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Commissioners debate website, social media and a point-person approach for county communications
Summary
County staff and commissioners discussed gaps in Linn County's website and social media, proposed a single point-person to manage updates, and agreed to inventory existing county accounts. Staff said improvements will be staged in advance of a new site rollout.
County leaders and staff on Jan. 13 spent an extended portion of the meeting discussing the county website, multiple social media accounts, and how to centralize and speed public-facing updates.
Chastity (staff) described problems with out-of-date pages — citing the airport page that still lists fuel availability though fuel sales had stopped — and urged a single coordinator to collect updates from department heads and submit tickets to IT. "If something happens, they should be notifying me in the future so I can make sure that gets out," she said, describing a plan to maintain an "upcoming events" feature on a pending new website.
IT staff (Chris) said quick edits take little time and that a separate SharePoint "projects" site could be created for department-level project folders so commissioners and staff can see current documentation, design files and contracts. Commissioners asked staff to inventory existing county social media accounts and report back; they agreed to try consolidating departmental pages while noting elected offices (for example the sheriff) may retain independent presences.
The board also asked for an operational plan covering who will submit website tickets, how work orders are tracked, and whether an automated acknowledgement can be added when residents submit road or service requests online.
Commissioners asked staff to build project folders and a SharePoint site for county projects (landfill, 900 Road, swim beach and others) and return with the inventory of social accounts and a recommended notification workflow.
