Going shopping for City Hall

In Annapolis, the City Council members don't have a place to work in City Hall. They have to meet constituents in coffeehouses, return calls from their cell phones and cram their basements and home offices full of paperwork.

Brian Snyder, the city's procurement officer, said these are VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) phones, meaning the calls go over the Internet in other words than phone lines.

OK. Nevertheless Amazon.com sells four-line VOIP Cisco phones for $125.

But they're not going to be sitting at desks 40 hours a week answering calls. They're part-time employees, most of whom either have day jobs or are retired.

Finlayson said she didn't question the costs because she "raised a lot of hell" to get the plans expanded from the initial proposal: one desk, one phone, one computer and some chairs.