Citing concerns including design flexibility and access to emergency weather alerts, Woodstock town government has decided to hold off on choosing companies to upgrade the town website and to provide informational text messages.
Being locked into a TownCloud template design of a photo over three columns of text for an annual cost of $4384.80 didn’t sit well with councilmember Anula Courtis.
“So that would push me into looking at a second [company], because it’s not hard to change a background color in HTML or to make it uniquely Woodstock rather than a stock website,” Courtis said at the August 13 meeting of the town board.
Courtis suggested later that she could reach out to another firm, TextMyGov, to resolve security issues.
Councilmember Bennet Ratcliff favored an opportunity for public input on what would be on the town website.
“I believe that what we need to do is hit pause and ask people who are residents of the town, what do you want in the town website?” he said. “What is your opinion about the important things in the town website. How do you use the town website?” he said. “And then take that information and decide, do we need to look further or did this one vendor provide those?”
Councilmember Maria-Elena Conte agreed with Ratcliff about public input. She also expressed concern TownCloud wasn’t sophisticated enough to deal with archiving information.
Supervisor Bill McKenna formed a task force headed by Courtis and councilmember Laura Ricci. He appointed Conte and Ratcliff to it. Its task will be to come back to the town board with suggestions.
The board is exploring options for community text alerts. TownCloud and TextMyGov both made presentations to the town last month.
Courtis was concerned about the security implications of having two-way texts which would allow residents to ask questions of town departments. Ratcliff expressed concerns about the lack of tie-ins to emergency services and other agencies that other solutions provide. “I think we need to re-look at how to do a texting service,” he said.
More talk about Sinagra
Retired police officer and current dispatcher Carol Sass once again asked why officer Phil Sinagra was on the town payroll and inquired about his status.
“Is he still a police officer?” she asked. “Does he still own a town-owned gun? Does he still possess that? Does he still have a badge and an ID where he can go around and say, I’m a Woodstock cop.”
She said Sinagra had been permitted to attend the New York State Justice Department training as a police officer. Although he performed no police duties, he’s been getting a salary of 20 hours each week.
“And that’s the sticking point for me,” Sass said. “I estimate that he’s been gifted from our tax dollars between $30,000 and $40,000.”
That’s a lot of town money.
“The town had the authority to terminate his employment or at least stop paying him, but he’s still here and he’s still getting paid,” she continued. “Do you have any intention of offering some kind of a golden parachute to lure him into resigning?”
Three officers and a former dispatcher have filed lawsuits against the town alleging a culture of misogyny, sexual harassment, and retaliation for reporting bad behavior. Part-time officer Sinagra is at the center of much of it. He denies wrongdoing.
Sinagra has been on paid administrative leave since May 2023.
Fix the sound, please
Public-access television producer Fanny Prizant said Spectrum cable customers were still complaining there was no sound on the town’s public access channel 23. Town supervisor McKenna asked residents who experience the problem to call his office at 845-679-2113, ext. 17.
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