Stanislaus County looks at improving disaster notifications to the public
Stanislaus County could enter an agreement for a mass notification system to improve its ability to alert the public in emergencies and disasters.
An initial one-year agreement with vendor Everbridge Inc. would cost almost $100,000, and it could be renewed for additional years.
Staff members from the Chief Executive’s Office, Office of Emergency Services and Sheriff’s Department would oversee the use of the notification system. In an emergency or natural disaster, it could send phone calls with recorded messages to residents and alert the public through e-mail, text messages and electronic message boards.
With the Everbridge system, the county also could use the federal government’s Public Alert and Warning System to give notifications to television viewers or radio listeners.
The county would upgrade its notification capability as recent events make the threat of terrorist attacks more real for California residents. But the Everbridge platform would give the county more options for notifying residents in any type of emergency and in non-emergencies, a staff report says.
Board chairman Terry Withrow said Friday he had not talked with county staff members about the proposal.
“It sounds like a new system compared with what we have used in the past,” Withrow said. “I will let staff tell us about it Tuesday and why we need to use it.”
The county Office of Emergency Services has used a 10-year-old notification system, sending about 80,000 messages a year to public safety responders, county employees and residents.
According to the report for Tuesday’s meeting, it has not been reliable in sending messages to AT&T subscribers and has a glitchy mobile device application.
Everbridge is a contractor specializing in emergency notification, incident management and secure messaging services, and says it has 2,500 customers in more than 20 countries. Its West Coast office is in San Francisco.
The company recently acquired the Nixle social networking platform used by the sheriff’s office and other local agencies.
In addition, Everbridge has a service for local agencies to send out newsletters or information on road closures or public health issues. Those non-emergency notifications are sent to people who sign up.
Alameda County chose Everbridge as a unified notification system vendor for a contract that allows other agencies in the state to participate. Merced, Madera and Sacramento are among other counties that use the company.
Ken Carlson: 209-578-2321
AT A GLANCE
The Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors will meet at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday in the basement chamber of Tenth Street Place, at 1010 10th St. in downtown Modesto. The following items will be considered:
▪ A 5:30 p.m. closed session on labor negotiations with members of the Stanislaus Regional Emergency Dispatchers’ Association.
▪ An update to the Mental Health Services Act action plan for the current fiscal year, including a crisis intervention program for children and adolescents.
▪ Approval of the county public facilities fees annual financial report.
This story was originally published December 13, 2015 at 5:38 PM with the headline "Stanislaus County looks at improving disaster notifications to the public."