2013-0516 Regular City Commission Meeting

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Summary Minutes:Regular City Commission Meeting May 16.2013 City of Sunny Isles Beach.Florida 5E. Presentation/Recommendation from City Advisory Committee Chairperson Dana Goldman, Esq. to Request the City Commission Approve Social Media Communication Methods. Action: [City Clerk's Note: See additional action under add-on Item IOL.J Mayor Edelcup introduced City Advisory Committee Chairperson Dana Goldman, who presented a short video on social media. Chairperson Goldman reported on behalf of the Committee recommending that the City implement certain technology initiatives and social media tools to provide residents with greater access to information. This includes Facebook. Twitter, robocalls and text messaging as low cost, effective communication mediums to reach residents. This would also include getting information out about special events to a wider population, different demographic groups in the City, and also as a means to impart information about traffic conditions, public safety conditions, and weather conditions. She said the Committee is recommending the City Commission implement these technology initiatives to provide residents with greater access to information. Mayor Edelcup said he knows the Committee has been working very diligently in this area, and certainly communications is the key to either success or downfall of organizations. Good communications usually leads to success and the lack of communications usually leads to failure and so he thinks you keyed in on a very important aspect of an area that we really need to concentrate on here in the City. The technology has moved so rapidly that we have probably not kept up with it, and he certainly supports the idea of having our City pick up from where it left off and having them create their own internal studies to determine what would be the best way to implement these programs, which program should be implemented and in what order. He would request that the City Manager and his Senior Staff periodically review this and report to the Commission their findings and recommendations so that we can quickly move into the 215t Century. Commissioner Scholl said 12 years ago he had said that we really need to focus on this thing called free public \ViFi, and if we do it we will be the first City in Florida to have it, and Chris Russo was the City Manager at the time, and Derrick Arias was in IT. The fact is that we recognized early on that the technology can be a great tool for binding the community,and he thinks it is great that the Committee is focusing on this. Commissioner Levin, Vice Mayor Aelion, and Commissioner Gatto agreed. City Manager Russo said we have been working together with the Committee and his staff and we have begun initially with regard to Twitter and Facebook, and we are updating and revamping our Website. There is still work to be done, we need our processes and protocol in place. Derrick Arias' attached memo pretty much describes what we have been doing and we will continue to work with the Committee. He said he didn't think we would do the blogging program yet,and Vice Mayor Aelion said our Sister City Taromina uses a City Blog and it is very successful. Chairperson Goldman said that the Committee was also looking at how we could communicate, for example, her next agenda items would be workshops or conducting separate meetings, etc., and how do we communicate as Committee members with other recipients. She said she thinks the idea was that blogs,because of Sunshine Laws, are difficult to maintain but the idea of how we can more effectively get out the word on our own Committee events, and so we have also talked about establishing a protocol for that. City Attorney Ottinot said that procedurally we have met with the Committee about the Sunshine issues with respect to a blog, and also advised the Committee about the public 3