A suburban town in New York has taken the drastic step of banning all complaints submitted by email or through its online portal, forcing residents to air their grievances in person or via post.
The Digital Deluge That Forced a Policy Change
The village of Islandia, located on Long Island approximately 50 miles from Manhattan, adopted the new policy last month after officials declared they were besieged by a flood of online complaints. Mayor Allan Dorman stated that the digital channels had become a source of harassment, with the vast majority of grievances turning out to be unfounded upon investigation.
The policy was formally adopted by the village board of trustees on October 21, following months of struggling with what a village spokesperson described as an "orchestrated campaign".
A Campaign of Bogus Grievances
Village spokesperson John Zaher revealed that the problem began in January, with hundreds of "bogus complaints" arriving from anonymous email addresses. He asserted that the village believes the spam emails are from one or two individuals with a specific grievance against the local administration.
"This effort was designed to harass the Village Administration and its residents, requiring the use of government resources, including those of code enforcement and public safety in attempts to investigate these complaints," Zaher said in a statement.
Officials had attempted to block problematic accounts and even launched a new online complaint portal, but the anonymous spam continued unabated.
New Rules for Civic Engagement
Under the new system, the online complaint portal is being taken down entirely. Residents wishing to report issues like potholes or missed rubbish collections must now do so by visiting the village government offices directly. Alternatively, complaints sent via certified or registered mail will still be accepted.
For those filing in person, there is a provision for anonymity. Residents will not be required to provide contact information and will instead be given a control number to follow up on their complaint. This measure aims to preserve access for legitimate concerns while filtering out the harassment.
Islandia is not alone in this shift; the nearby Long Island community of Patchogue has also recently changed its policy to accept only in-person complaints or those submitted through registered or certified mail.
