Columbia County Web Site
Behind As Usual
55 day delay may have set record
(Part I)
Columbia County, FL (posted July 24,
2009) Coming soon Part II -- The County Responds
By Stew Lilker
The audio postings on the County web site have always
been posted late, if at all. The 55 day delay for the
May 7th meeting has been unexplained and may be a
record.
County Manager Dale Williams at work. (file photo)
It is business as usual in Columbia County as once
again the County web site was behind the times in
getting information on line. Posting information in
timely fashion has been an issue that the County
Manager, Dale Williams, is not a stranger to and an
issue that he has continually ignored.
On Friday, July 17th, Columbia County resident Craig
Womer called the county at about 12:04 p.m. and when no
one answered the phone he was automatically switched
over to voice mail. He told the Observer that he left a
voice message requesting that the audio of the prior
night’s County Commission meeting be posted to the
County web site.
Mr. Womer told the Observer that he had some time
over the weekend and that it would have been convenient
to be able to review the audio at that time, as there
were important issues discussed that affected the
residents of the county.
Assistant County Manager Lisa Roberts. (file photo)
By 2:04 pm, Mr. Womer had neither received a return
phone call, nor had the audio been posted to the County
web site. He emailed Assistant County Manager Lisa
Roberts with the following message: I misplaced my notes
from last night’s BOCC Meeting and just checked the
county web-site to pull down the audio clip. It was not
yet uploaded and it would be most helpful if it could be
uploaded yet this afternoon. Thanks in advance.
This seemed like a simple request.
Two hours later at 04:07 pm Ms. Roberts responded to
Mr. Womer’s request with the following email message: I
am copying this request to Patrick Weaver, Web Designer
responsible for uploading the audio.
At 04:21 pm Mr. Weaver, the County Web Master, the
one Ms. Robert’s just explained was the person
responsible for uploading the audio responded via email
to Mr. Womer: Hi Craig, Todd has the audio on his
laptop. He’s been in several meetings today. He said he
will try to have it converted today to be put online.
However, it may be Monday until it’s up. Have a
good weekend -- Patrick Weaver -- Web
Developer/Programmer.
Four days later on Monday, July 20th at 04:11 pm,
the audio for the July 16th meeting found its way to the
Columbia County web site.
Mr. Womer did not review the audio over the weekend
and an examination of the chart shows that it was a good
thing that he didn’t want to review any of the other
meetings listed as the audio for those meetings was
posted up to 55 days after the meeting.
Some folks might consider 55 days to post a file to
the internet excessive. In Columbia County – it is
business as usual.
