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BCC Minutes 12/18/1998 W (Public Information Annual Work Plan)December 18, 1998 Page WORKSHOP MEETING OF THE BOARD OF COUNTY COHMISSIONERS Naples, Florida, December 18, 1998 LET IT BE REHEHBERED, that the Board of County Commissioners, in and for the County of Collier, and also acting as the Board of Zoning Appeals and as the governing board(s) of such special districts as have been created according to law and having conducted business herein, met on this date at 9:00 a.m. in WORKSHOP SESSION in Building "F" of the Government Complex, East Naples, Florida, with the following members present: CHAIRPERSON: Barbara B. Berry John C. Norris Timothy J. Constantine James D. Carter Absent: Pam Mac'Kie ALSO PRESENT: Robert Fernandez, County Administrator Heidi Ashton, Assistant County Attorney COHMISSIONER NORRIS: I'll call to order the workshop here on this December the -- 19th? COHMISSIONER CARTER: 18th. COHMISSIONER NORRIS: Department of Public Information. Let's stand for a pledge of allegiance. (The Pledge of Allegiance was recited in unison.) COHMISSIONER NORRIS: Okay, who's in charge here? Who's going to do this one? MR. OCHS: I guess this is my party this morning. Good morning, members of the board. COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: You can cry if you want. MR. OCHS: Leo Ochs, your support services administrator. I appreciate the opportunity to have the board give us some time this morning, on a Friday, the holiday season, and we'll try to move along quickly. Staff is here today to present the public information department's annual work plan and to seek some feedback from the board and ultimately hopefully walk out of here this morning with some endorsement of the program for the coming year. By way of very brief background, earlier this year, the county administrator had combined elements of the former office of cable franchise administration and the office of public information into a new combined department of public information, and had placed that new department under the support services division, under the direction of Miss Jean Merritt. This change was made for a couple of reasons. First, to improve our focus in our overall public information efforts, and also, I think, to emphasize the important role that an effective public information program can play within county government. The mission of this department is two-fold: First and foremost, to provide our residents and the visitors to Collier County with complete and accurate and timely information about county government programs and services, and important issues that the board faces. And then secondly, also we would like this department to serve as a central professional resource to all of the other operating departments within our agency to assist them in their own specific public information programs and objectives. You'll see, as you look through the work plan this morning, that the foundation of the plan is a multimedia approach, if you will. It's something that we believe is important to the overall success of the program. And that is, to utilize a variety of public information outlets in an effort to reach as many of the different diverse constituencies and citizen groups that we have here in our community. So with that introduction, if I may introduce Jean Merritt, and she'll take you through a brief overview of the public information work plan. MS. MERRITT: Thank you. For the record, Jean Merritt, the department of public information. I'd like to make a few general comments, and then I would like to briefly go through the plan and solicit your comments and questions, if you have some. The reinvented department of public information has afforded us a chance not only to reorganize, but to introduce a new look and a new approach in providing information to Collier County citizens. It's very important for government to provide its citizens a professional avenue for supplying accurate and timely information. It's no secret that communication is a key to success, be it in the public or the private sector. Government has a more serious problem in communicating with its constituents than do private concerns. Many people perceive government as a necessary evil, often believing tax dollars are wasted. Perception often becomes reality. Exacerbating the problem is the fact that the press often perceives it has a responsibility to present government in its most negative light. Government needs to promote the good it does, and aspire to promote through professional public relations the people, places and things that positively influence the community it serves. And because this is true, the department believes that Collier County government needs to embrace an extremely proactive approach to the dissemination of information, rather than adopt a defensive reactive stance. An effective and efficient department is the vehicle to deliver to our audience and customers, the taxpayers, the good news about what's going on in government that's affecting the daily lives of its residents. Government has many constituencies from all walks of life. Each group varies in age and size, interests and priorities. They neither respond to the same stimuli nor support the same philosophies about what their government represents. Many get all their news from watching television, still others keep updated by reading one or more newspapers, and others seem not to care about their government at all. Yet we are a society bombarded with all kinds of opinions and views, from many and avenues that may or may not be presented in an objective manner. All this means, of course, to reach as many of its citizens as possible, government must not concentrate on one media alone, but must use many different vehicles of communication to reach as many people as possible. Consequently, a multifaceted campaign must be utilized to reach a diverse population. This is not as difficult as it sounds. The department has devised such a campaign, taking advantage of many means to achieve our end, reaching our constituents. Included are the use of television, radio, print media, direct mail, and an out-reach approach, utilizing county employees and a revamped speakers bureau. The key then to an effective department is utilization of many different approaches and not just relying on the conventional press. When made aware of a specific program, event or person providing quality services, the press may be receptive, often even welcoming the potential news item or prospective human interest feature story, but the initial communication is what plants the seed which will translate into either a hit or a miss. If the department has done a well written, complete detail-specific press release, for example, and has followed professional journalistic standards, the interest of the press will be piqued and the department will have earned respect and reputation for being credible, reliable and dependable. A mutually cooperative relationship between the press and the department is important. Thus the first mission of the department is to provide accurate and timely information about Collier County government, services and activities, utilizing a multimedia approach. However, there is another very important role that the department should play. Through its contacts with the press and its ability to disseminate information, much support can be given to the various departments within government. We can develop and publicize individual department efforts to help them tell their stories. The department has acquired a great deal of expertise and is approaching its work in a very proficient way. This plan is the culmination of much collaboration and planning by the professional members of the staff. This plan is doable. There are no lofty pie in the sky projects here. If we have dreamed at all, you will find those dreams delineated in the future projects section. In short, we are committed to become an indispensable part of Collier County government. Now, I'd like to very briefly take you through the plan. The plan is organized by, first of all, of course the goal and the mission, the forward and explaining what the multimedia campaign is. And then existing projects ongoing. There are certain routine activities that the department has undertaken in the past and we will continue to do those things. We have delineated those on page 13, and we will continue to do those things. We are looking at a more professional way to display comment cards for the public. We are, as you know, doing a new commissioner brochure. We are together putting the agenda packets, as we have always done, and the newspaper clippings, and the red ribbon week, and other routine activities. I call your attention to the Kandu line, which I have a very brief description of on page 20. And we do not believe the word "Kandu" adds to the resolution of complaints. As you know, we have around 100,000 telephone calls to the main switchboard, and we have the very competent Judy, who's been here a long time answering those complaints, and disseminating those complaints to the appropriate person or department. But we don't believe the word "Kandu" has added much to the resolution of complaints, nor does it enjoy widespread recognition, and we plan to drop its use. COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Does that mean Russ Hueller won't have to wear that costume ever again? COHMISSIONER CARTER: You mean you're not going to have a hotline? MS. HERRITT: We will have a hotline. It just will not be known as "Kandu." It will be -- and we do receive, as you know, many, many calls. COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: It will be the hello, Bob Fernandez, line. MS. HERRITT: The routine activities we have divided into two sections, the print media and the television media, and that's on page 24. Those are routine activities that we undertake in the presentation of Channel 54, including the live coverage of meetings. We dub tapes and we are doing our monthly show, county highlights, which, incidentally, is -- has received very good reviews -- and that plays at a specific time every Monday night. And as you know, it is difficult for us to have a constant schedule, because of the various entities that are using the channel. On page 33 -- on page 32, you will find that the next section is the routine activities, some of the activities that we do that we plan to enhance and make better. And in the print media, the annual report, which I will get into in a moment, we plan to do a rather -- a much smaller annual report with limited distribution, and I'll explain that in a moment. Collier Serves has been one of our most popular programs. We plan to do those seminars in January, February, March and April, and once in the fall. This was very well received, and we plan to do some other things with that. What we have done here is, if you will turn to page 35, a short description of Collier Serves, and then the immediate page following will give you the implementation guidelines that we plan to use to enhance Collier Serves. And that includes providing additional literature and improving the quality of transportation, which is the one area where we probably fell a little bit short last time. Develop a better comment card, and so forth. What this book has done is laid out the blueprint on how we are going to follow out all these -- follow these activities. We have reformatted the press release. We have asked the departments to forward their potential press releases to us, and then we check them to make sure that they are done with good journalistic standards, answering the traditional questions, who, what, where, when and why. And short enough so that when the press release is received by the appropriate press, it will not just go into the waste basket. And when you send a press release with a great deal of verbiage, that generally happens. We are going to enhance the speakers bureau. One of the things that we are doing is we are going to come up with a rather slick brochure, which will be sent to -- we have a list of some 300 organizations that we're going to send a letter to over the signature of the county administrator. And while I don't have the real good mockup, but our plans are for this brochure to include a dye cut card, which can be then placed in the recipient's Rolodex to remind them who they can call. We have been successful in doing some production activities through Channel 54, and on page 54, you will find a list of some of the things we have done. We've done some PSA's and we've done some half hour programs. And we would like to be able to do more of that, but we do believe that a good balance of activities is much better than concentrating on just one thing. On page 61, you will find a section that is dealing with the new projects that we would like to undertake. They are varied. A couple of them are over. One of the things that I mentioned to you about the annual report is that we do intend to do a much smaller annual report with limited distribution, because we would very much like to do an annual report newspaper insert. Many counties in Florida have done this. They have obviously wide distribution. And the example that I recently saw was the one done in Charlotte County. It was very good. It delineated how the taxpayer's dollar was spent in government. It was a description of the services. We believe that the annual report ought to be just that to the citizens of the county, and we would like to pursue that. We were involved as much as we were asked to be involved in the Article Seven campaign, and we worked very closely with the Florida Association of Counties in that effort. We have some -- a new logo, which is the trailer for everything that we do, and it's -- it's very short. It's a 15, 20 seconds, I'm not real sure exactly. I'd like for you to take a look at it right now. Katie, if you will roll that, please. (Chairperson Berry arrives.) MS. HERRITT: Well, as you can see, that wasn't very successful. Katie, can you run it with the audio? Sorry about the audio. From one extreme to the other. Katie, that was a little loud, and on the next bite, if you will adjust. The -- I want to assure you that all of the enhanced projects that we have delineated in this book, as well as the new projects, we can handle with our present budget. Some of the things that we would like to do I have listed in the future endeavor section. And some of those we cannot do presently because we do not have the resources. The other thing is that we believe that we have picked a good balance of things to do here, and we don't believe, as I've said many times before, that we should put all of our resources in one area. We plan to do a good campaign for the government week in April, county government week blitz. This is delineated on page 71. And the implementation and the guidelines for the implementation of enhancing that are found on the following page, 72. We plan to put out a pamphlet, How Can Public Information Help You. This is to -- tell our own departments how to utilize our department services, and the importance and impact of our services. (County Attorney Weigel arrives.) MS. HERRITT: We are already getting requests from many departments to help them with their publicity, and we're very much involved right now in the Exotic Week efforts. Individual department promotions, we are also, as a result of a grant that came, we're doing a PSA on turtle preservation. On page 80, one of the thrusts that we believe -- it's called the National Exposure Program -- One of the things that we believe we ought to be doing here is not only communicating with our citizens here, but telling the rest of the world some of the things that we're doing in Collier County. We are -- have already begun to look at some of this and we have many contacts and will be sending these things to magazines and to periodicals that are more likely to use the kind of articles that we will send. The first article has been written and it is on the defibrillation project that is done, and we hope that we can not only tell the citizens of Collier County about that project, but also at the same time tell the rest of Florida, and even some of the national publications, some of the innovative projects that are occurring, and are being implemented in Collier County. One of the interesting things that we'd like to take advantage of is on page 83. It's a new publication. This was a contact that former Commissioner Hancock got from a publishing company. It's a very unique program. It -- at first glance it sounds too good to be true. They -- it's a company based in Atlanta and what they do is they produce an official publication for a county. It's educational, institution or a municipality. The guide is then customized to the specific location, and contains whatever you want it to contain, because the writing and the layout is actually done by the staff, and would be done by the staff in Collier County. The publication is financed through the sale of advertising by the publisher. All of the advertising is done over the telephone, and would be -- the phone contacts would be made in Collier County. The agreement -- I have received the agreement. It is presently in the County Attorney's Office, and also in our purchasing department to make sure that everything is set. We are going to try to do this. It costs nothing for the county except that we will do the work. And we have seen some examples, and they're very professionally done, and we think this is another avenue to get a nice publication. We also are aware that the Naples Area Chamber of Commerce, for example, does a very slick piece, an expensive piece. We do not intend to have anything that will at all compete with what they do. One of the things that I am struck with is that their publication has very, very limited information about the government and its services; maybe a half a dozen lines is all, although they do spend a great deal more on the public school system. If you've been in the Naples Airport, and I'm sure you have, you will note that the Chamber of Commerce has a table there where it disseminates literature. We have been in contact with them. They agree that if we come up with some literature that will tell new commerce or people that are just arriving for vacation to Collier County that -- some of the services that are provided by government. So we intend to do that. And we also intend to do -- put together a small new resident packet, which will tell them where to go to get a driver's license, how to get your car registered, how to register to vote, and all of those kinds of things that are necessary when you relocate. One of the things we are doing and we have done since September is we are doing a monthly show. On page 90 you will find a description. It's called Social Security and Other Good Things. This show was started at -- by a contact from Jack Fordham, who is the regional manager for Social Security here. He is very articulate. He's done such a show before in Tampa, and he approached us and asked us if we would be interested in such an activity. He writes the script, he has the guests. Everything is done. We do film it here, and it's done once a month. And I'd like to show you very briefly the lead-in that we have for that show. Katie. (Video played.) MS. HERRITT: This show is very well received. It is promoted by the Social Security office in Naples, and it, too, has a regular slot. Every Monday evening we show this, and we've gotten a lot of good comment about that. Starting the first week in January, we will be doing a 90-second radio spot, broadcast weekly on MIX 103.1 FH. Mr. Fernandez will be doing that. We had just a little sample in here which has no real value other than to show you. And as you're well aware, 90 seconds is not very long. But we believe that it could provide a timely message, depending upon some activity that is coming up, or something of this sort. And Mr. Fernandez can then do this once a week. It's -- the studio's right across the street, and we're very pleased about that. The same radio station has also approached us to do a 15-minute show weekly. We're beginning to talk about that. We would like to do that where we can showcase some of the programs and some of the people that work in county government, and we do have plans to implement such a show. What We Do For You is another brochure that we intend to do -- as you know, there are several brochures available. Most of them are out of date. And we are planning to do some new publications that will not be terribly expensive, but are much more up to date. Our future endeavor section, is, as I said earlier, maybe a little bit of what dreams are made of, but we would like to do some things. We believe that we ought to be participating in the county fair. Right now I'm on page 104. We believe we ought to do that. We believe we ought to have a department web page. We also were very -- we are very enamored about some of the things that we've seen on computer presentations that have been converted to video, and we would like to do a video tour of county government. We were particularly enamored when we saw, as you will recall a few months ago, when a developer was here and showed the mockup, the computer presentation of a gas station, and how impressive that was. And we would like to be able to do the same thing with a video tour of county government. We could even then, if warranted, put in some future plans, and so forth and so on. But that is definitely down the road. We would like to do a news show, a monthly news show in and about Collier County. We really do not have the resources to do that now. But that is something we would like to do. We would also like to do a survey of Channel 54, but we also know that it would not -- we would not be very pleased, I think, with the results at the moment, because we cannot have a good lineup of shows that occur every week. And one of the worst things about television is if you watch a show and then the next week you have no idea when it's going to be on, it just isn't done, and it's not -- it will not get any viewers that way, or any steady viewership. So as soon as we have a channel where we can count on our time, then we will be able to do some things. And one of them is to survey the residents of Collier County to see just how successful Channel 54 really is. There is a section on professional development. I feel very strongly that government has a responsibility to its employees to make sure that they keep up with the latest innovations in their field. I also know that one of the most valuable things employees can do is talk to other employees in the same line that they're in across the State of Florida. To that end, we have joined the Florida Communicators -- Florida Government Communicators, which is an affiliate of the Florida Association of Counties. I feel very strongly that that's necessary, and we have done that. And we will be investigating to go to some of those meetings. I have summarized what we have tried to do in the book. I want to tell you that this was indeed a collaborative effort. I would also like to introduce the professional members of our staff, Laura Seib, and our newest member, Deborah Wight. Debbie Wight comes to us -- she has a tremendous journalist background. She's been on the staff of the Marco Island Eagle. She is a stringer for the Naples Daily News, writing feature stories. COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: We won't hold that against her. MS. MERRITT: And she's going to be a tremendous -- she's been here I think about ten days. She's going to be a tremendous help to us, and is going to add to the professionalism of the department. I thank you very much for your time. I'm -- I'd be happy to respond to any questions or comments you may have. CHAIRPERSON BERRY: Commissioner Constantine. COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: I had just jotted some notes down as I had gone through the book in some different areas. The news clipping area, I realize that's fairly time-consuming and I have two questions. One, how much time do we have? How many person hours do we put toward that? And when we say a clipping service is not viable due to the expense involved, do you have a quote? Because there's a couple of different ones that I'm familiar with that are fairly reasonable. And if we're dedicating more than half somebody's time to that, then it might be worthwhile. MS. MERRITT: Well, I would not say that we're dedicating more than half of a person's time, but the real problem is that the professionals in the department are so busy doing other things, we really don't have time to do that. And I'm not really confident that all of the appropriate things are even cut out of the paper, or things that someone might miss. The truth is, that I feel very strongly that if that is a viable activity, then we should have a professional clipping service. If it is not a viable activity, then I think that we should not be doing it. We did investigate, commissioner, and it costs several hundred dollars a year, probably five hundred; three to $500 a year. COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Which doesn't seem like a lot of money if we have an employee spending that much time doing that. MS. MERRITT: No, we have an employee that spends about 20 hours a week. COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Which probably equates to more than three to $500 a year. MS. MERRITT: I'm sure that it does. COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: I just wonder if they're wouldn't be some interest, if we're going to track things and be able to provide information to ourselves and to the public that way, if professional service isn't a better way. MS. MERRITT: Well, I think it is. For one thing, a professional service is not limited to just a couple of newspapers. A professional service looks at everything that may have any impact on Collier County in any sense. If there was an article -- far-fetched, but for iljustration -- if there was an article in a Hiami paper, it would be cut out and would be sent here. Those are the kinds of things that a professional clipping service can do that we cannot. COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: I think for a few hundred dollars a year, I mean, the yield burning thing is probably a great example of where there is some import to us knowing what's going on out there and what the perception is, and we're not going to reach that just through the local papers. We need to know what else is going on. So I, for one anyway, would like to see us explore that. I think that information is good information that I think perhaps should be packaged and circulated through the board, like our other information is routed to us. MS. HERRITT: Yes. COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: But particularly for those things that are out of town. I'm sure we all see the daily. But there are any number of other services out there that provide information that we probably don't see. CHAIRPERSON BERRY: Well, there was a time when the Hiami Herald had a greater presence when they had a bureau located here in Collier County. And I know from past board experience on another board that it was done within the system. And all of the newspapers from the area, all the clippings were done. With the Hiami Herald not having that bureau here, the presence perhaps, not to say there isn't information in that paper regarding Collier County, but it certainly isn't as great as what it used to be when we had an actual bureau here set up and they were covering Collier County. I've been a little concerned because there seems to have been a local flap about the fact that we were having the news clippings. Frankly, I think if you check with any organization, be it government or private business, they do this. And the only thing that I can assume with such a flap being raised by one of the local media is the fact that perhaps they don't want to be held accountable for some of the things in the future that they have printed. And the fact that we have a clipping service documents these things and holds on to them. COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: When I was in college, I did an internship in a Senator's office, a United States Senator's office, and the first thing that would be done each day was send the clippings down -- CHAIRPERSON BERRY: Absolutely. COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: -- to Senator and the staff in Washington so that they were fully aware of what was going on. CHAIRPERSON BERRY: Or at least what was being said. COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Right. CHAIRPERSON BERRY: It may not be what was going on; it's what's being said. COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Exactly. CHAIRPERSON BERRY: Okay. There's a difference. COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: The purpose obviously is not only to inform, because oftentimes they were aware of what was going on, but be prepared for the public perception, so that when they got that phone call from a constituent, they knew why and knew how to respond. CHAIRPERSON BERRY: Exactly. COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: It's just good business practice. COHMISSIONER NORRIS: Well, besides that, besides it being good business practice, just doing the quick rough math in my head, if we're using 20 hours of staff time a week, that we could hire a professional clipping service for say approximately 10 percent of that annual figure, or less. So I think we should probably take that burden off our staff and go ahead and move it over to a professional clipping service, as long as we're confident that they're going to clip without fail the local stories, the local media. MS. MERRITT: My experience with the clipping service is you tell them exactly what you want and they -- I mean, it may be three topics, it may be four topics, but they're generally very, very complete. COMMISSIONER NORRIS: Okay. CHAIRPERSON BERRY: Is there a local service? MS. MERRITT: No. There's not one. And I'm sorry, I don't recall. We contacted, I believe, two firms, both in Florida, however. COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: I would recommend, there's a number of them out there. I happen to use one out of the Midwest, but there are a number of them out there all over the country that do a great job, and regardless of whether they're here or in Boise, Idaho, they'll still pick up the Naples Daily News and the Oklahoma Sun Tribune, or whatever it happens to be. COMMISSIONER NORRIS: The Daily Oklahoman, you mean? COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: There you go. COMMISSIONER CARTER: I had the same note on the clipping service. It's been my experience that it's more economical to go outside of the staff time for those purposes. And you're right, you direct them as to what you want done and how you want it done. COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: The next item I had was on page 43, where you talk about the tours, I'd like to volunteer to be a guide from time to time. MS. MERRITT: I'll take you up on that, commissioner. COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Page 80, the free guide, the national exposure program. I must have written down the wrong page here, but the free guide that Commissioner Hancock apparently looked into, I would just have a couple of concerns there, and that is if there are ad sales, I'd want to have some idea where that distribution is going. Once you print something, that's great, but how is it going to be distributed to the public. And I also just have a little bit of a worry that if it is the official guide of Collier County and someone is getting -- deriving revenue from that, that's fine, unless there's a problem in that in that -- and I go back to the fireworks and when it failed and people wanted refunds on their tickets, they all called us. And it was a private enterprise, we didn't have any way to do it. So if something were to fail in this process, I'd hate for it to be labeled the official guide of Collier County government, or in any way perceived as something we put out and that they've been stiffed on. Hopefully nothing goes wrong, anyway, but -- MS. MERRITT: Well, commissioner, I agree with you. We would not use this publication, nor would it state that it would be the official guide. That happened to be the publication that I saw from another community. But I totally agree with you, that I don't think that would be an appropriate use of this periodical. I want to again also remind you that the periodical would be laid out and written by our staff. MR. FERNANDEZ: Madam Chair? CHAIRPERSON BERRY: Yes. MR. FERNANDEZ: On this issue, the point that I raised when Jean and I first talked about it was a concern about the nature of the products being advertised, that I wanted to be sure that it was a tastefully done document and that there was some assurance that the products would be appropriate for a publication of this nature. And that is something that we did pursue and Jean has assured me that that has been reviewed and it would be appropriate. MS. MERRITT: Actually, in the contract, it -- or the agreement, I should say, it's not really a contract -- the agreement states that they can solicit no advertisement from -- well, let me give you an example, Joe's Bar and Grill. No place that serves liquor, none of the places -- an adult book store, none of those kinds of things. It's very specific in what it says. COMMISSIONER CARTER: As long as the people soliciting don't give the people being approached the impression that this is sanctioned by Collier County government that we are a partner in this process, I don't have a problem with it. But I know there are other promotional organizations for many years that I've been involved with that you really have to monitor these people. MS. MERRITT: And I totally agree with that, commissioner, and that would be done. We did some investigation of this firm. It's a very credible firm. It does a great many publications in the educational community. The head of the firm is a man by the name of Dr. Turkett. I've heard of him in other areas. And I assure you, as I said earlier, when I first looked at it, I said this is too good to be true. But when you start looking at it and seeing what they've done, obviously, they are deriving their income from the sale of advertising. But the advertisement is -- was all of high quality. I'm sorry that I don't have an example. We only had one example of the publication. But it was very well done and very professional looking. MR. FERNANDEZ: We're trying to get a copy of that sample for you, and hopefully we'll be able to circulate it to you. COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: I had just two other areas. One was on page 105, you talk about the surveying. You make mention -- the Channel 54 survey --and you make mention we've come a long way in a year. And I wanted to compliment you and the staff because we have come a long way. Television production is not easy and I don't know how that a lot of people realize how challenging it can be to produce not only a single show, but enough to try to fill up several hours of air time. And between the new equipment and learning on the fly and doing what we can, I think there's been a dramatic improvement. And there's still plenty more to be done, but it's -- in a very short span of time, there's been a great effort by the staff. So compliments on that. MS. MERRITT: Thank you. And you know, when I introduced the professional staff, I did miss Katie, who's in the control room. So Katie, just step out a minute and say hello. COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Does she have one of those little director's microphones back there? MS. MERRITT: Actually, we're very proud of this system that we have in the board room. It's very user friendly, it's easy to use. There are many, many things that we would have liked to have had that we knew we couldn't. I know $250,000 is a lot of money, but for the kind of system that you could set up, it's really very minimal. And we think this system is working very well. COHHISSIONER CONSTANTINE: I marvel at how many people do watch, not only our meetings, but other programming on Channel 54, and have gotten a pile of compliments on -- with the different angles, as opposed to just the old static cameras. So it's nice. And then the final thing along that same line is on page 20 you talk about staff needing training and working with associations and so on, and I just support that wholeheartedly. I think both the formal training, if we go and do some technical classes and all, and the informal training, if some of the Media One folks are willing to help out just teaching tips and, as I said, camera angles and other things, and obviously how you produce your stuff, how you present your product or your message impacts how it's perceived. So if we can improve on that and get some tips from people who are getting paid to do it every day, then we ought to take advantage of that. MS. HERRITT: Well, we really have learned here on the job, believe me, we have. COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Work in progress. COHMISSIONER NORRIS: I have a couple. CHAIRPERSON BERRY: Commissioner Norris. COHMISSIONER NORRIS: On page 63, you talk about the Collier County TV logo and the department logos. I need to point out that this is the Collier County logo. MS. HERRITT: Yes, sir, I understand. COHMISSIONER NORRIS: The last person that tried to get rid of this logo was Don Lusk, and we got rid of him instead. MS. HERRITT: I understand that, sir. COHMISSIONER NORRIS: Hopefully not trying to -- MR. FERNANDEZ: Madam Chairman, just to interrupt here, that was one of the first things explained to me when I got here. I want you to know, we got the message loud and clear. COHMISSIONER NORRIS: I don't see the Collier County logo on any of these items that we have been presented today. Is there a particular reason for that? MS. HERRITT: No, there is not. Well, perhaps there is. One of the things that I feel very strongly about is that we must build some credibility for the department of public information. Unfortunately, this activity has not received a great deal of support, and I don't mean from you sitting up here, but just within the government itself. We felt like a cohesive campaign using our own motto would -- internally, would create a cohesive department. If you'll note, on every page, we have a motto which we have put as our motto for this campaign for next year, "providing quality service today, building confidence for tomorrow." COHMISSIONER NORRIS: Yeah, I saw that. MS. HERRITT: That's our department. COHMISSIONER NORRIS: That's fine. But seems to me that you're still parted of Collier County and you should '- MS. HERRITT: No question. COHMISSIONER NORRIS: -- display the Collier County logo in there somewhere. MR. FERNANDEZ: We will. COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Just to follow up on that same line -- and I realize this actually takes a little money and effort -- but you might be able to create some sort of nice little animated short using that logo, since we have the turkey prominently displayed. Perhaps not to the level of the NBC peacock, but nonetheless, you could have something kind of fun. COHMISSIONER NORRIS: There's a reason for it. It's because every vehicle that's going up and down the street, the citizens see the Collier County logo on it, and if that visual image is translated back again when they see something on television, then the connection is made, subliminally or openly, or one of the two, or both. And so, you know, it just reinforces the fact that you're coming from Collier County. So I would suggest that we try to do that. MS. HERRITT: Okay. COHMISSIONER NORRIS: Now, the other thing is, some months ago we had a discussion about having a television program more often than what I see described in here -- MS. HERRITT: Yes, sir. COHMISSIONER NORRIS: -- which had general acceptance, for the concept anyway, from the board, but that seems to have been lost. I haven't heard anything more about it, and it doesn't seem to be prominent here in this material. MS. HERRITT: You're quite right, commissioner, it is not in this plan. We do not believe that we have the resources to do a weekly show. We simply don't. We don't have a set. It would have to be done here. We don't have the expertise to do that. Should we get the expertise, we would -- we would love to do that. But on the other hand, I, in good conscience, cannot say that we could do such a show with the present resources that we have. COHMISSIONER NORRIS: Yeah, and that's fine. And what I think -- what I think we should ask you is to develop a little analysis of what it would take to do that -- MS. HERRITT: And I have done that. COHMISSIONER NORRIS: -- and bring it back to the board and let us make a decision on whether we think it's financial worth it. COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: The point's probably well taken in that the board indicated some interest in doing that. And if it's not feasible, somebody ought to share that with the board. COHMISSIONER CARTER: I know from my experience, that it takes a lot of time to produce a weekly show. I'm not saying that if we go to your major goals this should not be a cornerstone to that. But you're right, and we would need to know how much it would cost to do that so that that decision could be made, and what it would take to do it. And you have to do it, and I know you agree with me, Jean, it has to be done professionally. MS. HERRITT: That's correct. COHMISSIONER CARTER: You just can't slap this thing together, because you'll hurt yourself more than you will help yourself. So maybe you've got an analysis on that. MS. HERRITT: And I agree with that. We have put together a projected budget for such a show, and we estimate it would cost $63,000. And let me just delineate what that would be for. COHMISSIONER NORRIS: Is that per show or per year? MS. HERRITT: Per year. CHAIRPERSON BERRY: Some show. MS. HERRITT: I would like to be able to say, commissioner, that perhaps -- because we would really have quite a set up. A production clerical assistant and a video production specialist, and that specialist would be -- and then whatever you paid talent. That would be extra, outside the 63,000. The production specialist would be responsible for all field and studio videography, would have to make initial contact with the guests, assist the selection of program topics, create the initial rundown, edit all field pieces in the drop-ins that go into the final show, write the scripts and have the technical expertise to troubleshoot most routine equipment problems. One of the things that we do not have the expertise to do, we would like to do it and we're working towards it. I told you that we're doing the Social Security show here, but we have not been able to do it live to tape. That's very difficult to do, and we don't have the expertise to do it. What we do is, we film and then add whatever needs to be done post production-wise to get a good cohesive show. But as you well know, those of you that have done shows at Media One, you go in, you sit down, they tape from the beginning, they put in all the drop-ins, they put in the PSA's, or whatever they do while it's going live, and then at the end, they can hand you a finished tape of the show. We're not able to do that yet. And because of that, we would require a specialist, a production video specialist, who could do such a thing. That would absolutely be necessary on a weekly show, because it would just take too much production time. One of the problems that we have is we believe our first mission is to inform by allowing people at home or wherever, to take part of their government by viewing the meetings. When we go to a full-time channel, we hope to be able to do most of these meetings live. Our system, we're very enamored of our system, but we cannot edit and film at the same time. We don't have the capabilities of that. So what I'm saying is that such a show would have to be done and we would have to complete it as it was being done. COMMISSIONER NORRIS: Okay. What I'd like to see the board do is just ask Ms. Merritt to come back with an agenda item on that topic one of these days soon, and let's hash it out and take a look. COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: I'm not necessarily suggesting that we should go right ahead and get a video production specialist. However, as part of that report, perhaps you could provide -- if we were to hire someone doing one weekly show isn't going to keep them busy 40 hours a week -- so if we had someone with that capabilities and assuming we had the equipment to do what we needed to do, what else -- I'd be interested in hearing what else you would envision them being able to do. MS. MERRITT: We could do a great deal more original programming. We could do some showcasing of some of the activities that go on. We could work towards a video tour of the county. There are a good many things that a specialist could do in half the time, and it would just enhance our whole television efforts to have such a person. You're quite right, the major part of a -- of the week would be taken up with this show, but there would still be some time to enhance some of the other things that we do. COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Maybe if the majority of the board agrees that we should have a report come back, we could make that part of the report. COMMISSIONER NORRIS: Good. MS. MERRITT: I'd be happy to do that. COMMISSIONER CARTER: I would take a hard look at -- and I don't know what Media One charges today for production costs. I'm not in that loop like I was. But I would encourage you to put all of that in there, so that we're doing first class productions. Even if our own staff -- it may still require if we're going to go there and do shooting, what's the production costs, what do they charge for their editing rooms and that kind of thing. We need a realistic budget on this. MS. HERRITT: We'll do that. COHMISSIONER NORRIS: Those were the only two comments I had, aside from the appreciation that I have for the good work that you've done and how far we've come in the recent months. And I think we're all on the right track here, and this department is really getting quite professional, and just want to commend you for your work. MS. HERRITT: Thank you. On behalf of my staff, thank you very much. CHAIRPERSON BERRY: Is there anything else? COHMISSIONER NORRIS: Not from me. MR. FERNANDEZ: Nothing from us. CHAIRPERSON BERRY: Nothing? MR. FERNANDEZ: Nothing else. CHAIRPERSON BERRY: The meeting is concluded. MR. FERNANDEZ: Thank you. There being no further business for the good of the County, the meeting was adjourned by order of the Chair at 10:00 a.m. BOARD OF COUNTY COHMISSIONERS BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS/EX OFFICIO GOVERNING BOARD(S) OF SPECIAL DISTRICTS UNDER ITS CONTROL ATTEST: DWIGHT E. BROCK, CLERK BARBARA B. BERRY, Chairperson These minutes approved by the Board on as presented or as corrected TRANSCRIPT PREPARED ON BEHALF OF GREGORY COURT REPORTING BY: Cherie Leone