Mahwah October 23, 2013 THE VILLADOM TIMES IV • Page 3 Township council miffed by mayor’s app launch by Frank J. McMahon At a recent public meeting, several Mahwah Council members voiced their dissatisfaction with Mayor William Laforet’s decision to launch the new communications appli- cation (app) without the advice and consent of the council. Their objections were aired following a presentation that described a new smartphone app known as “Mahwah Delivers.” This free app will allow residents to communi- cate with various township departments. After he learned of the new app, Council President Harry Williams invited Lily Liu, founder and chief executive offi- cer of PublicStuff, the software company that provides the app, to make a presentation to the council and describe how residents and department heads can use the app and digital communication solution. The presentation was well received by the council, although it elicited many questions about how the app can be used by residents, how the department heads might use the app to respond to resident alerts or general com- munications, and who would administer the program for the township. That information was provided by Liu, who advised that her company has about 50 contracted cities in the United States using her software. After the presentation, Councilman Roy Larson voiced his objection to Police Chief James Batelli being involved in the administration of the program and having access to all the information gathered by it. He described the pro- gram as a department of public works tracking system and said the mayor and the police chief have no right to have access to the site. Larson also said the council was excluded from the devel- opment and the acquisition of the program and described the mayor’s action as being “easier to beg forgiveness than to ask for permission.” Several other council members also objected to the mayor and the police chief deciding to award this contract without the approval of the council. Lisa DiGiulio said the presentation should have been given to the council before the contract was awarded. She also objected to a decision to allocate money being made by two people whom she said do not have the authority to allocate money in the township. “I have to respect you, and you have to respect us,” she told the mayor. Councilman Steven Sbarra also complained that tax- payer money was spent without knowing the future cost of the program. “I sit with Lisa,” Sbarra said. “I’m not sure this is totally needed and I’m not sure this system will be the answer to all our problems.” Sbarra also voiced concern about who would have access to all the reports generated by the pro- gram. Councilman John Roth objected to giving one depart- ment access to information about other departments and he said the system was set up without enough thought about its administration. Laforet emphasized that there was no deception intended. He advised the council that he and Chief Batelli spent many hours building the program for the township, and the com- pany was contracted in July through the end of this year at a cost of $2,875. He said he and Batelli will administer the program for the balance of this year, and he estimated cost for next year would be about $7,000. He explained that, over the past two years, and espe- cially after Hurricane Sandy in October of 2012, he learned there is a need for better communication between the township government and the residents. He said other com- munication programs, such as SwiftReach Networks, an emergency notification system; Crisis Map, a program to locate people in a disaster; and Nixle, a notification service for law enforcement and government have been huge suc- cesses and he realized there was a need to do more due to the potential loss of electrical power in the township. “Our goal is to be connected,” Laforet said as he intro- duced Liu. Liu advised that her company has been in business for three years and described how her software is used in Phila- delphia and other cities. She claimed her software is unique because other services do not provide all the components of her software. She said the program uses an administra- tor in the township who has access to all the information recorded by the program. She also said her site does not use any advertising although, from a legal standpoint, she reserves the right to do so and her program does not do any tracking of the information it receives about residents who communicate with the township through her service except to maintain a history of an issue in case a resident logs back in to the service. In addition, she said there is no blogging compo- nent in her program for personal opinions, comments, and experiences. After the council members voiced their objections to contracting for this service without their knowledge and approval, Williams concluded the discussion saying the council will have two-and-a-half months to see the program in action and to see what it is going to do before needing to make the next decision about it. He asked the council to look at the program objectively over the next three months.