As some of you may know, there’s 30,000 city workers in Toronto are on strike, which has shut down garbage collection, day cares, community centres and other services.
Like a good citizen, I fired off an e-mail to my councillor, Joe Pantalone, who also happens to be the deputy mayor, in which I outlined my concerns and criticisms. Shortly afterward, I got this automated response:
“Thank you very much for taking the time to write and share your thoughts. I appreciate that and will include them with comments from others in the community. Thanks again,
Joe Pantalone
Deputy Mayor
City of Toronto”
To be honest, it seems strange to receive an automated response given the world of social media where “conversations” are happening on an increasingly basis between companies and consumers. And it seem odd to get this kind of response given how Obama Barack used social media so effectively during the U.S. presidential elections.
Yes, I know Mr. Pantalone is a reall busy guy these days with not enough hours in the day to personally respond to every e-mail he receives but there’s got to be a better way to talk with his constituents about what’s happening.
It would be great if Mr. Pantalone was using social media tools to have “conversations” but his Web site suggests he’s not using Facebook, Twitter, a blog, Flickr or YouTube. You can e-mail him but there’s no way to have a “conversation”.
We’re living in a world of two-way communications, and I want to see my local politicians get involved. Heck, Toronto Mayor, David Miller, is a Twitter addict (in a good way!) so maybe he should tell his deputy mayor to get on the social media bandwagon.
3 Comments
At least when you emailed him you got something back. When I emailed him about his suddenly stopping new restaurant growth on Ossington, the email bounced. I ended up having to call him, get his assistant's email and use that one.
It doesn't seem like Joe wants a conversation with the community. He is the one in charge, and he likes it that way. Old school!
http://ossingtonvillage.com/?p=4
I emailed him the other week and got the same stock response, but then it was followed up a phone call from one of his staffers.
I replied to one of his regular electronic updates on council initiatives. I suggested that since we are in tough times, and all the updates are talking about initiatives that spend more money, that it would be great if 1 out of every 4 updates or an article or 2 in each update spoke to cost-saving initiatives that the city is undergoing to minimize potential tax increases on a burdened constiuency. No response either. He is somewhat electronic in that he emails out updates which is nice. But I agree with everyone else that when he can't answer a question or doesn't want to answer a question, he tends to either pass it off on a staffer to give a non-responsive answer or he doesn't respond at all. Not good, but I guess if we all have complaints, then someone should step up to run against him….and I will be the first to admit that it won't be me!!
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[...] active participant in blocking entrepreneurs growing new restaurants around the city. His response (and email response, unfortunately), posted below, is patently absurd and provides no explanation apart from vague mentions of [...]