IT Meeting

I am one who almost always gives someone the benefit of the doubt. I mean, without having been there, scheduled the meeting, made the phone call, sent the email etc., there is no way to really know what happened and why. Certain things, no matter what the situation though, just seem, well, intentional.

I am talking about the meeting scheduled for tonight regarding the recently completed assessment of the Town of Middleborough's IT Department. Until the recent update of the town website, it wouldn't have required, in my opinion, any one to look further than that to declare this town in need of a major overhaul in the IT department. It doesn't surprise me at all, given the sub standard web site that was in place, that problems were found in other areas.

What gets to me regarding this whole thing however, has nothing really to do with the IT department. It has to do with the meeting, which is a public meeting, being announced to the public on the day of. Seriously? Even given my optimistic attitude when it comes to giving someone the benefit of the doubt, I find it extremely difficult to believe that this meeting was scheduled in the wee hours of this morning which is when the Enterprise posted the link on their website and Twitterfeed. There is also no indication of the meeting on the new town website(at least that I was able to locate). One could argue that it may have been announced at the BOS meeting last night (I was unable to attend so I am not sure if this is even a valid argument) but still, one day notice? It is very difficult for me to believe that there wasn't some part of this last minute announcement that was intentional so that fewer people would attend than already do, leaving little to no public comment on something that has been a concern of this town for years. Please, if I am wrong about any of this and there was some announcement that I missed, jump on in via the comments and correct me.

I have previous plans which may have been changing anyway, but I'd be lying if I said my only interest in attending this meeting was to hear the full report on the assessment. Yes, there is a small part of me that wants to go just to prove a point. You can announce your meetings a day, an hour or even a minute before, and well informed, concerned citizens such as myself will still show up...even if I don't speak a word.

As someone who has more recently taken a keen interest in the affairs of this town, I am continually discouraged by the lack of communication between our elected officials and the general public. They were elected to be representatives of this town and it's people and this is one instance in which they are doing a poor job.