Omar Ornelas is about to enter a whole new world of digital connectivity.

Very soon the Lathrop councilman will be handed a city-issued smart phone – more than likely a Blackberry – that he’ll be able to use for business relating to his position as a local elected official.

It will enable him to make phone calls, respond to emails and message directly with department heads through the platform’s built-in software.

He’ll be the only one of the five council members that will be taking advantage of the opportunity that was made possible by a council vote last week.

While the move might seem insignificant – Ornelas was quick to point out that the cost of the phones and the service that goes with them will come from $300-a-month in savings negotiated by Lathrop’s IT department when their contract with Verizon was up last year – it sets a troubling precedent for future councils and creates an atmosphere of expectation for elected officials charged with doing the public’s work.

Simply put – where do you draw the line when it comes to bending to the will of a single member on the council?

Councilwoman Martha Salcedo was the only one willing to voice what was an opinion of reason the night that the remaining members – Mayor Joseph “Chaka” Santos was absent but says he’s incensed about the way the issue turned out – voted to approve the measure.

Turning over a bill for reimbursement that shows phone calls made in the name of city business, she said, made much more sense than actually issuing phones to members of the council.

But none of that seemed to matter.

Ornelas kept quiet in what seemed like an attempt to not make waves on a consent calendar item – agenda items that are usually passed in groupings with others by a single motion – that he knew was going to directly benefit him.

He claims that transparency is what he was shooting for. If he is questioned about the business he was conducting on behalf of his constituents using his personal cell phone, he didn’t feel comfortable turning over his records so he wanted something that he could show.

And while one can’t doubt his sincerity on that matter or the fact that he will use said device to conduct the business of the City of Lathrop, it is tough to see why it has to come at the expense of local taxpayers.

But since it does, will the number be printed on Lathrop’s website alongside the landline that he was already issued? And while we’re on that subject, why is that extension good enough for the other council members but not him?

Any savings that were negotiated during the Verizon contract should have been just that – savings. Tapping into that for something that isn’t necessary – especially when the city is going to be facing either using reserves to cover the budget or cutting jobs for the next several years – just seems irresponsible and sends a bad message.

Several years ago certain members of the Manteca Unified School District Board of Trustees saw fit to gift themselves state-of-the-art IBM tablet-style laptops that they used for “school district business.” When I called the spending on such lavish unnecessary, I ended up getting a phone call from the then-president of the school board that defended it by saying she didn’t have a computer of their own at home

Checking and responding to the email that those they represent send, they said, is something that they should all be able to do.

That person missed the point. It was a clear-cut case of politicians taking advantage of perks that shouldn’t be on the table.

That, I’m afraid, is what just happened in Lathrop.

In coming years will it be laptops that members of the council put on the consent calendar? How about iPads or other tablet-style computers? Maybe even take-home city vehicles?

Councilmembers in Lathrop are paid a monthly stipend of $275 a month. That’s more than enough to cover the cost of a cell phone bill. Teachers often pay out of their own pocket for classroom supplies, so I don’t think it can be said that using a stipend to pay for something used for city business is too extreme of an idea.

Like it or not, this has to be a time of belt tightening. And in a city that already furloughs every Friday and has staffers work until 6 p.m. every night to keep up with workloads, it should be very evident.

There’s nothing like a Blackberry.

But its cost, and its service plan, should be paid for out of pocket.