If you want your government to stop using Microsoft Products now is the
time to have your voice heard. It starts with local government. If you
didnt know the State of Arizona budget is in the dumps, because all
governments under them (read county and city) get large sums of money
from the State they are hurting for money.
It just so happens that this July is when most of the local governments
start a new fiscal year, which means this June (now) they are ADOPTING
budgets (planned spending) for the upcoming fiscal year. Many of them are
faced with the choice on whether to renew Microsoft's 'Enterprise
Agreement' stiff arm.
I urge you to PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE contact your district council person
(maricopa county) and your city council people and simply ask them.
a. Do they plan to approve funding for the Enterprise Agreement?
b. If they do plan to do so, please provide you with a copy of the
agreement and the dollar amount to be expended.
c. When they will be hearing from the public on the budget, so if they are
adopting you can have your voice heard publicly.
It may sound funny but I can speak from REAL experience if a council
person gets as few as 10 requests that are similar a red flag will be
raised and they will grill their technology departments on it.
I have contacted the Town of Gilbert and Maricopa County already to
recieve such information, I suggest others follow and use your power as a
citizen to make a difference. We have no one to blame but ourselves if we
dont start to take a stand.
I dont have town information but county information is as follows:
Map To Find Your Council Person
http://www.maricopa.gov/county_glance/maps.asp?link=districtMap
Council Contact Email
Dist 1 Fulton Brock FBrock@mail.maricopa.gov
Dist 2 Don Stapley DStapley@mail.maricopa.gov
Dist 3 Andrew Kunasek AKunasek@mail.maricopa.gov
Dist 4 Max Wilson mwwilson@mail.maricopa.gov
Dist 5 Mary Rose Wilcox MrWilcox@mail.maricopa.gov
Also I would cc: the County Administrator and Deputy County Administrator
CAO: David Smith DSmith@mail.maricopa.gov
DCA: Sandi Wilson Swilson@mail.maricopa.gov
-Derek