My Response to Zine's Criticism Of Boks Blogging
Mr. Zine,
Generally I agree with you about Mr. Boks.
But I think it is his wrong to criticize his blogging. He provides a lot of information and opinion not on the official AS website. Blogging is no different from any other communication medium such as giving talks or workshops, which Boks also has done.
Besides, it is his first Amendment Right to thus communicate.
According to the City’s website, 4 Councilmembers, the City Attorney, the Chief of Police and Ed Boks all have blogs.
Council District 11
Council District 13
Council District 14
Councilwoman Janice Hahn's Blog
LA Animal Services
Los Angeles Police Department
Office of the City Attorney Blog
The Chief writes one blog post per month with the other posts maintained by staff. The time of day ir not recorded.
The City Attorney writes his own blog posts at about one per week. They were all posted on City time.
Councilmember Rosendahl has ten posts on his blog and all but two were posted on City time.
Ed posts about one per week, a little more than Rocky, and only half on City time.
Regarding his management skills and ability to screw up, I agree with you, but Boks is an excellent, if not obsessively defensive blogger.
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8 comments:
If Boks posted accurate info on his blog, I'd be for it. He uses the blog to try to defend his stupid mistakes. It's like his "truth vs fiction" pages. It's just his spin. Plus, Boks writes long ass posts. He works on them for hours at a time. Quite a few posts had to be deleted because Deputy Mayor Blackman ordered them deleted. The City Attorney told him to stop blogging. He attacked ADL, Daniel Guss, Annette Stark, ALF, Sue Taylor, his employees, volunteers and many others on his blogs. Re read his blogs then you may have a different opinion of him.
Hey guys, I was his alter blogger. I know exactly what he did. I know a lot was spin. I know he spent a lot of time doing it. But, it is his right. he was one of the 3 department heads to do it. The City Attorney is now doing his own blog, on average once a week. He has a right to defend himself and his department.
And remember, Stark was attacking him in Citybeat, Guss was attacking him on his blog, and ADL was attacking him on a daily basis. Should he hav allowed himself to be a punching bag?
And remember, we all got great fun out of rolling our eyes with each of his new misinformation posts, such as how he was already implementing all of Winograd's no kill recommendations.
I've read all his blogs (well most of them anyway, he can get kinda wordy) and my opinion remains, its well within his rights to blog so long as he does it on his own time.
But I do wonder, if he had time to write blog stories... why didn't he have time to do a quick walk-through of the old facilities and ensure everything had been moved to the new facilities? Instead, he chose to write blog stories or do something else and then when things went south (like someone finding boxes of documents left behind that contained personal information) he throws everyone under the bus except himself. He even went so far as accusing the media of trespassing.
I think maybe the point Dennis Zine was really trying to make was that a General Manager's responsibility is 24/7. And it seems, Boks doesn't really want to take on this responsibility.
Brad Jensen
Cypress,CA
If you've ever been in a meeting with Boks, you'll know he can't stay away from the computer for more than a few minutes. He is constantly checking his email, his blogs, other non LAAS sites. I am with Zine on this one. If Boks were paying ANY ATTENTION to the department, he wouldn't have so much time on the computer. I'm a very busy professional who happens to have a blog...but I can't find time to update it because it isn't top on my priority list. When I look at Janices' or other city blogs, I see not personal, individual posts rather press releases and updates that were also sent out other ways. Not information (that isn't even correct as Boks' 100 years of LAAS post and others).
C'mon!
Boks's blog can't even BE ON THE CITY SITE because he uses it to retaliate against his detractors and to spread misinformation and outright lies.
The Board had to petition the City Attorney to make him put a disclaimer on the blog stating: "Nothing featured here represents the official position of the City of Los Angeles or LA Animal Services unless otherwise specifically noted."
If nothing represents the official "position" then why is it there? The other blogs you mentiono are by ELECTED officials who have a CONSTITUENCY to communicate with.
Boks is :
1. Not an elected official (though he is paid as much as a Councilmember).
2. An egomaniac and an insecure narcissist (is that redundant?).
3. A GM whose department has NO OPERATIONS MANUAL, hence the need for the blog. Where are these Boks defenders coming from. Is Boks picking them to come forward in his time of need? I say, "Yes."
4. A former preacher who uses his blog to preach his message.
5. An ineffective GM who tells his employees to "check the blog" when they have a question as to procedures and policies.
If he blogs once per week at 1 hour (very conservative estimate) then he is spending more than 50 hours or a FULL WEEK PER YEAR blogging!
If 2 hours, then 2 full weeks.
That's the statistic that I sent to Zine months ago. He wouldn't have to defend himself if he wasn't such a screw-up,recalcitrant ROGUE idiot!
If Boks is not fired in the next 45 days (remember this) you will likely never see another blog post from him, except to say "I won't be blogging anymore."
I really can't agree with all the criticisms of his blogging. Do you really think he'd spend more time at the shelters if her were not blogging?
He'll never go to the shelters and look around.
I was constantly attacking him, the Blogger too, and Guss, and Jeff, and Stark and everyone else.
He has a right to defend himself.
A lot of us attacked what he wrote and he exposed himself often with lies.
I just went and looked at Boks' blog and you guys are talking about stuff that he was doing two years ago as if he were still doing it today. Same with Zine.
Compared with 2006-07, Boks hardly blogs at all now, and doesn't get into pissing matches any more. It seems he learned his lesson, or maybe Blackman told him to cool it and he listened (he knows where the paycheck comes from).
Boks' critics have an obligation to tell the truth too if they want to be taken seriously.
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