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Commissionors criticize city notification after boil-water notice; staff to change wording and review vendor
Summary
After a recent boil-water notice that residents said arrived late or truncated, commissioners criticized the city's communications and directed staff to fix Code Red procedures and notification wording to be clearer about cause and safety steps.
Port St. Joe commissioners on May 5 said the city must do a better job informing residents after the most recent boil-water notice and asked staff to revise wording and test emergency-notification systems.
One commissioner recounted receiving the city's boil-water text the morning after the incident and said the voicemail alert did not include the message content, calling the response unacceptable. "We did a terrible job a few months ago of notifying people that we lost that main going out to the beach," the commissioner said, urging that notices explain what happened and what residents should do.
Staff reported that Code Red, the vendor used for mass notifications, had a data issue last year but has since upgraded systems. City staff said they have been working with the vendor and are adding more authorized senders to the system to ensure notices dispatch correctly in the future.
Commissioners discussed replacing or reconfiguring the vendor if problems continue, but some advised trying to resolve the existing vendor issues so residents do not need to re-register on a new platform. The commission directed staff to review the messaging and, if necessary, bring revised wording back for approval.
As a near-term step, staff said they would test the Code Red system and evaluate whether a different provider or an expanded internal distribution list is needed. The meeting did not produce a formal vote on contract changes; the action is a direction to staff to correct the notification process.
