Laserfiche WebLink
CITY COUNCIL AGENDA ITEM BRIEFING SHEET <br />Submittal Date: <br />11/16/2011 <br />Originating Department: <br />Presented By: <br />Agenda Item No.: <br />Council Date: <br />12/12/2011 <br />Police <br />Chief Hundley <br />RECOMMENDED MOTION: <br />Direction to Staff <br />POLICY ISSUE(S): <br />Changing Alert Notification Systems for the city of Paris <br />BACKGROUND: PAGE TWO <br />We went through an intensive public awareness campaign regarding the move from CodeRED to <br />WENS and became operational in March of 2011. <br />The system seemed to be functional when we first started with the new company but we <br />immediately started receiving critical feedback from our citizens. <br />CodeRED used a human voice for the telephone calls while WENS uses a quite creepy sounding <br />computer generated voice. <br />The next issue we faced involved the timeliness of our alerts. Severe weather calls were coming to <br />our telephones as long as thirty minutes after the storm had passed. Other phone call alerts <br />seemed to go out in a matter of minutes while others were taking two hours to go out. There was <br />no rhyme or reason <br />The e-mail and text messaging has no issues, but these messages are prepared by staff and <br />manually sent over the internet. <br />Of course we have been in contact with WENS regarding these problems. They are slow to return <br />phone calls or e-mails and quick to give excuses. I feel they do not have the infrastructure that <br />CodeRED has to make timely notifications, therefore the lower cost. <br />It is my opinion that the zeal to save money has handicapped our ability to communicate <br />emergency information with our citizens in a timely manner. <br />I have been in contact with the CodeRED people and they still have our databases in their systems. <br />They have also now added text messaging and e-mail to their service as well. We can go back to <br />CodeRED for the $15,000.00 for 50,000 minutes a year and receive the first year severe weather <br />warning for free. <br />EXHIBITS: <br />ACTION: <br />BUDGET INFO: <br />❑ Financial Report ❑ Minute Order <br />Expense <br />❑ Department Report ❑ Resolution <br />❑ P <br />Budgeted Amt. <br />resentation ❑ Ordinance <br />❑ P <br />bli <br />H <br />i <br />❑ O <br />h <br />yTD Actual <br />u <br />c <br />ear <br />ng <br />er <br />t <br />Acct. Name <br />Acct. Number <br />FISCAL NOTES: <br />REV[EWED AND APPROVED BY: <br />~ Administration Z City Clerk ❑ Community Development ❑ EMS/IT ❑ Finance ❑ Fire <br />❑ Municipal Court ❑ Legal ❑ Library Z Police ❑ Eng./Public Works ❑ Utilities <br />City of Paris Revised 2/04/08 <br />.107 <br />