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Monday, March 06, 2017

Hayden Phillips Sole NorCo Council Member Listing Email Address

What you see on the left is from Northampton County Council's webpage. There are photos of all nine members, but not a peep about them. The webpage states, "Email County Council Members" and then lists only the county email address of one member, Hayden Phillips.

I have repeatedly spoken to County Council, and several times over several months, about this very specific example of their utter disregard for the public. Hayden Phillips is the only one who listened.

This is an example of what Executive candidate Lamont McClure talks about when he refers to a "callous" county government,

Four at-large Council members - Glenn Geissinger, Peg Ferraro, Seth Vaughn and Phillips - want you to re-elect them. Of these four, only Hayden deserves your vote at this point. The rest of them take you for granted.

As Seth Vaughn told me when I took him to task for missing an important budget hearing, "So what? Who cares?"

Peter Melan
Peg Ferraro told me, in a telephone conversation on Sunday, that she would ask Council Clerk Linda Zembo to publish Ferraro's county email address as well.

Easton City Council member Peter Melan, who is running for one of the five-at-large County Council seats, is puzzled by this lack of transparency. "As an elected official, you are supposed to be accessible," he told me. "That's part of our job."

Melan noted that, in Easton, every Council member's email address is prominently displayed. He also listed his personal cell phone number on his Council business cards, and has instructed Clerk Tom Hess to give it to anyone trying to reach him.

Melan suggested that perhaps email addresses were lost when the new website was prepared. He's being kind. The reality is that County Council never listed their email addresses, and are reluctant to do so now.
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11 comments:

  1. AnonymousMarch 6, 2017 at 2:33 AM

    Is it true Mr. Melan is your new political man crush? he is not on county council yet you are seeking out his opinion?

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  2. AnonymousMarch 6, 2017 at 2:36 AM

    I can understand not having your own personal E-Mail address on the County website but I don't understand why your County e-mail address is not on the website. Also, you should have your personal phone number in the phone book. After all you are a pubic servant. OOps I mean public.

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  3. AnonymousMarch 6, 2017 at 2:49 AM

    I doubt it is county councils fault, the IT department should have done it. They may just be unaware and you are using that as a weapon against them.

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  4. AnonymousMarch 6, 2017 at 6:30 AM

    With a majority of council that is in the bag for Brown..why even bother contacting any of those sheep. A totally useless endeavor to say the least. Bring on the election cycle..

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  5. Bernie O'HareMarch 6, 2017 at 6:49 AM

    2:49, You are dead wrong. Council has been told about this, by me, in writing and in person.It is not the IT department, but the Council Clerk who has control over the council portion of the webpage. That's another Brown "improvement." The only one of them who listened to me was Phillips.

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  6. AnonymousMarch 6, 2017 at 6:56 AM

    Typical non-transparent government in action. Just like their fearless leader John Brown. Hopefully the citizens of NC will wakeup on election day and show these rogues the door.

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  7. Bernie O'HareMarch 6, 2017 at 6:57 AM

    2:33, Why wouldn't I speak to an outsider who is running for Council and who can share what goes on at Easton City Council? And why would I speak to a Council member (Vaughn) who thinks no one cares and that he will be easily re-elected, or another (Geissinger) who is just using a Council seat to launch his second run for Congress, and who isn't even trusted by members of his own party?

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  8. Mike FaccinettoMarch 6, 2017 at 1:41 PM

    This is outrageous. All 9 BASD board members email addresses can be found on the BASD website. It's not a choice we ever made, it's automatically done. If you're an elected official, and in every case but school director collect a salary from the public, then the public must be able to get in touch with you. We receive emails all the time to which I respond. My # is also in the phone book and I'm sure you can guess how many Faccinetto's there are. It's pretty easy to find me.

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  9. AnonymousMarch 6, 2017 at 1:55 PM

    Are the council people personally responsible to you? If you demand something why must they do it? Are you special?

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  10. Bernie O'HareMarch 6, 2017 at 2:09 PM

    The answer is yes. I occupy the highest office in NORCO - citizen. They work for me.

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  11. AnonymousMarch 7, 2017 at 6:03 PM

    I guess that Norco is not a good place to live, only visit, per the website homepage?

    ReplyDelete

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