Ringing the wrong number

Published: April 28, 2009 7:00 PM Richard Rolke - Vernon Morning Star

The fight over the Okanagan Landing fire hall has turned into an inferno as both sides plead for public support. Large ads have been taken out in this publication, brochures have hit mail boxes and letters to the editor are being churned out at a staggering pace. Both sides are also urging residents to attend a public input session May 7 and to contact the politicians directly. However, bending the ear of one elected official could prove challenging. A cell phone number for Coun. Bob Spiers — along with those for the rest of council — is included on a brochure produced by the Vernon Professional Firefighters Association. The problem is that Spiers has refused use of the city-owned Blackberry and all you will get when you dial the number is a busy tone. “It was sitting on my desk and I’ve actually turned it in,” said Spiers, who is extremely blunt as to why he doesn’t want to carry a cell around. “It’s a pain in the ass and I don’t want brain cancer. I just don’t like cell phones.”

Now it would be easy to classify Spiers as a Luddite but you know what happens when you assume something. Spiers operates an Internet blog where he provides tidbits gleaned from a variety of websites he cruises frequently and he does use the e-mail address the city has assigned to him. He is as technologically astute as they come, but he has his limits.

It should also be pointed out that Spiers isn’t the first council member to take this stand. “If I go out to my cabin, I’m not going to have a Blackberry on my hip,” said former councillor Barry Beardsell when the devices were first handed out in 2006. Beardsell was concerned about the costs involved — even though the Blackberrys were provided for free by the city’s cellular provider — and he insisted that he was already easily accessible. “I have Internet and e-mail at home and my office, a fax machine and a telephone,” he said. But of course not all politicians share that view and the only way to get a hold of some of them is through their Blackberry. In fact, the ability to access the Internet and send text messages has kept some officials tapping away during meetings that drag on and get too boring. Ultimately, I’m not sure who passed the erroneous contact information on to the firefighters union because it’s fairly well known within city circles that Spiers has not become addicted to Crackberry. Likely all of this can be labeled as a simple breakdown in bureaucratic communications but publishing a wrong number certainly won’t help the firefighters get their message out.

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Bob Spiers Note:

I'm sure the Firefighters took the e-mail address and phone number off the City's website so they are not to be faulted for using it. When I turned it my blackberry that cost about $45 per month I had the phone number changed to my home phone number. On that website the phone numbers and e-mail address for all Council Members are listed with the exception of the Mayor who only has his e-mail listed.

The wisecrack about cell phone use and brain cancer was how I unsuccessfully tried to scare my kids in to ever getting hooked on those infernal devices. And don't get me started on the use of cell phones when driving. As a life time pedestrian I will support any government that bans them from our streets.