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Communications staff tell commission centralized team saves money and supports emergency response
Summary
Communications leaders defended a centralized model at a May 7 workshop, citing awards, metrics (150,000 monthly website visits, ~377,000 social followers) and an estimated earned‑media value of about $1.4 million; commissioners praised the team’s crisis work and asked staff to continue refining metrics and misinformation responses.
Communications staff defended the centralized communications model on May 7, telling the North Port City Commission that the division is a mission‑delivery function that supports emergency response, customer service and community engagement.
Communications Manager Jason Barnold presented a slide deck showing a consolidated team that includes a public information officer, marketing and engagement staff, multimedia specialists and a customer‑care call center. He said the division handled roughly 23,000 calls annually at the front desk, manages a city website with about 150,000 visits per month and a social audience of roughly 377,000 followers. The presentation included an estimated earned‑media equivalent value of about $1.4 million attributable to proactive media outreach.
Why it matters: commissioners said the division’s work during disasters—particularly Hurricane Ian—proved its value for timely, accurate public information. They also credited programs such as North Port University for community engagement and recruiting future advisory board members.
Fiscal framing: Barnold presented a comparative analysis that estimated outsourcing similar services (design/branding, community engagement, multimedia production, social media and customer service) could cost more than $2.4 million annually, well above the division’s FY26 budget of about $1.3 million. He noted 90 percent of the division’s expenses are personnel costs.
Questions and follow‑up: commissioners asked about redundancy during communications outages and about staff plans to counter misinformation and use new tools (including AI) to increase customer‑service efficiency. Staff said they pay about $5,000 annually for a cell‑phone ping service used to estimate park visitors and that they will continue to update the commission on crisis‑communications preparedness and policy changes such as sponsorship fee structures for events.
Public comment and suggestions: residents recommended using chamber and regional media channels to promote city events and suggested involving youth advisory boards in content creation.
Next steps: commissioners asked staff to provide additional detail when needed during the budget process; no actions were adopted at the workshop.
