerful message; city employee access to the web is a necessity in this day and age"
-There's no reason at all many city employees need to be on-line for anything.
Ward is pandering to City Hall employees. Is there ANYONE out there who didn't see this coming? This is just the start. I can't wait to see what they get when their Union contracts get renewed.
It's a great time to be a City Hall employee, and a bad time to be a Bristol taxpayer.
Get ready Maor Ward for the barrage of FOI requests from Stortz b/c he cannot let it go
"There's no reason at all many city employees need to be on-line for anything." Ya, who needs that confounded computer, telephone, fax machine, light bulb?...The typewriter, smoke signals and a kerosene lamp should be good enough for them dang city employees.
Perhaps not all city employees need to use the web, but the ones who do should be able to have access to it.
Years ago the Carpenters had a big song hit entitled "We've only just begun".
Is this Wards new theme song?
It is interesting tat the restoration never made the papers for all the public to see.
It will be in the paper.
Things get held sometimes, especially this time of year, because we know that weekends are slow and we have to make sure there are stories to run then, too.
We only have four reporters writing news at the Press now -- the way it's been for almost a year -- so it's hard to make sure there are stories every day.
Just do the math. Even if every reporter wrote two stories a day, that's only 20 stories a week when we all work five days.
This time of year, of course, it's pretty rare that everyone's working five days in any given week, so that just decreases what's available.
Believe me, you wouldn't want to be the editor trying to make sure there's a story or two for Monday's paper.
There is no question that certain sites have value to the city,
That was being provided for, when a request was made and justified.
But ontarionfishing.net, striperonline.com, samsclub.com???
Everyone in City Hall knows what is being done and who is on line.
Lets start to give the taxpayers a break.
I arranged a date while at work this week, we went out last night and had a great time. Thank you Art Ward! When I get back to work next week I'll blog about it.
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