Jakowatz claims about EID Website are inaccurate

EDITOR:

In a recent letter to the editor written by Jon Jakowatz, he accuses El Dorado Irrigation District of denying access to documents to the public as a result of the installation of our new Website. He also implies that the district has been less that forthright in announcing our new Website to the public and claims that our site is a beta site and has several broken links.

Mr. Jakowatz’s assertions could not be further from the truth. The facts are that we have launched a new Website that will provide even easier access to all of our documents. The new Website is not a “beta” version; it is our final site, which will continue to be updated as time goes by. Our Website was last updated in 2006. Since that time our existing Website had become outdated, from a technology standpoint, and did not allow us to communicate as effectively as we would have liked. Therefore, we created a new Website that contains even more customer-friendly features that our customers have been requesting. We also have used updated technology that will allow visitors to sign up to be notified when news, meetings, documents, jobs and projects are posted to the site.

We have migrated most of the same documents from the old Website to the new one at the time of the launch. We did remove some older, less pertinent documents, but those, as well as others, are available to the public if they are requested via the Public Records Act process.

Mr. Jakowatz is very familiar with the ability to access records through the public records process, as he, himself, has done so at least 10 times over the last two years, and we have fulfilled his requests 100 percent of the time, just as we would for others requesting information. Also, Mr. Jakowatz does not hesitate to personally contact me with questions, which are answered in a very timely fashion.

Finally, in response to his claim that we were not being forthright about announcing our new website, that is also simply not true. It was featured prominently on the front page of the District’s July/August customer newsletter, The Waterfront, and that edition is on the front page of the new Website. It is also being sent in customer’s billing statements that are being processed at this time. The new Website will also be showcased at the upcoming Board meeting on July 23, which will be the first meeting since its launch. I hope Mr. Jakowatz attends so he can learn how to use the new Website.

MARY LYNN CARLTON
Director, Communications and Community Relations, El Dorado Irrigation District