Agenda - 10-15-2013 - 5a - Laserfiche WebLink

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15 1 already sent for approval before going out, and that is enough vetting in that situation. 2 She said everyday issues should be left to the Public Affairs Office (PAO). 3 Chair Jacobs said he does not disagree with anyone, but he does not think the 4 PAO hears the Board or connects with them. He said he feels Carla Banks has taken 5 her lead from the Manager, and somehow there is a disconnect. He said Carla Banks is 6 their most direct public outlet, and there is no connection. 7 Chair Jacobs said Commissioner Rich was concerned about the tweets during 8 the flood, since it seemed that others were more proactive than Orange County. 9 Carla Banks said she was in the EOC and as she produced press releases, she 10 posted these to Twitter, Facebook and the website. She said she was flying solo during 11 that event and doing the best she could do under the circumstances. 12 Commissioner Rich said the twitter feeds from other entities were not connected 13 to a link to a web site to a press release. She said the other entities had a feed telling 14 residents where to go and not to go and what to do. Her concern during the flood was 15 that Orange County was not communicating quickly enough to tell people what to do. 16 She said she quick tweets rather than a link to a press release. She said she does not 17 want or need to be involved in doing this, she is just giving a criticism of what happened 18 that day. 19 Chair Jacobs said there is no mechanism or way for the Board of County 20 Commissioners to change anything or to tell the PAO what their vision is. 21 Carla Banks said that flood day she was working that effort solo and press 22 releases were going out every ten minutes in addition to updating the website, twitter, 23 and social media. She suggested the need for a secondary person to solely handle 24 Facebook or twitter. 25 Frank Clifton said he can be blamed for the logo and it is time to move on from 26 that. Secondly, he said there was no plan of any kind before Carla Banks' position was 27 created. He said no one is debating the criticisms that have been levied. He said the 28 issue is that you don't go from a-z overnight. He said some Board of County 29 Commissioners respond to requests for information and want to be involved and some 30 who don't. He said he advocated for this position under the clerk originally. However, 31 he said this is a County wide position, and not a political position. He said the Board 32 has 7 different points for opinion and the public relations person cannot call all 7 for 33 each press release. He is not opposed to constructive criticism. He said twitter is fairly 34 new to Orange County and it is a constant issue. He said the role of Orange County 35 was to be in support of Chapel Hill during the flood, as this was inside the town limits. 36 He said County staff was in the backup role, and was not there to run the show. He said 37 if the majority of the Board wants to move this function to the clerk's office, that's fine; if 38 the Board wants to take a more deeply invested role, that's fine. He said that it would 39 be hard to be spontaneous and quick to respond when seven different opinions are 40 involved. 41 Frank Clifton said the County needs some consistency. He said the constructive 42 way to address this is to have a group of Commissioners volunteer to work with the PAO 43 on any of these issues. He said Carla Banks has a lot of knowledge and will be 44 excellent to work with. He questioned what role as a political leader the Board wants to 45 have in the daily involvement of every department of County government. 46 Commissioner Pelissier said their share is not responsible for the town and it is 47 about coordination. She said there are different opinions and the Board needs to decide 48 what the majority wants. She said this position should stay in the manager's office. She 49 does not want this position to become a competition amongst and between 50 Commissioners. She said this is about County services. 51 Commissioner Rich said the conversation was not about who should have taken 52 the lead. She said, at the point of an emergency, the press releases did not work. She 53 said that the Board needs to get together and decide what the Commissioners want