There’s trouble in the Town Square, Jimmy!

As if the new parking obelisks weren’t enough, users trying to pay their parking tickets online this morning here in Charlottetown were greeted with this message:

Digital Certificate Problem in Charlottetown

The City’s digital certificate expired at 3:03 a.m. this morning. Same message appears for utility bill payments.

While I question the value of a proprietary online system for parking tickets and utility bills in a place the size of Charlottetown, the least the City can do is to ensure that the electronic behemoth is properly fed.

Can somebody warn the City fathers about this for me?

Comments

Steven Garrity's picture
Steven Garrity on August 6, 2004 - 15:56 Permalink

A quick call to Councilor (sp?) Bruce Garrity pointed me to the Accounts Payable dept. They are now aware of the issue.

Peter Rukavina's picture
Peter Rukavina on August 6, 2004 - 16:13 Permalink

That’s Police Commissioner Garrity.

Andrew Chisholm's picture
Andrew Chisholm on August 6, 2004 - 16:23 Permalink

Some one should also tell the city to redesign their website. My god. Out of the many municipal web sites I’ve visited it’s by far the worst. As for information content, it’s also lacking.

What is needed:

<li>Better layout and design concept</li>
<li>Better tourism and visitor information</li>
<li>A section on our downtown and its wonderful offerings</li>
<li>Detailed information on our police force and recent news releases.</li>
<li>Better access to tenders and approved projects</li>
<li>Incorperate the payment systems into the page design</li>
<li>And much, much more!</li>

Ken's picture
Ken on August 6, 2004 - 17:10 Permalink

Can you vote for president using the new parking meters?

Armchair critic's picture
Armchair critic on August 6, 2004 - 18:25 Permalink

I agree with Andrew. And the much much more includes information about our existing bus system such as it is. I’m also amazed that there’s not a schedule posted by the bus stop at Confed Centre. How hard could it be? Also, why not some ‘not in use’ signage on the new meters for now? Tourists are easily enough confused by the existing system. Also, what is the relationship between The City and Town Square site? It’s not easy to tell from their sites.

Andrew Chisholm's picture
Andrew Chisholm on August 9, 2004 - 21:06 Permalink

I noticed several of the new parking pay and display units have had their screens painted over with spray paint… Seems to me like this could be a problem. If you can’t see the screen how can you be expected to pay? Sure, you could go find another kiosk but you could also go in a store and come back to find a ticket then just go to city hall and tell them you went around the corner to find another unit because the one near your car had the screen painted over. Should be fun…