Mayor of Concord » Mayor News

Thank you Reuters

Concord Blogger — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 20:06:36 +0000

Got word that one of my posts was getting some attention at Reuters so I had to look. I have been given some attention on other online newspapers in Chicago but it looks like I have moved up the food chain a bit. Back in Sept I wrote about Crime in Concord and that was picked up as well as the post for the new home of the Walnut Creek Police Dept.

How they choose their stories is a mystery to me but I am going to find out. Either way I appreciate all of the new visitors that have stopped by due to these posts in Reuters.

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Homeless Students MDUSD - How to help

Concord Blogger — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 01:19:11 +0000

I made it to the MDUSD District office before they closed. I had a great conversation with Lori Amenta the Assistant to the District General Council. Lori is working hard to bring donations in for these kids and explained she is happy to work longer hours and through lunch breaks to get things done for HOPE. I dropped off my donation which they were thankful for and I got to hear some more stories about kids in Concord and surounding cities that are less fortunate than us. Trust me, if you are reading this blog then there is a good chance you have more than most of these kids.

The story in the Contra Costa Times really pulled my heart strings. Maybe that’s melodramatic but the article did touch me enough to do something about it. I wasn’t always the Mayor of Concord, I remember growing up with financial problems and I have made every effort to make sure my family and I don’t have to worry about food on the table or a roof over our heads. As I mentioned in the previous post about homeless students, kids should not be going without food and from the stories I heard while talking with Lori some of them don’t even have enough blankets to stay warm at night.Tragic.

This is the season of giving and I am asking the readers of this blog to give something to help support these kids.The MDUSD does not have an online system to receive donations which they really should look into, so in the meantime here are some ways you can help if you can’t drop off your gift.

Gift Card Mall is the company that serves Safeway gift cards as well as the other hundred stores you see filling those end caps at the grocery store. At Gift Card Mall you can purchase a card and have it mailed to the school district if you can’t drive it there yourself. (address at the bottom)

Since many of these kids don’t have warm clothes or even blankets, you can also get gift cards at Target.com, order one online and have it sent to the district as well.

Now you are always welcome to pick something up and drop it off at the MDUSD office. I know that most of you are busy people and may not be able to get to the office before they close at night, that’s why sending them something is just as good.

Anything helps. Gift Card Mall can create a card as little as $5.00, Target starts at $10.00. So there is really no reason you can’t donate something. Sure, I’ll be going without my Venti Nonfat Mocha for a few days but somehow I feel better knowing that I just helped feed some people.

Here is the information again about how and where to donate.

Target, Safeway or other gift cards for homeless students can be dropped off at the Mt. Diablo school district office, 1936 Carlotta Drive in Concord or sent to James Wogan, Riverview Middle School, 205 Pacifica Ave., Bay Point CA 94565. Check donations, which will be used for homeless tutoring services, should be made out to the Mt. Diablo Unified School District, noting homeless and foster youths. Receipts available on request. Information is at 925-458-6858 or www.mdusd.k12.ca.us/hope.

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Concord Major Crimes Press Release

Concord Blogger — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 18:57:50 +0000

Just as an update on the Concord Police request I put in, I won’t write too much on this. I got a call today from the CPD and spoke with Lieutenant Gartner. I kept calling him ’sir’ or Lieutenant and I had flashbacks like I was talking to my old XO. As promised, he got back to me regarding the question of being added to the Concord Police Press Releases.

He explained that bloggers do have to meet some standards to get added to press releases. The mainstream media gets added since their is an implied professionalism not always found with bloggers. That and the amount of requests that a police department could get for these requests could be inundating.

I have been added to the Concord Major Crimes Press Release distrubution list. WooHoo for me. As these come through, I will post them.

Thank you Lieutenant Gartner.

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Concord Police - Press Releases and Bloggers - Follow up

Concord Blogger — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 03:09:34 +0000

Thanks to Brittney over at Eye on Blogs for sharing this with her readers. I get a fair amount of emails regarding my site but Gmail was flooded today. I think that Brittney poses a great question on her site and I want to respond to some of the comments I have received about the original post.

Should governmental agencies release memos and other information given freely to mainstream media organizations to any blogger who asks? Should there be vetting of bloggers? Wouldn’t an agency become overrun if they granted every request, or are there really that many minibloggers interested to make a dent?

The point of a press release is to announce information to the public. It doesn’t take much to have a short list of mainstream news to proactively contact with the hopes that they may run a story. The question is what about the rest of us that want to know what the mainstream isn’t covering. There have been many cases where I see a press release on another site that has got zero exposure on mainstream news. The city is capable of publishing this information online. If bloggers can’t be added to the distribution list for information the city sees fit for a press release, at least make it accessible on demand. I’m willing to bet that the people of the City of Concord want to know whats going on in their city and they know that they don’t get everything from mainstream news. People are hungry for information and local blogs help fill that void. Why do you think local blogs are getting so much attention?

Should there be vetting of bloggers?

This is an interesting question. I mentioned this on my original post and the more I think of it, there can’t be ‘vetting’ for public information. If the information in a press release is damaging then they wouldn’t put it out. The idea of a press release is that the information has been cleared by people to be sent to the public.

There should be a mechanism for letting people get to this information though. Again, it is public information isn’t it? This would alleviate whatever sense of them being overrun by requests.

I made it clear that I wasn’t treated poorly by the Lieutenant on the phone. He was very respectful and told me he had to check with the City Attorney on this. Maybe that’s all the vetting that needs to be done. We will see.

Now to some of my wonderful reader emails.

How can you call out another blog for being irresponsible. You have been on the block for 3 months now and you steal stories from Claycord all the time.

The point of the post was to point out blogger have rights, not single out any specific local blog that has gone off the reservation and also to say that as more local blogs pop up that we need to act responsibly. I never mentioned any site specifically because the Lieutenant didn’t say. Maybe it’s safe to assume who he was talking about but there are more than a few local blogs covering Concord.

As for stealing stories, show me something. I write my own content. I get ideas from other news sites, mainstream and blogs then I write about it. I do not steal stories. Claycord has my number and I can be reached whenever he has an issue and there have been instances, but never because of stolen content.

Do you hate the Concord Police? Why don’t you just leave the city then.

I do not want to make anything more complex for the CPD. I have stated before that I have nothing but respect for people who wear the uniform. I have been in their shoes. Will there be times something happens within the CPD worth writing about. Yes. Will you hear me bash the entire CPD on it. No. I think the community needs to support their police force and at the same time we should hold them accounable to being honorable just as they hold us accountable to follow the laws.

Just as I was about to shut down for the night, I saw this comment on the original post and I got renewed faith in the world.

I got to this post from Eye on Blogs. I must say that there must be some distaste for your site based on the comments but they seem completely unsubstantiated. You keep up the good work and I enjoy your writing style and not just looking at quick posts of 3 sentences. You put work into what you write and it shows. I have no idea how much traffic you get but if you keep writing like this and the other posts I have read, you could be on your way to bigger things.

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Emails to the Mayor - Online Safety

Concord Blogger — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 17:28:04 +0000

It’s that time again where I pull from my reader emails and post one that I want to share. Actually, I have about 10 of these posts ready to go now. Since I made the original “Email the Mayor” post back in October, there have been many emails that have come through and I’ve been building them up so I can have a few in the pipe.

This email comes from John in Concord.

I have a lot of friends that post crazy stuff on their myspace and on YouTube. I try to explain to them that this type of stuff can come back to haunt them but they don’t care. They say that if they don’t show anything illegal that they don’t have to worry. Can you write up a post about the dangers of posting things online?

-John

Thanks John. The truth is that in the digital age people are making videos and posting pictures of themselves like no other time in history. I for example pretty much post my entire life through pictures videos and my blogs. I have a fairly trasparent life but I do keep certain things personal and off the grid.

Kids are probably the most naive about putting content online because they have not been educated on the matter.

A survey of 5,000 adults and 3,000 children found that nearly half of children aged between eight and 17 have a profile on one or more of the popular social networking sites. -Source

Frontline has a great video called Growing up Online that is about 8 minutes long that explains the dangers of putting too much information online.

I have always lived by a general rule when it comes to what I post online through video, pictures and writing. If you wouldn’t be comfortable with your parents looking at it then don’t put it up. At my age I don’t really think to much about what my parents will think but more about my family as a whole. when I posted pictures after returning home from Iraq of a lot of the carnage I saw, it became clear to me that certain things need to remain offline.

I think that Social Media site like Facebook, MySpace and others have a place in the younger generations but that still needs to be monitored. Kids need to realize that putting pictures up of them at parties holding drinks or doing drugs are not only accessable by their “friends” all it takes is a crafty internet user to get access to them. I can track just about anyone down online. I did this with another blogger when I was just curious about “who” they really were.

What do you think about teaching kids online safety? Should more parents and educators be talking to kids about this?

If you have a question you would like me to answer. Contact the Mayor and let me know.

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Concord Police - Press Releases and Bloggers

Concord Blogger — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 03:43:39 +0000

I made a call to the Concord Police Dept and spoke with Lieutenant Gartner in the cities Major Crimes Division. I wanted to know how and if I could be added to their distribution list for press releases. The Concord Police issue press releases individually through each division so starting with Major Crimes made the most sense. I figure this is the information most people would be interested in reading about in the city.

The Concord Police issue these to mainstream media like the Contra Costa Times and local TV with the hopes of getting some attention put on a criminal event. The problem with mainstream media is that they have agendas and they usually roll around sensationalism, so if there is a HOT topic being discussed, these city press releases can get lost in the shuffle or only given minimal exposure to the public.

This is where local blogs come into play. A local blog has a specific focus and generally speaking does not carry an agenda. Concord is a relatively small city for a blog to focus on. I would have thought a year ago that a blog focusing on suburbia would be of little interest to anyone, but I now know it’s the opposite. People in Concord want to know what’s going on in their little piece of heaven and mainstream media can only tell them so much, so they turn to the internet and find sites that talk about the issues, news and events they are interested in. Local blogging is a niche and people love niches.

Blogging is a type of journalism. Local blogging is the same. Journalists have specific rights guaranteed by the Constitution the same goes for bloggers. Even though this fight has been taken to the courts, it’s been decided that bloggers have rights.

One of those rights is to have access to press releases through the Freedom Of Information Act. Now if any of you are familiar with the FOIA, you will know that this paper shuffling can go on for weeks, months and years depending on what you are looking for. The Electronic Frontier Foundation is a group that confronts and defends blogger rights and has a wealth of information. It turns out the State of California has already ruled on this matter and made it clear that bloggers share many of the same rights as mainstream media. They have a Bloggers Legal Guide if you are interested.

Getting added to the distribution list of the Concord Police Dept. didn’t sound like a hard thing to do. Call the person in charge and ask to be added. Turns out Concord has a different take on it. In my short conversation with Lt. Gartner I mentioned I was interested in getting added to the distribution of the Major Crime press releases and as I should have expected, he asked what news agency I was with.

“I’m not with an agency, I write in a local blog.”

He asked for the name of the site and heard his keyboard tapping in the distance. While he was doing this he asked me my name and wondered how long I’ve been doing this blogging thing. I explained to him that the Mayor of Concord was a new site but have my personal site that has been around for years and I started writing in that while I was serving overseas in Iraq.

As professionally as he could he explained that the police dept. does not like to issue press releases to ‘bloggers’ and referenced a site that he has had issues with in the past. Information was misused. I wanted to dig deeper but he made is point clear. I was almost embarrassed for the ‘other’ guy. Sure the press releases are meant for public consumption so I am unclear on how it was used unfavorably but something must have happened.

The point of a blog in any niche is to be professional. I know that this is not always the case but credit and respect are really only paid to the responsible sites anyway. I was shocked to hear that this wasn’t the case. I remember while I was blogging from Iraq that I was called into question. Police, like the military want to make sure that information is being released without compromising people or cases. I can appreciate that, but again, these are press releases not individual officers writing in a blog.

A responsible local blog would want to work with the local agencies I would think. Sure there will be posts that are more controversial than you would find in mainstream media and bloggers have the right to opinions and put out the stories they want but the same is true with other media as well. Dealing with information for a city police dept. should be handled with respect since as a writer you want to be respected by the people giving you the information. What’s the point of being the guy the police feel forced to deal with, they should want to deal with you.

I guess that’s another lesson to be learned in the local blogging scene. I spoke with the Lieutenant for a couple minutes and explained I understood his position. I told him that it was in my interests to work with them and not get thrown into ‘that’ bucket of people he’s had experience with in the past. I think a local blog can work with a local police dept. in many ways.

The Concord Police Mission Statement makes a point of this.

The members of the Concord Police Department are dedicated to providing the highest quality police services in order to enhance community safety, protect life and property, and reduce crime and the fear of crime. To do this, we pledge to develop a partnership with the community, lead a community commitment to resolve problems, and improve the safety and quality of life in our city.

Partnering with the community can make a huge impact if the local blog scene is supported. Since the city does not have a forum online of their own, the local blog scene can help discuss issues of crime and bring concerns out without risk.

Working together in partnership with other City employees and the community, we will be recognized as one of the foremost professional, effective, and progressive police departments in California. Year after year, we will lead in efforts to improve and sustain the public safety and quality of life in our City.

I can’t think of anything more progressive for a police department than working with the local blogs that can help share and disseminate information important to the community.

In the end, he said he had to discuss this with the City Attorney and he would get back to me in a week. I can only imagine this will be the same City Attorney I had a run in with when I started the site. Most of the initial reaction to my site was regarding the use of the city logo which has all been removed but it was clear to me that the City of Concord has not put to much thought into technology and the internet. Concord should have this discussion. Since blogs have the same rights as mainstream media, how do they qualify the bloggers to grant them access? Maybe the Chief of Police needs to set a standard that needs to be met by bloggers to validate their access. I don’t know. I’m not a politician so maybe the real Mayor of Concord needs to make the call. Many cities around the US are being faced with the same dilemma. Local bloggers want to write about their cities and the city government should be looking at ways to work with these creative people and not shut them out. As I mentioned in why local blogging is important, As a writer/blogger you can help bring attention to the real issues and highlight some of the greatness of your city.

I guess I will have to wait to hear the outcome. I am sure it’s not going to be easy, it rarely is. I know I have the right to access this information but going through the process could be painful if they want it to be that way. I would like to think blogs and local government can work together. We may not always agree but there should be no disrespect in the process.

Question: Do you think police departments should give press releases to local bloggers and if so, what standards if any should a blog owner be held to?

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It’s official - President Barack Obama

Concord Blogger — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 04:13:53 +0000

The next President of the United States of America has been declared. Did you vote for him?

Over 65% of Contra Costa County voted for Barack Obama.

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I voted - Did you?

Concord Blogger — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 00:21:29 +0000

Great day for an election. I went to my local polling place and put in my ballots, voting for what I felt strongly about.

You don’t care who I voted for as President. I will say that I didn’t write myself in this time.

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Mayor of Concord Featured in National Newspapers

Concord Blogger — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 21:28:16 +0000

The purpose of every blog is to get readers. Maybe it’s a select group of readers like your friends and family or maybe you want your readership to get mass coverage. When I started the Mayor of Concord dot Com I really wanted to get the attention of the local community but was also open to seeing if anyone outside the Bay Area would want to read the articles. Getting noticed by other media is not an easy task. Some will find your site through word of mouth, others through basic research. One of the quickest paths to getting tapped into a mass audience is to use available tools to spread the word about your blog to as many other sites like yours like a type of blog marketing.It is a long process and there are no guarantees that anyone else wants to read your site but if it pays off, it could allow you to touch a much larger base of readers than you initially intended. That was the case with this.

Chicago Sun Times hosts Mayor of Concord News

Not exactly the Contra Costa Times or other Bay Area newspaper but it’s a start. The Chicago Sun Times - Courier News now pulls selective posts from The Mayor of Concord dot Com for their online news.

There have been several posts that have made it on Courier News which have resulted in a lot of traffic as well as new subsribers to the RSS feed. The Chicago Sun Times is not the only online news source but by far they have driven the most new readers to the site. Over the past week, the Mayor of Concord dot Com has been given exposure to other online newspapers thousands of times. This is a screenshot of just one source I am using.

I appeciate all the new readers and this helps explain to me why there have also been more emails regarding the Email the Mayor topic.

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Claycord makeover

Concord Blogger — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 14:58:33 +0000

Looks like the mystery man over at Claycord dot com is making some changes to the site. It’s got to be difficult using the blogger platform without being able to rewrite a new css template from scratch. Blogger doesn’t allow for a whole lot of customization on the look an feel but it is functional and easy to use. That’s why people tend to get started on them as a blogging platform first.

Initially it started with a three column effect adding the recent comments section to the left side. Claycord had asked the readers what they thought of the minor change and it appeared that most the comments were possitive. It definitely makes finding the hot topic easier. But since yesterday when that change took place Mr. Mayor Claycord was busy moving things around like pushing up the RSS link and even putting up a new header in the site. The old header looked good to me but now it’s a bit more bold and in your face than before and that’s a good thing.

He hasn’t posted anything on the new lookso there may be more changes coming but as it stands at this morning, the new layout looks better than the original.

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Emails to the Mayor

Concord Blogger — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 17:58:51 +0000

I’ve been receiving emails since this site was created. Some in the begining were not so nice but those have become less frequent over the past couple months. I have getting emails from readers that range from general information like how do I set up my own blog to more specific questions like where do I go in Concord to get the best Sushi. I have been replying to these emails one by one as I get them. I’m plugged into a computer about 20 hrs a day so getting and sending emails back is a fairly quick process. Over the last couple of weeks I have been getting more and one recent letter gave me the suggestion:

You must get some emails from other readers than me. Since you seem to want to keep the conversation going, why don’t you post some of the interesting letters to the site. You have been able to answer most of my questions and though i don’t always agree with you, it’s nice to get an honest reply.

-A reader

This is a great idea. Thank you “Mr. Reader”. I’ll keep names anonymous if asked and Mr. Reader asked. So I am going to start a section called “Emails to the Mayor” where I will answer questions given to me directly on the blog. As I said, these questions cover a large area so I will pick the most interesting topics and post them. I have a few emails in the que that I will post but feel free to send me a question through my contact page and I’ll answer it online. Anything goes, questions about Concord, surrounding cities, school, politics, whatever you want my opinion on. I may not have an answer you like but I have an opinion on just about everything.

First email to the Mayor

To kick this off, I’ll start with an email I received a couple weeks ago from a Concord resident that had some questions about me.

Mayor of Concord,

Your bio says you’ve lived in Concord your whole life. Where did you go to High School? I was thinking that maybe I might know who you are? Were you one of those nerdy kids that was a Chess Club President? I think you must have been since you have so much experience with computers.

-Gary

I have lived in Concord since I was born for the most part. There were a couple years where I lived outside the city but it’s save to say I was born and raised in Concord. I Went to Glenbrook Jr. High and started off at Mt. Diablo High School. The gang problems became an issue so I was transferred to College Park HS in Pleasant Hill. High School was not my favorite thing and I saw an opportunity to graduate early by going to Olympic so I did that and graduated from there a year a head of schedule. So with three High Schools in attendance, there is a chance we know each other, I guess.

I was far from the President of the Chess Club. That makes me laugh just thinking about. If you would have asked me when I was 15-18 yrs old what I wanted to be, I would have answered something along the lines of law enforcement. My father was a Private Investigator so I was running around with him at a young age doing surveillance and stuff. I got a lot of great experiance in this area before I was old enough to drive. I grew up with computers and knew that there was a huge opportunity to get ahead in life by learning everything I could about them. So I started designing websites and understanding the internet as much as I could. As time went on, I just got good enough with them to get jobs in Technology which led to my current position.

Thanks for the email Gary. Let me know if there is anything else.

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