by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
Deciphering cell phone bills and who owes who what could get a lot easier for City Council members soon.
A bill that would provide Council members with a yearly one-time subsidy of $550 to purchase a mobile communications device and up to $150 a month for service plans for the device is being proposed by member Michael Corrigan.
The plan could mean a maximum yearly taxpayer cost of $34,200. Currently, nine members have City-issued cell phones while others already have personal cell phones they use for City-related business on a daily basis. Some of those bills are as low as $20 a month while others top out around $150.
Council cell bills are public record, but under the new plan, since the phones will be privately owned, the bills will not open for public or media inspection. However, because the City is providing an allowance for the purchase and monthly service plans, the numbers will be published.
The new policy would allow Council members to use the phone for any purpose and eliminate the need to pore over monthly, detailed cell phone bills for the purpose of determining the exact nature of every call.
Corrigan said the amended ordinance is not a result of previous cell phone abuse by Council members — some had monthly bills with thousands of calls that cost hundreds of dollars. Rather, the idea is a result of last year’s hurricanes and the communications difficulties they created.
“We went days with the power out in some areas of town and we couldn’t reach some Council members as fast as we wanted,” he said. “Some, we couldn’t reach by phone, others we couldn’t reach by e-mail. I feel this plan will speed up the process by which we communicate with each other and our constituents.”
Corrigan said any Council member that exceeds their monthly allowance will have to pay the difference regardless of the nature of the calls.
Council member Reggie Fullwood likes the plan.
“It will certainly make it easier,” said Fullwood, who ran into a bookkeeping problem over excessive calls a few years ago. “I don’t have a City cell phone right now, but I used to and you would have to go through the bills and highlight every call that was City business. It was tough because there were months where you had 500 calls to go over and it was hard to remember who you called or why. It will be a lot cleaner process.”
The plan could save City staff members a lot of time and the City money.
Right now, City staffers purchase the phones, select service plans and audit the monthly bills of dozens of City officials and employees. The new plan would put the purchase of the phone or PDA, the service contract and any issues resulting from damage to the device in the hands of the Council member. Corrigan said this will streamline the process and allow City staffers to perform other functions.
The initial cost may be expensive. However the money saved in the long run by not having to replace or repair phones or calculate bills will be worth the up front cost.
“It takes a lot of staff time to go through the process of looking at every bill. They are wasting taxpayer money by doing that,” said Corrigan. “This bill will help reduce that time and allow us to use that resource better.”
Fullwood agreed.
“This will save the Council offices a ton of time and money,” he said.
The plan calls for Council members to be reimbursed for the purchase of a cell phone, Blackberry, Trio, pager or any combination of those devices.