This evening I announced that you may now watch the Town Board meetings whenever you want with Town Board on Demand. Click on the video section of my site where you can find the video of each meeting beginning with the January 7, 2009 meeting. This is by far one of the biggest steps taken to open up our government and bring it into the 21st century. I am pleased to offer this service. When I took office last January many residents - and non residents asked if it could be done. Over the year, I met with various vendors who would able to provide software to the town that would link the agenda with the video and so you can watch the meeting online and click on any agenda item and it would go to that point in the video. Unfortunately, this type of software is too expensive during this financial time. So, I met with our IT Department to find a solution for now that would still provide the meetings online. It will not be streamed live unfortunately, but rest assure I am actively pursuing that phase of the project. For now, expect to be able to view the meetings online beginning the day after the meeting starting in the afternoon. I hope you find this helpful. Please be advised Harrison residents can still watch the Town Board meeting on channel 75 at Noon, 6pm and 10pm every day. Happy watching!
p.s. people on my email list were the first to know about this advancement - are you on my email list??? Join today and be the first to know when it comes to your government. Visit my homepage at www.HarrisonClerk.com to join today!
Friday, January 23, 2009
Monday, January 12, 2009
I'm only as good as the technology.
Today, the hundreds of residents who are on my email list recieved a message notifying them of solicitors going door to door throughout the town. There is just one problem with the email - the solicitors came on Friday not today. So, you may have read the email and said "he's a little late to be notifying me". Allow me to explain. I actually sent the email Friday afternoon immediately after the solicitors' application was approved. However, the town servers went down and therefore they did not send the email out until this morning when they were restored. I, of course, would never send you information that late however, - I am only as good as the technology. Sorry for the confusion.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CLERK ACOCELLA ANNOUNCES
“RECORDS MANAGEMENT DAY” FOR THE TOWN OF HARRISON
Initiative will remove paper clutter and pave the way for savings on town resources
HARRISON, NY- Town Clerk Acocella announced this evening that January 23, 2009 will be the first ever “Records Management Day” in the Town of Harrison. Since taking office last January the Clerk, who also serves as the Records Management Officer for the Town of Harrison reviewed the practices of the departments for filing and retaining government records. Mr. Acocella saw room for improvement in several areas and is taking action to begin new practices and setting the tone for more efficiency in the future. “Every government document that comes through these halls is my responsibility, I do not take this job lightly and I intend to set out new initiatives that will save on time and resources in the future” Mr. Acocella stated. Acocella met with Clerks from around Westchester back in November to brain storm to find a solution for a growing problem that is also happening in the neighboring communities. “Everyone is out of space. There is just no more room to store these files" Mr. Acocella said. Records Management Day is designed for employees to report to work as usual but certain offices will be closed for the day so they can focus on going through old files, sort out duplicates they don’t need, prepare old files to be shredded and prepare archive files to be sent to the offsite facility for Town archives. “By the end of the day, each department should have a shred pile and an archive pile. The shred pile will conform to the NYS Records Retention Schedule which clearly outlines how long you must keep a document for. The archive pile will be logged into a computer database and sent to an offsite archives facility” Acocella stated.
Records Management Day will be Phase I of what Clerk Acocella is calling “Operation Good Housekeeping”. Phase II will come later and address accessibility issues the town is currently facing with the records they have at an offsite facility. “The goal is first get rid of the clutter. After we do that we can begin to search for a program that will digitize our remaining documents so all we have to do is point and click from our office computers. This is by far the boldest step taken to eliminate the waste, build better practices and save on future resources and I am proud the departments are standing with me on this very important issue" Acocella stated.
The following offices will be closed or have limited service on Records Management Day 2009. Please contact each office before Jan. 23rd for details on schedule:
Assessors Office – limited service
Mayor’s Office – limited service
Building Department
Purchasing Department- limited service
Engineering Department
Benefits Office
Law Department
Comptrollers Office – limited service
Town Clerk – limited service
“RECORDS MANAGEMENT DAY” FOR THE TOWN OF HARRISON
Initiative will remove paper clutter and pave the way for savings on town resources
HARRISON, NY- Town Clerk Acocella announced this evening that January 23, 2009 will be the first ever “Records Management Day” in the Town of Harrison. Since taking office last January the Clerk, who also serves as the Records Management Officer for the Town of Harrison reviewed the practices of the departments for filing and retaining government records. Mr. Acocella saw room for improvement in several areas and is taking action to begin new practices and setting the tone for more efficiency in the future. “Every government document that comes through these halls is my responsibility, I do not take this job lightly and I intend to set out new initiatives that will save on time and resources in the future” Mr. Acocella stated. Acocella met with Clerks from around Westchester back in November to brain storm to find a solution for a growing problem that is also happening in the neighboring communities. “Everyone is out of space. There is just no more room to store these files" Mr. Acocella said. Records Management Day is designed for employees to report to work as usual but certain offices will be closed for the day so they can focus on going through old files, sort out duplicates they don’t need, prepare old files to be shredded and prepare archive files to be sent to the offsite facility for Town archives. “By the end of the day, each department should have a shred pile and an archive pile. The shred pile will conform to the NYS Records Retention Schedule which clearly outlines how long you must keep a document for. The archive pile will be logged into a computer database and sent to an offsite archives facility” Acocella stated.
Records Management Day will be Phase I of what Clerk Acocella is calling “Operation Good Housekeeping”. Phase II will come later and address accessibility issues the town is currently facing with the records they have at an offsite facility. “The goal is first get rid of the clutter. After we do that we can begin to search for a program that will digitize our remaining documents so all we have to do is point and click from our office computers. This is by far the boldest step taken to eliminate the waste, build better practices and save on future resources and I am proud the departments are standing with me on this very important issue" Acocella stated.
The following offices will be closed or have limited service on Records Management Day 2009. Please contact each office before Jan. 23rd for details on schedule:
Assessors Office – limited service
Mayor’s Office – limited service
Building Department
Purchasing Department- limited service
Engineering Department
Benefits Office
Law Department
Comptrollers Office – limited service
Town Clerk – limited service
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