On 30 September 2010, the City of Fort Wayne, Indiana entered into a contract with Chicago-based social media firm Carolyn Grisko & Associates in a move to increase the city's use of social media as a means of providing information to and getting feedback from its citizens. Many approve of the goal, but there is a concern among some who believe outsourcing the job is a serious misstep.
[This entry has been updated twice: I added another Further Reading link and report on the City Council meeting I attended to the end of the post.]
Deputy Mayor Beth Malloy, who has worked in local government under Chicago's Mayor Daley's administration, has indicated that she desires to have a greater presence in social media despite previous efforts by the City to avoid entering that arena. I think most Fort Wayne residents who spend time on the Web would applaud the effort to finally "get with the times"; I sure do. I use social media such as Facebook and Twitter to keep track of all sorts of local, regional, and national news, including events and venues, weather, traffic, emergencies, and so on, so I would welcome an official city presence to the mix.
While discussing the benefits and uses of services like Twitter (especially Twitter) would merit its own article, one obvious positive is the interaction with other local people. I have a list of Twitter users from Fort Wayne (view it here), and similar lists are maintained by many of the people on that list. It has allowed me to "meet" some very intelligent people right here in my own hometown without even trying!
Among the folks I've "met" using social media are several people who are involved with small business, publishing, news, and even social media. I don't really know anything about media marketing, but I know Scott Howard (@ScLoHo) could help me with that. I've never started a company, but I know James Paden (@JamesPaden) could help me with that. I've never tried to make a plan for integrating social media with local government, but I know Kevin Mullett (@kmullett) could help me with that. Hey wait—what was that‽
Deputy Mayor Malloy spoke with News Channel 15 reporter Elizabeth Fields: "When I got here, that's what I asked about. I looked around and did some Googling and searching, and I wasn't able to find a local government that had actually procured someone to help with a strategy." Scott Howard, a local media and marketing expert, recently tweeted, "Reason Malloy couldn't find local expert 1) She's not from here. 2) Never looked or asked!!!" In what looks to be an even bigger sign of the lackadaisical effort the City put forth to find qualified personnel locally is the absence of any mention of this issue from Fort Wayne's Project Bidding webpage. I could've found somebody—in fact, I have—and I'm not even in the industry! There are many others qualified, too.
There are many concerns people have about this deal: that Malloy may be employing Chicago-style "cronyism" by giving the job to a friend from back home; that Malloy may have intentionally kept the price tag below the $75,000 threshold to avoid the requirement for approval from the Fort Wayne City Council; that $72,000 is too much for the city to be paying for this service. I don't know what is the truth about Malloy's history or motives, but she claimed she did not know Carolyn Grisko & Associates or its owner and that the deal was in the pipeline before the threshold was lowered from $100,000 to $75,000. But I do know that there are local resources who could fill the role.
Now, I don't claim to be a person who could help with the implementation of social media to the Fort Wayne government, but as a currently unemployed recent graduate of a reputable science, engineering, a technology institute with a degree in computer science living in Fort Wayne, I can sympathize with the feeling that this job needs to go to a local resource before it goes to Illinois—especially Chicago! (Don't get me started on why I'm not a fan of Illinois, especially Chicago. And this news from the city only aggravates that distaste.) It is vital to the economies of the City of Fort Wayne, the Allen County, and the State of Indiana that jobs which local resources can accomplish are given to those local resources! (This isn't something Fort Wayne and northeast Indiana doesn't already acknowledge; haven't you seen the Talent Made Here commercials on TV and on your banner ads on Facebook?) I have seen, with my own eyes, comments from local social media experts who would have offered the service for free or at greatly reduced fees than the $72,000 bill we're now footing.
Tonight, my father and I are attending the Fort Wayne City Council meeting (5:30 pm in City County Building Room 128) to make it known we do not approve of this contract with an outside company when there are local companies who can do the job. Councilman Tom Smith is also displeased with the contract, so it is good to know that at least one representative shares our point of view.
Further Reading
My point in posting this blog entry was to summarize the matter for my friends and family who may not be aware of it, clarify why I am unhappy about it and why they should be unhappy about it, too. There is a lot more to read about the issue that local writers better than myself have already produced. For more information and more viewpoints, check out the following resources.
Opinion: The City of Fort Wayne and Social Media and ‘Talent Made Here’ — The AroundFortWayne Blog
This is an excellent post that breaks down the specifications from the actual contract and demonstrates point-by-point how they could have been handled locally.
Do We Really Want Talent that IS MADE HERE? — OurSpace Fort Wayne
This discusses the attitude of young unemployed people who may realize, why stay here?
Fort Wayne Deputy Mayor introduces Chicago style cronyism — Angry White Boy
Again, I don't know that it really is cronyism at work, but the suspicion is valid, in my mind.
Controversy over social media consultant — WANE-TV
This features video of the interviews with Deputy Mayor Malloy and Councilman Smith.
City spending $72,000 for lessons on social media use — News Sentinel
City hires social media consultant — Journal Gazette
Fort Wayne City Council meeting schedule
To follow the conversation on Twitter, use the hashtag #FortWayneSM.
Update 2: Even Further Reading
How Hiring a Social Media PR Firm Can Ruin Your Public Relations - .gov Edition — Social Media Infrastructures.com
The very tools the city wants to learn how to implement and integrate were used to tear apart the poor decision the city made about how to learn it.
Update: Attended the City Council Meeting
Well, I attended the City Council meeting tonight at the City County building with my dad. One of the local social media and marketing experts I mentioned in this post was also there, Scott Howard (@ScLoHo). He wrote a great response to the meeting, which you can read here:
Lessons in Local Politics (& Social Media) - The Political side of Scloho.
What came of attending the meeting? As it turns out, since I'd never been to a City Council meeting before, I wasn't sure of the procedures, and I definitely wasn't going to speak out or on a topic that would make myself the fool, so I ended up missing the time to speak on the matter. (They asked if anybody in attendance wanted to speak, but I didn't know if it was open for any topic or just for the matters on their agenda, so I held my tongue. Turns out that was the time to speak up. Oh well.)
And on reflection, it may not be a matter which warranted speaking up at the time. As Scott noted in the aforementioned response, this isn't really even within the City Council's jurisdiction since it didn't break the threshold. Or if there is a course of action open to the councilmen, I sure don't know it. I need to educate myself about the way our government works here in Fort Wayne before I think I can speak up myself, so that I can speak up at the appropriate times and to the appropriate people.
And so should we all.
Showing posts with label Fort Wayne. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fort Wayne. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Sunday, November 1, 2009
[UPDATED] Komets brawls with LumberJacks (31 Oct 2009)
Update: IHL announces suspensions
Summary—
Links—
The report from the Journal Gazette's Justin Cohn covering the suspensions is here.
Original Post Begins Here
I'm not sure if all of you heard about the melees (yes, more than one) at the Komets game last night, October 31, 2009, at home versus the Muskegon LumberJacks, but here is some summary information and a link that includes video of the altercations.
Let's get this started by showing you what happened. Here's the video:
Komets battling Muskegon
http://www.wane.com/dpp/sports/local_sports/sports_hockey_wane_komets_battle_muskegon_200910312146
This blog post by Justin Cohn, the Journal Gazette's Komets writer who was at the game, gives a bulleted summary of what all happened:
Timeline of craziness | The Journal Gazette, Fort Wayne, Ind.
http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20091031/BLOGS11/910319957/1008/SPORTS
On the above page, Cohn calls John DiPace a skill player. While he is a skill player, he is also known to fight tough guys, including Jeff Zehr (the loser from Port Huron who was attacking our star players behind the play in the 3OT Game 7 Turner Cup victory in 2008), Tyler Willis (Kalamazoo's enforcer for several years), and our own Mitch Woods. For details, see John DiPace - hockeyfights.com.
Cohn also notes that bully Jason Lawmaster went after scorer Konstantin Shafronov, who Cohn also calls "the most gentlemanly player" in the league. For the record, I checked on hockeyfights.com to see who Shaf has fought before — he doesn't even have an entry, despite the fact he's been playing professional hockey for over 20 years. You can check out Konstantin Shafronov's hockey statistics profile at hockeydb.com.
This blog entry from Blake Sebring, the News-Sentinel's Komets writer who was also at the game, has comments from Komets coach Al Sims, LumberJacks coach Rich Kromm, Muskegon's Robin Big Snake, and Fort Wayne's Colin Chaulk.
News-Sentinel.com (More on the altercation)
http://fwnextweb1.fortwayne.com/ns/sports/tailingthekomets/?p=2688
Here are the other articles posted by the Fort Wayne Newspapers' writers about the night's "festivities".
All hell just broke loose | The Journal Gazette, Fort Wayne, Ind.
http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20091031/BLOGS11/910319958
News-Sentinel.com (A Mac attack)
http://fwnextweb1.fortwayne.com/ns/sports/tailingthekomets/?p=2684
What MacMillan had to say | The Journal Gazette, Fort Wayne,Ind.
http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20091031/BLOGS11/910319956/1008/SPORTS
News-Sentinel.com (What Mac had to say)
http://fwnextweb1.fortwayne.com/ns/sports/tailingthekomets/?p=2686
K's start and finish it, then criticize Kromm | The Journal Gazette, Fort Wayne, Ind.
http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20091031/BLOGS11/910319953/1008/SPORTS
This entry was posted by Justin Cohn while I was writing this up. It includes a photo of Lawmaster bullying Shafronov and a few of Cohn's day-after thoughts.
Here's what K's were peeved about | The Journal Gazette, Fort Wayne, Ind.
http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20091101/BLOGS11/911019980
My own thoughts on it all:
From the way that Muskegon's tough guys jumped our players the way they did, it is my belief that what Muskegon's Lawmaster and Big Snake did to Fort Wayne's Shafronov and Chaulk was much more vicious and premeditated than anything Fort Wayne's MacMillan did. Brad MacMillian is sure to receive the mandatory 10-game minimum suspension for leaving the penalty box on top of the "abuse of officials" (which wasn't really abuse at all, he just brushed off the linesman who skated up to him which caused him to lose his balance and fall because of his own momentum, but nonetheless) suspension, but I hope that Brad Jones, IHL VP of Hockey Operations who deals with suspensions, issues suspensions to both Big Snake and Lawmaster that meet or exceed MacMillan's due to the vicious surprise attacks they perpetrated. Whether 'Jacks coach Kromm is responsible for instructing his fighters to do what they did, I cannot say with authority, but I wouldn't be surprised, and in fact believe it would be fitting and proper, if Kromm was fined or otherwise reprimanded for what transpired.
Kromm claimed that Mac left the penalty box twice. I wasn't at the game, and I didn't see that in the video, but that doesn't mean it didn't happen twice. What I *did* see, however, was Lawmaster savagely attacking one of our top scorers, who has probably never been in a hockey fight, pinning him to the ground and wailing away at his head. I also saw Big Snake leave the penalty box (in the video at the 3:20 mark) to try to fight MacMillan after Mac just finished with Lawmaster. So Lawmaster's suspensions should come from his specific targeting of Shaf (Cohn pointed out he had to skate 40 feet to get to Shaf to start his attack). Big Snake's suspensions should stem from (1), his surprise attack on Chaulk, (2), leaving the penalty box, and (3) from "abusing the officials" when he didn't want to go into the penalty box in the first place (in the video at 2:35). While Big Snake's "abuse" of the linesman may seem smaller-scale than MacMillans (seen at 2:41), a key difference was that Big Snake was actually focused on the linesman whereas MacMillan wasn't even really paying attention to the linesman because he was already zeroed in on taking care of Lawmaster. What MacMillan did is the same type of maneuver that you use in many sports to get away from a defensemen guarding you; it was unfortunate that the linesman went down as he did, but it was mostly from Mac redirecting the linesman's momentum away from himself (it doesn't look like an actual "push" to me).
I understand Mac getting suspensions: I won't argue with whatever he gets. Despite that, I still believe Mac did what he had to do to show those hooligans that their specific targeting and surprise attacks were way out of line. And I believe that as a result of those way-out-of-line acts, Big Snake's and Lawmaster's suspensions must match or surpass MacMillan's for the league to demonstrate that it will also not tolerate that kind of "goonery". The very day before, October 30, a report was published at QConline.com wherein IHL Commissioner Dennis Hextall said he'd like to see physical play, but no "goonery" in our league. The fight between DiPace and Schrock would be allowed under the Commissioner's guidelines, while the attacks on Shafronov and Chaulk most certainly would not.
Other links that may be of interest
The official boxscore from the game:
IHL Stats
http://www.pointstreak.com/stats/pro/boxscore.html?gameid=1057445
At the time of this entry, the Muskegon Chronicle had not posted any articles discussing the game. Feel free to check it later, though.
Muskegon Lumberjacks - MLive.com
http://www.mlive.com/lumberjacks/
Summary—
Brad MacMillan (FW) - Suspended 15 games
Robin Big Snake (MUS) - Suspended 12 games
Jason Lawmaster (MUS) - Suspended 0 (zero) games
Each player was also fined an undisclosed amount.
Links—
The report from the Journal Gazette's Justin Cohn covering the suspensions is here.
Video: MacMillan suspended 15 games | The Journal Gazette, Fort Wayne, Ind.
http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20091102/BLOGS11/911029953
http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20091102/BLOGS11/911029953
The report from News-Sentinel's Blake Sebring covering the suspensions. This includes commentary from Brad Jones, who issued the suspensions, as well as from Komets General Manager David Franke and Brad MacMillan.
News-Sentinel.com (Reaction to the suspensions)
http://fwnextweb1.fortwayne.com/ns/sports/tailingthekomets/?p=2705
News-Sentinel.com (Reaction to the suspensions)
http://fwnextweb1.fortwayne.com/ns/sports/tailingthekomets/?p=2705
Here's the only report from the Muskegon Chronicle online about the game. It falsely claims that the entire incident was set off when MacMillan cross-checked Muskegon's Tom Galvin.
Suspensions, fines handed out after Muskegon Lumberjack-Fort Wayne Komet melee | Muskegon Lumberjacks - - MLive.com
Blake Sebring has published his write-up of the events. It was posted before the suspensions were announced.
K's MacMillan may sit out 20 games | The News-Sentinel - Fort Wayne IN
http://www.news-sentinel.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091102/SPORTS/911020304/1002
http://www.news-sentinel.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091102/SPORTS/911020304/1002
My thoughts—
I'm fine with the suspension given to MacMillan. Big Snake deserved an equal suspension, though, for his specific targeting and surprise attack on Chaulk. Lawmaster definitely deserved a more severe penalty, though, for his even more vicious attack and abuse of Shafronov. It is noteworthy that neither Chaulk nor Shafronov received penalties resulting from the altercation: they didn't even have a chance to fight back.
I've heard various reasonings: that it was retaliation for Schrock's fight with DiPace; that it was retaliation for MacMillan's blows with Bouchard; that it was retaliation for MacMillan poking at the puck as Muskegon's goalie was covering it up. None of these, however, warranted the level of retribution the LumberJacks doled out. I saw the video, and the way MacMillan, who is known to be taking on a more "real" shift this season, crashed the net was textbook: nothing wrong there. The situation was escalated by Muskegon taking offense to the net-crashing, but MacMillan would have none of it. Why Bouchard got in there with him is beyond me, but I notice that MacMillan did NOT continue to attack Bouchard once it was clear he wasn't going to fight. Finally, DiPace is not merely a skill player; he's been known to tango with other known tough-guys, as noted below in my original post. It wasn't like Schrock singled him out and attacked him suddenly and randomly. It was a natural extension of what happens when defensemen protect their goalies.
I don't blame Muskegon for wanting some retaliation from the first fracas, but they overreacted BIG TIME, and in an extremely unsportsmanlike manner. Big Snake got off a bit too easy, and Lawmaster got off WAY too easy.
Game Replay:
According to Blake Sebring's blog, "the Public Access team will show a replay of Saturday’s game at 7 p.m., Wednesday on Comcast Cable Ch. 55 and Verizon Ch. 25, and again at 11 a.m. on Thursday."
Original Post Begins Here
I'm not sure if all of you heard about the melees (yes, more than one) at the Komets game last night, October 31, 2009, at home versus the Muskegon LumberJacks, but here is some summary information and a link that includes video of the altercations.
Let's get this started by showing you what happened. Here's the video:
Komets battling Muskegon
http://www.wane.com/dpp/sports/local_sports/sports_hockey_wane_komets_battle_muskegon_200910312146
This blog post by Justin Cohn, the Journal Gazette's Komets writer who was at the game, gives a bulleted summary of what all happened:
Timeline of craziness | The Journal Gazette, Fort Wayne, Ind.
http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20091031/BLOGS11/910319957/1008/SPORTS
On the above page, Cohn calls John DiPace a skill player. While he is a skill player, he is also known to fight tough guys, including Jeff Zehr (the loser from Port Huron who was attacking our star players behind the play in the 3OT Game 7 Turner Cup victory in 2008), Tyler Willis (Kalamazoo's enforcer for several years), and our own Mitch Woods. For details, see John DiPace - hockeyfights.com.
Cohn also notes that bully Jason Lawmaster went after scorer Konstantin Shafronov, who Cohn also calls "the most gentlemanly player" in the league. For the record, I checked on hockeyfights.com to see who Shaf has fought before — he doesn't even have an entry, despite the fact he's been playing professional hockey for over 20 years. You can check out Konstantin Shafronov's hockey statistics profile at hockeydb.com.
This blog entry from Blake Sebring, the News-Sentinel's Komets writer who was also at the game, has comments from Komets coach Al Sims, LumberJacks coach Rich Kromm, Muskegon's Robin Big Snake, and Fort Wayne's Colin Chaulk.
News-Sentinel.com (More on the altercation)
http://fwnextweb1.fortwayne.com/ns/sports/tailingthekomets/?p=2688
Here are the other articles posted by the Fort Wayne Newspapers' writers about the night's "festivities".
All hell just broke loose | The Journal Gazette, Fort Wayne, Ind.
http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20091031/BLOGS11/910319958
News-Sentinel.com (A Mac attack)
http://fwnextweb1.fortwayne.com/ns/sports/tailingthekomets/?p=2684
What MacMillan had to say | The Journal Gazette, Fort Wayne,Ind.
http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20091031/BLOGS11/910319956/1008/SPORTS
News-Sentinel.com (What Mac had to say)
http://fwnextweb1.fortwayne.com/ns/sports/tailingthekomets/?p=2686
K's start and finish it, then criticize Kromm | The Journal Gazette, Fort Wayne, Ind.
http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20091031/BLOGS11/910319953/1008/SPORTS
This entry was posted by Justin Cohn while I was writing this up. It includes a photo of Lawmaster bullying Shafronov and a few of Cohn's day-after thoughts.
Here's what K's were peeved about | The Journal Gazette, Fort Wayne, Ind.
http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20091101/BLOGS11/911019980
My own thoughts on it all:
From the way that Muskegon's tough guys jumped our players the way they did, it is my belief that what Muskegon's Lawmaster and Big Snake did to Fort Wayne's Shafronov and Chaulk was much more vicious and premeditated than anything Fort Wayne's MacMillan did. Brad MacMillian is sure to receive the mandatory 10-game minimum suspension for leaving the penalty box on top of the "abuse of officials" (which wasn't really abuse at all, he just brushed off the linesman who skated up to him which caused him to lose his balance and fall because of his own momentum, but nonetheless) suspension, but I hope that Brad Jones, IHL VP of Hockey Operations who deals with suspensions, issues suspensions to both Big Snake and Lawmaster that meet or exceed MacMillan's due to the vicious surprise attacks they perpetrated. Whether 'Jacks coach Kromm is responsible for instructing his fighters to do what they did, I cannot say with authority, but I wouldn't be surprised, and in fact believe it would be fitting and proper, if Kromm was fined or otherwise reprimanded for what transpired.
Kromm claimed that Mac left the penalty box twice. I wasn't at the game, and I didn't see that in the video, but that doesn't mean it didn't happen twice. What I *did* see, however, was Lawmaster savagely attacking one of our top scorers, who has probably never been in a hockey fight, pinning him to the ground and wailing away at his head. I also saw Big Snake leave the penalty box (in the video at the 3:20 mark) to try to fight MacMillan after Mac just finished with Lawmaster. So Lawmaster's suspensions should come from his specific targeting of Shaf (Cohn pointed out he had to skate 40 feet to get to Shaf to start his attack). Big Snake's suspensions should stem from (1), his surprise attack on Chaulk, (2), leaving the penalty box, and (3) from "abusing the officials" when he didn't want to go into the penalty box in the first place (in the video at 2:35). While Big Snake's "abuse" of the linesman may seem smaller-scale than MacMillans (seen at 2:41), a key difference was that Big Snake was actually focused on the linesman whereas MacMillan wasn't even really paying attention to the linesman because he was already zeroed in on taking care of Lawmaster. What MacMillan did is the same type of maneuver that you use in many sports to get away from a defensemen guarding you; it was unfortunate that the linesman went down as he did, but it was mostly from Mac redirecting the linesman's momentum away from himself (it doesn't look like an actual "push" to me).
I understand Mac getting suspensions: I won't argue with whatever he gets. Despite that, I still believe Mac did what he had to do to show those hooligans that their specific targeting and surprise attacks were way out of line. And I believe that as a result of those way-out-of-line acts, Big Snake's and Lawmaster's suspensions must match or surpass MacMillan's for the league to demonstrate that it will also not tolerate that kind of "goonery". The very day before, October 30, a report was published at QConline.com wherein IHL Commissioner Dennis Hextall said he'd like to see physical play, but no "goonery" in our league. The fight between DiPace and Schrock would be allowed under the Commissioner's guidelines, while the attacks on Shafronov and Chaulk most certainly would not.
Other links that may be of interest
The official boxscore from the game:
IHL Stats
http://www.pointstreak.com/stats/pro/boxscore.html?gameid=1057445
At the time of this entry, the Muskegon Chronicle had not posted any articles discussing the game. Feel free to check it later, though.
Muskegon Lumberjacks - MLive.com
http://www.mlive.com/lumberjacks/
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