Orange County NC Website
position. She said the Board is having involvement by being allowed to review the plan. <br /> She said this is similar to the Board of Health. She trusts the experts in all of the <br /> departments. She said that having an overall goal of increased transparency, <br /> knowledge of services, and making services readily accessible are the goals of the <br /> Board. She said staff takes care of it beyond that. <br /> Commissioner Rich said she is in between the two viewpoints. She said she <br /> does think you hire someone to do a job, and you don't tell them what to do on a daily <br /> basis; however she feels that when you start creating websites and re-branding, the <br /> elected officials should be part of those decisions about how image is projected. She <br /> said maybe the Board does want to be involved in media interviews. She said there <br /> are places where the Board of County Commissioners needs to be involved and some <br /> where they do not. She feels the Board should have a say in branding. <br /> Commissioner Price said the Board of County Commissioners needs to have <br /> some review and approval of branding and logo. She said the press releases are <br /> already sent for approval before going out, and that is enough vetting in that situation. <br /> She said everyday issues should be left to the Public Affairs Office (PAO). <br /> Chair Jacobs said he does not disagree with anyone, but he does not think the <br /> PAO hears the Board or connects with them. He said he feels Carla Banks has taken <br /> her lead from the Manager, and somehow there is a disconnect. He said Carla Banks <br /> is their most direct public outlet, and there is no connection. <br /> Chair Jacobs said Commissioner Rich was concerned about the tweets during <br /> the flood, since it seemed that others were more proactive than Orange County. <br /> Carla Banks said she was in the EOC and as she produced press releases, she <br /> posted these to Twitter, Facebook and the website. She said she was flying solo <br /> during that event and doing the best she could do under the circumstances. <br /> Commissioner Rich said the twitter feeds from other entities were not connected <br /> to a link to a web site to a press release. She said the other entities had a feed telling <br /> residents where to go and not to go and what to do. Her concern during the flood was <br /> that Orange County was not communicating quickly enough to tell people what to do. <br /> She said she quick tweets rather than a link to a press release. She said she does not <br /> want or need to be involved in doing this, she is just giving a criticism of what happened <br /> that day. <br /> Chair Jacobs said there is no mechanism or way for the Board of County <br /> Commissioners to change anything or to tell the PAO what their vision is. <br /> Carla Banks said that flood day she was working that effort solo and press <br /> releases were going out every ten minutes in addition to updating the website, twitter, <br /> and social media. She suggested the need for a secondary person to solely handle <br /> Facebook or twitter. <br /> Frank Clifton said he can be blamed for the logo and it is time to move on from <br /> that. Secondly, he said there was no plan of any kind before Carla Banks' position was <br /> created. He said no one is debating the criticisms that have been levied. He said the <br /> issue is that you don't go from a-z overnight. He said some Board of County <br /> Commissioners respond to requests for information and want to be involved and some <br /> who don't. He said he advocated for this position under the clerk originally. However, <br /> he said this is a County wide position, and not a political position. He said the Board <br /> has 7 different points for opinion and the public relations person cannot call all 7 for <br /> each press release. He is not opposed to constructive criticism. He said twitter is fairly <br /> new to Orange County and it is a constant issue. He said the role of Orange County <br /> was to be in support of Chapel Hill during the flood, as this was inside the town limits. <br /> He said County staff was in the backup role, and was not there to run the show. He <br /> said if the majority of the Board wants to move this function to the clerk's office, that's <br /> fine; if the Board wants to take a more deeply invested role, that's fine. He said that it <br />