The city’s official website www.ci.hoboken.nj.us is in need of some serious attention. As of Friday the last press release from the city was "July 1, 2001 – Roberts Administration sworn into office," and there was no story attached.
For six months, the site has been neglected. The only item in the current events listing is the Holiday Craft Fair, which was held on Dec. 1.
Mayor David Roberts ascended to the heights of city government in July on a platform of making City Hall more accessible. But when it comes to the city’s website, very little has been done.
"It’s not very helpful," said Roxanne Gomez, 28, a computer consultant and Hudson Street resident, as she surfed the site from her Manhattan office Thursday. "You would think a city website actually would tell you about the city. It doesn’t have links to businesses or restaurants. The current event isn’t current. The only thing of any use is a phone directory, and that you can find in any phone book. I would be embarrassed to have this as my personal website, let alone that of a city with over 30,000 people."
Ironically, the city currently has double the number of public information officers as six months ago. Michael Korman’s name is listed as webmaster. But shortly after Mayor Roberts took office, Korman, a hire under Mayor Anthony Russo, was reassigned. That has left the mayor’s spokesperson and the city’s director of public relations, Michael Estevez, in charge of the website.
Korman still holds the title of public information officer in the city, but rumor has it he is about to be transferred to the new constituent services office.
Estevez said Thursday that while the site has been overlooked in the first six months of the new administration, the city does have plan to fully utilize the internet as a medium in the near future.
"I agree that the current form of the website is not effective," said Estevez Thursday. "When we first came into office we looked to redo the site professionally, but that was too complicated and price prohibitive."
Then, he said that Sept. 11 happened and the site fell well down his list of things to do. "Quite frankly it fell off my radar screen," he said. "It basically came down to a question of priories and limited resources."
He added the he had hoped to be further along with the mayor’s public information campaign by this time, but everything was pushed backed several months because of the tragedy.
According to Estevez, the strategy to open up City Hall exists on three levels. The first is to open an Office of Constituent Affairs. That office will be located on the first floor of City Hall and will act as an information office for those who walk in off the street.
Although the staff has not been officially announced, sources say that Korman’s years of government experience will finally be put to use in the management of that office.
"When it comes to public relations, that really was our number one priority," said Estevez. "People who come off the street and make the trip down to City Hall are more likely to have fewer resources to find the information that they need. That’s why we felt it was more important to serve their needs first."
The staff of the office will be announced in the first two weeks of January, and according to Estevez, it should be open by February.
Now that the office is well on the way to being started up, Estevez said the city can turn some attention to the website. "Just this week we bought a new program so that we can totally overhaul the site in-house," Estevez added. "It’s moving ahead as fast as we can with the manpower we have. We are going to redo the site with a focus on presenting more information. Things like links to NJ Transit and PATH schedules, improved Cultural Affair listings and a more complete description of what each city department does. There is going to be much more information on the new site."
Estevez said that the new website will be up in the first half on 2002 and will have a new and easier to remember domain name.
The third phase of the public information campaign is to broadcast City Council and other municipal meetings. The city has been saying it might do this for at least five years. No timetable has been set for the broadcast of meetings as of yet.