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TMCNet: EDITORIAL: Nice phones, council [Daily Camera, Boulder, Colo.]

[March 14, 2010]

EDITORIAL: Nice phones, council [Daily Camera, Boulder, Colo.]

(Daily Camera (Boulder, CO) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Mar. 14--It could be worse. Last summer, Gresso launched a Formula One-inspired smart phone coated in titanium, featuring a high-end camera and a 42-Carat sapphire crystal screen. It's hot. It costs more than $2,000.


The Boulder City Council members have much more reasonable smart phones. The Boulder taxpayers have purchased the nine members and about 100 other city workers iPhones (about $200) with monthly plans ($74, each). According to a Camera news story on Friday, there are 241 iPhones and BlackBerry phones in the hands of city workers, at a cost of $17,834 per month for service. The city is hoping to swap the remaining 138 BlackBerry phones for iPhones, which means the transition could top $48,000 -- not including monthly charges.

Smart phones are great; and it makes sense to pay for service for employees and elected leaders doing city business, including keeping up with e-mail.

But iPhones are best known for bells and whistles, and are expensive compared with many other smart phones and their plans. Compared to the AT&T-powered Apple device, many options -- from the big-business-favored BlackBerry, or the Palm Pre, for example -- are cheaper, with what many might consider a lackluster offering of fun-filled applications. But if you're using your smart phone as a phone and e-mail device, is the iPhone the best choice for cash-strapped Boulder? That's a fair question -- but not according to the city.

The Camera requested the council's cell phone records to see if city policy is being followed. The city denied part of the request (a log of calls to council members) and offered to charge the Camera $650 for the rest.

Patrick von Keyserling, city spokesman, called researching the numbers was a waste of resources for the city. Which is interesting, since our questions were geared to whether the city is wasting taxpayers' resources.

Want to buy city workers and elected officials all the bells and whistles? Go for it. Then be prepared show the taxpayers the numbers to justify it.

-- Erika Stutzman, for the Camera editorial board To see more of the Daily Camera, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.thedailycamera.com./ Copyright (c) 2010, Daily Camera, Boulder, Colo.

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