by David Ball
Staff Writer
Checking e-mail is not usually a full-time job, but it is when you’re Heather Webb and you manage one of the busiest e-mail accounts in Jacksonville – the public account of Mayor John Peyton.
Webb was caught up when she left the office at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, but by Wednesday morning she had 26 new e-mails waiting in the inbox of [email protected]. Some were newsletters, spam and other junk mail, but most were legitimate complaints, comments and suggestions from residents, and Webb spent the rest of the day making sure each one, and the several dozen more that arrived later in the day, were responded to.
The mayor’s name appears at the bottom of each reply, and a few times Peyton actually does respond to messages on his own.
“He does keep a close eye on it, to make sure the e-mails are taken care of in a timely manner,” said Webb. “He doesn’t like them to sit around for a while.”
Still, keeping the inbox flowing is the chief duty of Webb, a 2005 Peyton appointee who enjoys her role as a communication bridge between the mayor and residents. They are the mayor’s messages, she said, just typed by her.
“On the surface, people could look at this job as a little administrative position,” said Webb, a University of Florida English major, in her small workspace at the Public Information Office at City Hall.
“But I am very close to the mayor and his staff. He touches base with me frequently,” she added. “I had a chance to read his correspondences and to develop his tone. He’s a very succinct communicator. He just gets to the point, and that’s what his (e-mail) messages do.”
Webb’s first duty is to filter out junk mail, spam and solicitations, which for Peyton’s account, like many e-mail accounts these days, is “quite a bit,” she said. Although they are not responded to, the e-mails are subject to public record laws and are stored in a folder in Peyton’s Outlook account.
“The folder’s storage has to be increased pretty regularly,” said Webb of the folder that is now holding more than 38,400 e-mails since Peyton first took office in 2003. About 30 percent is estimated to be junk or spam.
Webb is also responsible for filtering out “other” e-mails that normally don’t get a reply, such as a recent series of messages by a resident alleging a conspiracy of mental abuse brought on by Oprah. The messages were also sent to most of the City Council members and even President Bush’s public e-mail account.
“We also don’t respond to racist material or anything overtly profane,” said Webb, who usually confers with the mayor’s senior staff to make a determination. “It has to be a pretty extreme e-mail not to (reply). You know, people write when they are angry, and we like to give them the benefit of the doubt.”
If they are deemed legitimate, Webb will respond to the sender and forward a copy to the appropriate department head to either answer the question or initiate the requested action.
One Wednesday e-mail was from Laura Leaptrott, who made a suggestion for the Mayor’s “Great Ideas” program, a citywide suggestion box accessible at the city’s Web site, www.coj.net.
Leaptrott said the city could benefit from a plasma convertor to reduce city waste and reclaim property dedicated as dumps. She even provided a link to a Web site, www.startech.net, for more information.
“I have no idea what a plasma converter is,” Webb said, “but it looks like it has something to do with solid waste.”
Webb then quickly typed out a response. It was void of any typos, even on first draft, and filled with exclamation points and standard phrases that were obviously not unique to this message.
“Thank you for taking the time to submit your great idea!,” the response began. “By copy of your note, I have asked that Chris Pearson, chief of the city’s Solid Waste Division, investigate the possibility of implementing your suggestion. You will receive a response from Mr. Pearson or a member of his staff to let you know how your great idea is being handled.
“Again, thanks for writing. Great ideas grow great cities and I appreciate your feedback!,” ended the message signed, “Best, John Peyton, Mayor.”
Webb said most senders normally get some sort of reply back within a day, and some ideas, if appropriate, are instituted fairly quickly.
“One idea was to put directional signs on our GIS mapping system,” said Renee Brust, special assistant to the mayor for media relations. “Within 48 hours, they had put those on the maps” that are viewable online.
Webb received about 100 great idea messages during the first week of the program in April, but that has since slowed to an average of 30 per week for a total of 525 great idea suggestions.
Aside from great ideas, the single issue accounting for the most e-mails, with 674, was the controversy surrounding a proposal to bring a Navy jet base back to the vacated Cecil Field property in 2006.
“We were getting about 100 e-mails a day about Cecil Field,” said Webb, who remembered the time when talks about the Jaguars leaving Jacksonville created another busy time for the mayor’s e-mail account.
Recently, the mayor has received 32 e-mails regarding the budget, Webb said, with most suggesting how to save money. When certain “hot topic” issues arise, Webb organizes related e-mails into folders and keeps a running tally of senders’ opinions.
“It’s a good tool for the mayor to use when he gauges what the public’s opinion is on certain issues,” said Webb. “Granted, people typically send messages when they are unhappy about something.”
But many have sent positive messages, including 17 congratulatory e-mails for Peyton’s election to his second term and seven e-mails congratulating him on the recent birth of his second son. Webb said Peyton has received 266 e-mails complimenting his performance since he first took office.
Those messages were undoubtedly responded to, and like the rest, many were written by Webb under the mayor’s name. Webb said most senders probably understand Peyton would have little time to perform his mayoral duties if he personally responded to every e-mail, but they shouldn’t feel like their voices are going unheard.
“Sometimes they will preface an e-mail with, ‘I know someone else is reading this,’ or, ‘I know this isn’t really you,’” said Webb. “But once they see their issue is being handled in an efficient and effective manner, I think they are generally pretty happy with the experience.”