Boynton Wants 48 Hour Rule

Ward 1 Allan Boynton had an idea he wanted to share:

"Last Wednesday morning I read in the local papers about an investment that a previous City Council had made with our tax dollars. Thursday evening I had an all candidates meeting at city hall and I wanted some hard facts and answers. I emeailed City staff asking the following questions: please see the email."

The question he sent to Sheila Prickett, Executive Assistant to the Chief Administrative Officer, read as follows:

"Could someone please provide me the name of the city's investment firm that invested our money in 2006 in ABC paper and could you also please tell me if we still have any current investments with them and what they are and if we continue to use them for investments today?"

Boynton further asked for a quick response and he was told by Prickett that she had forwarded the question to Margaret Neubauer, Chief Financial Officer/Treasurer. Four days later, says Boynton, there's been no further response. Instead, it got the candidate thinking. "It is an obligation of City Staff to respond professionally and quickly to all inquiries by every single Tax Payer," he said in a note to the press this morning. "I would ask, support and enforce that all city staff respond either via email or phone call within 48 hours of initial receipt of contact.

"In the business world, you would not be in business and tax payers of our great city deserve better," he added. "Our city should operate as a business and should not pick and choose what they want to respond to. We all want answers and we deserve them. There should be nothing to hide.