There's no fighting City Hall (with voice mail, at any rate)

The problem with long term political incumbents who have virtually no electoral competition is that they can get just a tad dictatorial. As has apparently happened - and quite a while back - with the mayor of Boston, Tom Menino, who outlawed the use of voice mail for city workers some ten years ago.

As reported in a recent Boston Globe article by Donovan Slack, Hizzoner banned the use of voice mail because he was irritated by having to listen to a long-winded recording when he was trying to reach a city department.

Of course, what's the good of Banned in Boston if you can't subvert the ban, which City Hall denizens do by setting up off-the-books extensions - need to know basis, only - that do use e-mail.

Menino has been known to sniff out clandestine voice mail and leave indignant messages.

"I'll leave them a message saying, 'You're obviously not part of the Menino administration.' " he said in a recent interview. " 'Why don't you call me back and tell me who you're working for?' "

Well, here's one City of Boston taxpayer who thinks it's the height of absurdity to ban voice mail - and another step up from the height of absurdity that our mayor spends time trying to root out sub rosa voice mail usage.

Yes, like everyone else, I get annoyed when I have to listen to a protracted recording - especially when it has a complex menu of options.  But I also don't expect that everyone will be sitting at their desk awaiting my call, nor do I expect (or want to pay for) administrative support personnel who pick up the phone and jot the message down on a pink "while you were out" slip.

It seems to me that a better course would be to let voice mail be used, but set some policies (and enforcement) around it. Here's what I'd like to see:

• No complex, long-winded messages. (I'm with the Mayor here.) I don't know what the magic number is for length, but I'm sure somebody out there does.
  
  How about a short message as a default: You've reached Joe Blow at the Election Office, please leave a message and I'll get back to you within 24 business hours.
  
  And a longer option, as needed: You've reached Joe Blow at the Election Office. I'm out of the office until Wednesday the 10th. Please leave a message, or call Mary Moe at extension 123.
  
  Those with jobs where there might be an actual time-critical emergency should add an emergency number. Which should be manned (or womanned) 24/7.
  
• Observe - and enforce - the 24 hour (or whatever number of hours makes sense) rule for getting back to people. Post a number on the City web site to call if you don't hear back from a human being in a timely manner.
  
• There should always be a "press zero" option that goes to a human being in the department of interest during regular hours., and to a general operator during off-hours - just in case something is an emergency.
  
• Department phone numbers always get answered by a human during regular hours of operations, but it doesn't seem to me that calls to a specific person in that department have to be "live." Let the person answering the phone ask whether the caller would like to leave a message, or get put through to a specific person (where they may have to leave a - dreaded - voice message).

It's always nice to get a real, live human when you're looking for information or have a problem. But not have voice mail can be an impediment to getting your job done.

Yes, I know all about deliberately gaming the system with "phone tag" messages left when you know someone is not going to be there. Not that I've ever done it, but everyone knows the drill: you don't actually have to do something about a problem, you  just have to tag the caller back. Burden's now on them: you "tried".

Still, it's hard to believe that the City of Boston can't and won't allow its employees to use voice mail. I'd just as soon reach the voice mail of the person I was after than leave a message with someone 2 floors down and 6 offices over.

But Mayor Menino's got a lot of power, and he's definitely been around long enough to use it.

As a citizen (and voter), I'd rather see him use it on things that matter. Our streets and sidewalks aren't all that clean; there's little by way of affordable housing; and an 8 year old kid was shot and killed the other day.

Come on, Mr. Mayor, do you really need to be policing voice mail?

I'm thinking about fighting City Hall on this. Fortunately, it sounds like if I call to protest this 10 year old injustice I just might get to speak with the Mayor himself.