The Sheriff’s Office: One Big F**king Fail

Really, is there any decent excuse as to why PhillySheriff.com is down?  You know, the office that is keeping the DOJ busy?

An astute observer over on PhiladelphiaSpeaks noticed something:

Administrative Contact:
Cassell, James info@REACHINC.COM
Reach Communications Specialists, Inc.
1219 Spruce St.
Philadelphia, PA 19107
US
(215) 772-1925 fax: (215) 772-1930

Technical Contact:
Hicks, Catherine Catherine.Hicks@phila.gov
Philadelphia Sheriff’s Office
100 South Broad St. 5th flr
Philadelphia, PA 19110
US
(215) 772-1925 fax: (215) 772-1930

The Sheriff’s Office website obviously doesn’t live under phila.gov, it was registered through Reach Communications, which is embroiled in a cat fight between the Philadelphia Sheriff’s Office, the City Controller and City Council.

Of course, we got a new Sheriff in town, Sheriff Williams.   Maybe the new Sheriff in town is going to give us a cleaned-up, transparent website?

Think again.   Just weeks into the job, Sheriff Jewell Williams asked City Council for a shiny new Chevy Tahoe SUV, then as the budget debates in City Council wore on, backtracked, and then asked for $3.5 million extra instead.  In the middle of a budget crisis.

I for one certainly hope someone in the City’s OIT office can make a free website somewhere on one of the City’s servers so Jewell Williams can get his workers to put their spreadsheets on it.

Meanwhile, CityPaper reports there’s an RFP for a new site.  Say what?  You mean we have to wait a whole year while the process is bid out, someone wins it, then someone registers a GoDaddy and a Rackspace account and tosses the junk over to another outside host, when the City of Philadelphia already runs loads of its own websites?

My advice:  Jewell, if you’re reading this, follow Councilman Henon’s idea:  just make your own website on your own dime (GoogleSites is free) if you can’t get anywhere with OIT.  We (the public) just want to know what is going to auction, when, and what the auction rules are.   That’s about it.   At least publish your tax sales somewhere (I can host them HERE if you want) while we wait for your new site.

Love and kisses,   xoxox

Philadelinquency

p.s.  This is fucking hilarious.  I don’t know if it’s the real thing or not, but it made me laugh.