Arkansas Blog

Yes there was an internetz in 1990. It just wasn't widely used. The UA had "bulletin boards" set up as early as 1983 which allowed you communicate via phone lines/computers with proffs for info postings.

I gave up and I'm leaving SBC-Ma Bell tonite at midnite. My land line has not worked very well for two months. The last round of storms convinced me of how essential it is to have some type of communication when severity strikes. My old CB might work but I doubt a passing trucker on the NWA bypass would offer much assistance. So, tell me about all those years I did without a cell phone and I'll tell you about the time when Md's were scoffing at the germ theory of disease and when my family watched 3 tv channels on a black and white set.

I believe I was drooling on my mom's lap while you were covering the execution.

I think a better story in state government is the use of state vehicles. Any state employee with a state phone is bound to make the random call to his spouse to be told to pick up milk and bread. Plus...most of the plans are based on a total of minutes so the call home doesn't matter.

The cars are a better story. Dozens of state agencies have state cars that are rarely used,,,at the same time you have state employees billing 45 cents a mile for use of a personal vehicle at work. That mileage check can add up fast.

A better story is to FOI the expense records of senior state officials to see the conferences they are attending. You will find the same people making trips over and over. But on the whole you will find the problem in government isn't phones or cars.....it's 15 very average and unmotivated older workers doing jobs that could be handled by five good agressive workers. It is impossible to getr id of the dead wood.

OK...one more fun FOI....guys like Richard Weiss did 28 and out and turned on their retirement checks....then they came back to work and turned on the full salary again. You want a story....FOI the salaries of the double dippers.

Public employees of schools, city governments, county governments are notoriously lathed with cell phones, using any excuse/pretext to have one of the tax payed commodities. If they are just used for public business....no problem. But if they are used for personal enterprises, then that is another matter. Ask Houston Dale Nutt.

"Here's a story for someone with more manpower and time than I can devote" - Ark Times Blog

I nominate Bob Powers.

L.Wood:

If you are going the cell phone route you might be wise to check into "Jitterbug Telephones" if you are not a teenager. Just Google 'em and get the information.

Thanks Cato, but I used those little-bitty-tiny calculators for so long this cell phone keypad seems normal. The cell ph clerk just became so sad when I told him I just want a phone, no text-I have internet for that, no pictures-I have a digital cam for that, no music-there's 2 stereos in the house and one in each car plus a couple of portable cd/Fm thingies.
So, he dragged out the $20 model. It works fine until my next eye exam.
I sorta miss the bag phone I had most of the 90s, with the mic and spkr on the dash.

I found this procurement policy for cell phones by the State of Arkansas -

http://www.arkansas.gov/doc/pdf/procurement_procedures.pdf

"All telephone equipment and accessories pertaining to installation and communication related to telecommunication shall require approval of the Department of Information Systems. The Procurement Section of the Administrative Services Division shall act as the Department's agent between Department of Information Systems, Office of State Procurement and various areas within the Department. ... All new cell phones and replacement equipment will be approved by the Management Team. All orders will be placed by the Procurement Section. Cell phone provider will be approved by Department of Information System. All phones and equipment will be consistent with the state contract negotiated by the Department of Information System."

By the way - the "P" in "iPhone" is capitalized, not the "i". The new 3G iPhones should be announced around the time the new Apple Store opens at the Promenade at Chenal. You should get one, Max. With the built-in web browser and camera, it would be like a mobile newsroom in your pocket. You could use it for mobile blogging and uploading photos - even when you're driving around.

OH NO! Not while driving around!!!

I'm about to watch one of those "retire and come back" folks do their thing. Leave the job they've had for twenty five years. Take a few weeks off, and come back to the same job. And we wonder why so many state agencies still function the way they did thirty years ago.

I was reminded of this while renewing my driver's license the other day. They'll take a check from you, but not a debit card. Makes perfect sense, doesn't it?

SrangeTimes is on to something. An additional FOI of interest would be the state vehicles being used as personal cars by some. Must be nice when gas is so expensive for the rest of us. The use of personal vehicles is misused as well but non-red tag vehicles being used as personal cars is also out of hand.

"OK...one more fun FOI....guys like Richard Weiss did 28 and out and turned on their retirement checks....then they came back to work and turned on the full salary again. You want a story....FOI the salaries of the double dippers." This would be another interesting story!

WHo needs phones when you can now do this: (at my name)

Rocket man flies on jet-powered wings
Former fighter pilot reaches 186 miles an hour during first public flight

If you're up late, sorry to abort but this is worth it:

The blogosphere has been abuzz about the Internet posting of audio of a luncheon former Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld held with media military analysts that provides insight into the relationship between those analysts and the Pentagon.

bluename

I'm a state employee with a cell phone. My own. I would rather absorb the few minutes a month I talk business on that phone than have somebody poking into my records with a FOI request. You can't touch me.

Anyone researching the use of cell phones by state employees should find out how many state employees have their own personal cell phones --- phones they pay for --- that they use to conduct state business. I paid for my own phone when I was a state employee, and my wife paid for her own phone. I still work with a lot of state employees, and most of them have phones they pay for.

I worked for the State for 4 years.
Since I was labeled an essential worker (I was in IT), I was given a cell phone. My boss was a realist. He knew that there would be the occasional personal phone call and he had no problem with that. He did have a problem when the occasional call turned into many calls and would nip that in the bud pretty quick.

We were not issued State vehicles (despite many of us having to drive (on State business) all around the State on a weekly basis. We used our own cars and were reimbursed for the miles. Didn't help me much since the truck I had at that time only got 9 MPG.
I worked in a fairly well run (for the State) department.

I saw all kinds of waste and stupidity in other areas though (DCFS anyone?)

I now work in the private sector and we are required to have cell phones and use them for business. Of course, they are our personal cell phones and the company will not pay for the cell phone usage.
Nothing like being forced to pay $80/month for the joy of having work call you whenever they want.

I wrote stories for The North Little Rock Times about both city-issued cell phones and city-owned take-home cars. There's a lot of interesting information you can turn up, but it is a ton of work. Something the statewide daily could probably tackle by devoting a couple of reporters to it full-time, but smaller papers would have trouble doing at a state level. However, I encourage local papers to see what their cities are doing as far as providing cell phones and cars; it'll take time, but it's worth the effort.

I'm a state employee (through the UA system) and have my own cell phone. I got it for business but have used it personally, too, and I deduct it every year on my taxes.
Also, last I heard state employees could not use state money to get an iPhone--but I bet someone has figured out how to by now.

In our agency, Blackberries are issued to senior management and are required carry items. Plain cell phones are signed out to field inspectors, and a small pool of phones (3) is available to be checked out as needed if an employee needs one for business use.

Detailed phone bill listings for both land line and cell phones are received and reviewed each month. For an issued cell phone, you reimburse the state for any personal calls that caused your monthly bill to exceed the alloted minutes in the standard calling plan. For land line phones, you sign off on all long-distance calls as being either business or personal, and reimburse the state for any and all long distance calls.

Me, I have a personal cell phone that gets used occaionally, the phone here in the cube is strictly a business line.

historian,

In the very near future, I expect to see the state of Arkansas authorizing iPhones for a large variety of purposes for the same reason other enterprises are doing so: They're sweet, secure, powerful technology, and cheap at the price.

Government isn't business, but an enterprise is an enterprise, and there are commonalities, including information technology.