Can city council say anything in 140 characters or less?

What’s wrong with the city council meetings? They are boring and long. Even if you find an issue in the docket, it could be buried somewhere in a 4-hour meeting on TV.

2 weeks ago, there was a marathon session which covered both June 11 and 12. It ran over seven hours until 3:00 a.m.

The sheer length is one of many things that irk me. But let me focus on another from that week: near the end of the marathon session, city councilors denied a proposal made by Mayor McCarthy for a new social media coordinator (at roughly $40K per year) in the 2014 city budget.

Railing against the position (and the mayor), outgoing councilor Ed Tarallo said the city’s priority should be funding public works positions instead, not a “social media coordinator to justify why we can’t get the work done on the streets of the city.”

Other councilors argued that the position should be in mayor's office, not the police department, as proposed.

Those are decent arguments. But what the opponents failed to realize is that the world is changing by the minute, and waiting another year to revisit the issue means exponentially more disconnect.

Want to follow local government? You can struggle to watch the endless meetings on cable access or hope the issues receive coverage in the local media, which is turning into a forum for bitter, anonymous commenters. No wonder fewer than 20% of registered voters go to the polls. People just don't care.

A talented social media coordinator could bring some much needed life into a city with a major PR problem: in a world dominated by PR, we have NONE. For an example of what’s possible, look at another city entity with an image problem: Waltham Police Department.

In the wake of two embarrassing prosecutions—Chief Thomas Lacroix and Officer Paul Manganelli—the department has jumped into social media and made major inroads.

On Twitter, WPD alerts residents to emergencies, road closures and scams. On Facebook, there are images of lost pets and surveillance video suspects as well as some fun posts—all of which has earned the page more than 3,000 likes and a lot of positive comments. This is how people will interact with their city in the future.

Imagine if a young person with a lot of energy could do the same for our lifeless city government. Someone who could inspire residents to get involved. Someone who snaps photos to promote city initiatives and groundbreakings. Someone whose audience is every Walthamite and Breezer, not just the dwindling votership.

To his credit, councilor-at-large Tom Stanley is already doing this with social media, and it will help him to become the next mayor. When that happens, the city should be following his lead. Is it asking too much for our elected leaders to join the 21st century?