Three on Council want to spend $500,000 on a website

I cannot believe that as we look at severe cuts to police, fire, libraries and recreation services that anyone on the City Council would propose spending $500,000 to $600,000 for a website that would provide a 24/7 online contact with the City.

First of all, I have provided such a contact on my website for 5 years for free -- check it out: http://www.longbeach.gov/district5/sr.asp.

Secondly, the City can use SeeClickFix which I have been beta testing for several months. It costs $100 a month.

Or use Better Place from the Florida League of Cities -- again for a minimal fee.

Actually, the old fashion way works just fine -- email. I get hundreds of them each month with requests for service -- sometimes with photos attached. It's free and it works. Then my staff forwards the requests to the appropriate department and we map (and put it online) where the requests have been made so we can use that data to plan how we can group requests together for repair so that more can be made at one time.

How can we ask city employees to pay more for their pensions and to give up raises while we spend one half million for a new toy? How can be cut police, fire, library and recreation services? How can we cancel police and fire academies? Again.

How can we cut back on maintenance of our parks?

$500,000 fixes a lot of sidewalks and potholes and a couple of residential streets.

 Based upon the 5 years I have been using my on line, 24/7 service form, we know where the problems are -- we just need the funds to fix them.