MY TAKE - Mayor backs regional database, but without property data

There was an article published in the Record Journal on Saturday March 10, 2012 By Dan Ivers Record-Journal staff titled “Mayor backs regional database, but without property data”

The article reads that the Mayor is recommending that the town endorse a grant application that would help create a regional property database, but he will not allow the release of the town’s records.

“The South Central Regional Council of Governments is applying for the $591,028 grant from the state’s Office of Policy and Management, with the intention of creating a central database for property information in its 15 member towns.

Dickinson has recommended that the Town Council endorse the agency’s proposal, but said Friday he objects to the posting of information on individual properties in town.

“I’m not sure why people in Russia or China should be able to look up what your property looks like. I just don’t see the benefit,” he said.”

The article goes on to read:

Eight of the regional council’s 15 member towns, including Meriden, already provide online access to property records through technology called Geographic Information Systems. The systems have details on each property, including photos, assessed value, owner information and year of construction. In Wallingford, however, people have to go to the tax assessor’s office to get the same information.

Dickinson said he recommended that the council endorse the grant so the additional information on demographics, transportation and economic development could be included, but he said he will not release any data on individual properties for inclusion.

So as an intro to my thoughts here – I was a “victim” of this when I wanted to get an appraisal on my house for my recent refinance. I had wanted to have the agent come out on Martin Luther King Day as it was a bank holiday and Bloomberg (where I work) was closed because the stock market was closed. Because the background information on my home, the details on my property, the assessed value, owner information and year of construction and so forth was not available online and locked up in the closed Town Hall I had to reschedule for another day.

This information is public already – any of you reading this can go into Wallingford Town Hall and request the information on my house. You could go online and research it for anyone’s homes in all of the surrounding towns.

The Mayor indicated “I’m not sure why people in Russia or China should be able to look up what your property looks like. I just don’t see the benefit.”

I just explained one benefit. As to his Russia / China comment it is just silly.

Let’s take a look at what they could already get on the Mayor – someone we know who abhors technology and who probably has resisted entering any information on himself and his property as much as possible.

I’d like to preface that I am using the Mayor as an example because of the point that I outlined above. I could have (and would have) used my grandmother as a better example had she still owned her own home. I KNOW for a fact that she’s NEVER touched a keyboard or a mouse.

So for this discussion let’s say I know nothing more about the Mayor than his name and that he lives in Wallingford. (By the way – I am doing this right now at 8:30AM Sunday morning when the Wallingford Town Hall is closed).

So I do a BING / Google search:

William, Dickinson, Wallingford, address,

http://www.bing.com/search?q=William+Dickinson+Wallingford+address&qs=n&form=QBRE&pq=william+dickinson+wallingford+address&sc=0-30&sp=-1&sk=

OK – so now I know where he lives. Let’s take a look at the property:

http://www.bing.com/maps/default.aspx?encType=1&where1=112+Grieb+Rd%2c+Town+of+Wallingford%2c+CT+06492&cp=41.475109~-72.787666&qpvt=112+Grieb+Road%2c+Wallingford%2c+CT&FORM=Z7FD 

So let’s see what else in already online regarding 112 Grieb Road:

http://www.zillow.com/homes/112-Grieb-Road,-Wallingford-CT_rb/

112 Grieb Rd Wallingford, CT 06492

Zestimate: $236,900
Rent Zestimate:$1,596/mo

Beds:     3
Baths:     2
Sqft:     1,536
Lot:     35,000 sq ft / 0.80 acres
Type:     Single Family
Year built:     1977
Parking:     --
Cooling:     --
Heating:    
Fireplace:     Yes
This 1536 square foot single family home has 3 bedrooms and 2.0 bathrooms. It is located at 112 Grieb Rd Wallingford, Connecticut. This home is in the Wallingford School District. The nearest schools are Rock Hill Elementary School, James H. Moran Middle School and Mark T. Sheehan High School.

And finally, just to put a cherry on the top of this:

http://www.whitepages.com/name/William-W-Jr-Dickinson/Wallingford-CT/75mzy9c?site_id=10583

I could do this all morning but I want to get the gym and I promised my kids I’d go out and throw the baseball with them.

The bottom line is all this information is already out there in one informal fashion or another; why prevent the legitimate, proper, and professional use of public information by simply making it harder to get “just because”

This is a grant to allow us to do it at relatively low to no cost to the town and to me it is a no brainer and it appears at a limited level the Mayor agrees but let’s be rational about it – suggesting we only provide PART of the PUBLIC information is silly and counter productive.

And honestly – if the Chinese and the Russian nationals want to spy on us here in little old Wallingford and get all our “state secrets” (which are in fact already public), let’s face it, they are going to use much more sophisticated means than what I am doing on the internet.

And it is as I said – the information is already out there.