Agenda - 11-18-2014 - 6a - Laserfiche WebLink

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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 17 an option to opt in for weather and other alerts. He said staff is also working with Information Technology to incorporate the County personnel database so that information can be pushed out to every single employee. Jim Groves said Everbridge will allow for certain geographic areas to be selected and then only those phone numbers will be reached. He said it also integrates with the federal alert system. Jim Groves said Emergency Services has something called WebOc where situational reports are published. He asked for input on how the Board would like this information to be shared. Commissioner Price said some counties that have an app available for cell phones. She asked if this would be effective in Orange County for pushing out information. Jim Groves said WebOC is not an app, but Everbridge does have an app. He said Everbridge will also allow for impromptu conference calls to from a mobile device. Commissioner Price said she is just wondering if it might be easier to just punch an icon to get information. Jim Groves said it is a great idea if people have online access. Commissioner McKee said during the NC Association of County Commissioners (NCACC) conference there was a session for working with the media using prepared statements. He said it might be a good idea at some point to develop some set statements for media releases. He said this would help control the message and avoid an escalation of events due to poor statements by elected officials. Chair Jacobs said he thinks about this in terms of how to get messages when there is no electricity. Jim Groves said if technology fails, the fallback is PA announcements or flyers for long term events. Chair Jacobs said his experience with lack of electricity is that land lines are the only thing that keeps operating. He said this speaks to Commissioner Dorosin's question about the advantages of having priority access on the phone lines. Chair Jacobs said he hopes Emergency Services are using the incidents of the ice storm as a base line. Commissioner Gordon asked if this is the actual Emergency Strategic Communications Plan. Jim Groves said this is for Emergency Services use. He said the larger strategic plan should just reference the Emergency Operations Plan (EOP). He said information will be pushed out through the ESF -15 or public affairs. He said the EOP resides within emergency services and on their S drive. Bonnie Hammersley said the Strategic Communications Plan should include a reference to the EOP. She said this plan has been available for years but it has been updated and is more readily available due to technology. Commissioner Price asked about the interoperability with the towns. Jim Groves said the towns have been pulled in from the beginning, before this system was even proposed. He said Chapel Hill, Carrboro and OWASA have fully bought into the Everbridge system. Commissioner Price asked who pushes out information in an event where Chapel Hill gets a hold of it first. Jim Groves said it depends on the situation, and this would be up to the town. He said the relationship and the communication have been very good. Bonnie Hammersley said whenever the ECC is activated she will inform all of the Board of County Commissioners. She said if there is a disaster only in Chapel Hill, the ECC will be activated and everyone will know about it.