Baltimore Mayor Emails Citizens About VoIP Bids: Baltimore VoIP Wars Round Two
Submitted on Wed, 2012-07-11 11:09
Two weeks ago, we posted about the trouble brewing in Baltimore in determining if Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake had overstepped her boundaries by purchasing VoIP equipment for the city's offices. This week the saga continues with an email from the mayor's office.
While it doesn't appear a decision has been made about the purchase, the mayor took offense to a particular wording in the article written up by the Baltimore Sun about the whole event. Rawlings-Blake sent out a message demanding for a retraction. She claims the Sun's use of the words "no-bid deal" are false and give a negative connotation to her choice of VoIP equipment provider. The email indicates there were in fact 16 companies offering competitive bids.
Baltimore citizens were not welcoming of the message. They were disturbed that Rawlings-Blake chose to use an e-blast meant for arts and entertainment, events, and city-related news and not the network for damage-control communications. And the mayor's communications were also sent during Baltimore City's huge power outage, where power was out for about 1 million homes and businesses and took nearly a week to be fully restored by Baltimore Gas & Electric.
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