Pasco County Public Information Office FY 2016 Yearbook Updated 12.27.16
Public Information Office (PIO) Overview PASCO COUNTY PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE FY 2016 YEARBOOK The Public Information Office has two Public Information Officers who handle media inquiries, write press releases, manage social media platforms, produce video, hold special events (ribbon cuttings, groundbreaking ceremonies), handle crisis communications and act as the County spokesperson. 2 The Public Information Office reports to the Performance Development Department during normal operations. When the Emergency Operations Center is activated, the Public Information Office can also report to the Incident Commander within the Emergency Operations Center. The lead Public Information Officer also has a dotted line report to the County Administrator. Reporters looking for contacts within Pasco County Government are encouraged to reach out to the PIO. The PIO is responsible for performing a variety of marketing, communications and production activities for Pasco County. The PIO also serves as the lead for the Public Affairs Function in the County during an activation of the Emergency Operations Center. The office helps all Pasco County Government Departments effectively communicate with both the public and the media. The Public Information Office also manages Pasco County Television. Pasco County TV is a 24-hour government cable channel, committed to providing Pasco County viewers with quality programming. Pasco County TV can be seen on channel 643 on Spectrum (formerly Bright House) and Channel 42 on Frontier Communications (formerly Verizon). The PIO coordinates live broadcasts of the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) regular meetings, special BOCC Workshops, MPO meetings and news conferences. The PIO directs all operations of the channel including scheduling, supervising and general management of station activities. Doug Tobin is Pasco County s Public Information Officer and County Spokesperson. Doug has more than 18 years of broadcasting experience and has worked as a television news anchor and reporter. He has a Bachelor s degree in Journalism from Bowling Green State University. He s been a Public Information Officer/Spokesperson since 2003 and has worked for local and state agencies including The Florida Department of Children and Families and The Pasco Sheriff s Office. Doug also served as Press Secretary for The Florida Department of Environmental Protection in Tallahassee. Tambrey Laine is Pasco County s Assistant Public Information Officer and County Spokesperson. A graduate of The University of South Florida s School of Mass Communications with a Bachelor s Degree in Broadcast News, Tambrey has over a decade of experience in television news anchoring, writing, producing and management leading one Florida news team to a Sun Coast Emmy Nomination.
PIO Stats By the Numbers PASCO COUNTY PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE FY 2016 YEARBOOK Staff: 1 Public Information Officer, 1 Assistant Public Information Officer (PIO s work closely with Outreach Coordinators from each Branch/Department/Division) 3 Current Budget: $337,614 PIO media relations in FY 2016 resulted in $1.16 M in positive Total Earned Media Media Inquiries: FY 2016: 570 media inquiries = 17,115 minutes or 285 hours responding to media calls FY 2017: 270 media inquiries, including 234 follow-ups = 504 media contacts year-to-date and 81.5 hours of responding to media calls (1st quarter FY 2017) The Public Information Office directly supports other County departments with media support, press releases, communications plans and other communications tools. The following is a breakdown of the time the PIO spent working directly on media inquiries for each department in FY 2016: Emergency Services: 226 media inquiries / 88.9 hours Public Works: 49 media inquiries / 34.5 hours Fire Rescue: 38 media inquiries / 22.9 hours Utilities: 31 media inquiries / 22.0 hours Parks, Recreation & Natural Resources: 21 media inquiries / 13.0 hours Animal Services: 17 media inquiries / 8.4 hours Code Enforcement: 23 media inquiries / 9.3 hours Total Press Conferences FY 2016: 23 Total Press Releases FY 2016: 222 Pasco County 360 Newsletters: 12 newsletters / 9,649 views MyPasco App: 7,500 downloads (Aug 16) Pasco County Webpage: 6,172,951 page views from 1,888,586 visitors Pasco County Social Media Pasco County YouTube Channel: 34,464 views = 59,927 minutes watched Pasco County Facebook Page: 6,422 likes (Dec 16) Department Facebook Pages (Outreach Coordinators): 93,000 combined likes PIO Twitter: 759 followers OEM Twitter (PIO managed): 3,128 followers Social Media Marketing 21 Facebook Campaigns Total reach: 81,125 Total spend: $503 (5 /post engagement) Pasco Television Programming Stats FY 2016: Live Events, Board Meetings, Special Meetings, Workshops: 45 events / 179 hours Original Programming: 31 projects / 5 hours, 49 minutes Full Screen Slide Shows: 719 slides / 117 hours Total Original, Local Content: 795 projects / 303 hours 3 Public Service Announcements produced in FY 2016: Value - $9,000
PASCO COUNTY PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE FY 2016 YEARBOOK 4 PIO 2016 Achievements Media Room Upgrade The Public Information Office led the effort to upgrade the media room in FY 2016 by nearly doubling the size of the existing press room, providing a backdrop with the new Pasco County branding and installing a robotic camera to allow for live television coverage via Pasco TV. Staff Increase The Public Information Office added a second full-time staff member in October, 2016 with Emergency Management giving their halftime Public Communications Specialist to the Public Information Office. In FY 2016, Human Resources reviewed the job title and made the position an Assistant Public Information Officer. Currently the Public Information Office has two full-time employees a Public Information Officer and an Assistant PIO. Awards The Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council honored Pasco County s Public Information Office at the annual Future of the Region Awards banquet in St. Petersburg on April 22, 2016. The Planning Council awarded the Public Information Office second place for Community Preparedness for its response to the July/ August, 2015 flood event. Public Information Officer Doug Tobin was joined by County Administrator Michele Baker and eight other employees who participated in the Joint Information Center (JIC) during the July/August, 2015 flood event. In all, 51 people worked in the JIC during the flood event, generating 49 press releases, 52 media alerts, 10 press conferences and 4 media tours. The Pasco County Public Information Office utilized several contingency plans in the PIO Emergency Operations Plan to help keep the public informed of potential flooding, cleanup efforts and sandbag operations. The plan also enlisted mutual aid to get additional PIO resources from the Tampa Bay Region and the Florida Fire Chief s PIO Deployment Team.
PASCO COUNTY PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE FY 2016 YEARBOOK 5 PIO 2016 Achievements (continued) Earned Media In FY 2016, the Public Information Office tracked a record $1.16 million in Earned Media. This is the result of positive media coverage from press releases, media alerts and media contacts through the Public Information Office. This effort reached a potential audience of 28.4 million (12 million in the Tampa Bay Area and 16 million nationally). MyPasco App The MyPasco App reached 7,500 downloads in August, 2016, nearly doubling the number of users in 6 months. MyPasco App download milestones: January 2016: 3,800 users June 2016: 4,635 users August 2016: 7,500 users In FY 2015, the positive earned media impact was $372,732. In the first quarter of FY 2017, the Public Information Office calculated a total of $160,850 in earned media. Social Media Marketing The Public Information Office reached 81,125 people via social media marketing (Facebook) in FY 2016; resulting in 10,073 post engagements.
PASCO COUNTY PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE FY 2016 YEARBOOK 6 Public Information Office Timeline 2014 The public Information Office becomes a full-time, fully-staffed department. Prior to 2014, the County relied on the Office of Tourism to provide public information on a part-time, as-needed basis. The County put out 25 press releases prior to 2014. (In FY 2016, the Public Information Office approved 222 press releases.) The PIO approves a Press Release Administrative Policy. The PIO approves a Social Media Administrative Policy. 2015 The PIO publishes External, Emergency, and Internal Communications Plans. The Public Information Office creates an Outreach Coordinator Group through County Employees who work on Department websites, social media, press releases and public outreach. The Public Outreach Coordinators and Public Information Officer work closely, following the County Press Release Administrative Procedure and Social Media Guidelines. The PIO holds quarterly meetings to benefit the Public Outreach Coordinators. Outreach Coordinators can be called upon to assist the PIO in the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) during activations. There are currently 12-24 Outreach Coordinators who actively participate in the quarterly meetings. The Public Information Office, working with support from the Public Services Branch, begins publishing the Pasco County 360 Newsletter, a monthly electronic newsletter (bi-monthly in FY 2017). The PIO, working with support from the IT Department, launches the MyPasco App in June, 2015. 2016 The Public Information Office adds a second employee to staff a half-time Public Communications Specialist. The Public Information Office successfully re-negotiates a 5-year contract with partner WUSF-TV to assist the Public Information Office with managing Pasco County Television. WUSF-TV provides the County with television studio, editing, video, production and engineering services. (Pasco Television originated in 2004.) 2017 The Human Resources Department changes the title of Public Communications Specialist to Assistant Public Information Officer. The Public Information Office successfully negotiates with Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) and Pasco TV to broadcast monthly MPO meetings.
PIO Goals for FY 2017 The Public Information Office is working closely with the Information Technology Department on a multi-year upgrade of Pasco Television. In 2017, the team plans to implement a new, more reliable video stream of the Pasco Television signal via the internet. This will allow Pasco Television to be seen not only on existing cable channels, but also potentially to a worldwide audience via the web. This effort will allow the Public Information Office, Commissioners and Department Outreach Coordinators to better communicate with the public throughout the year and will also allow the County to get its message out in times of emergencies. The Public Information Office will continue to push positive information to citizens via Social Media Marketing. The Public Information Office started social media marketing in FY 2015. PASCO COUNTY PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE FY 2016 YEARBOOK 7 Once the MyPasco App upgrades are complete, the Public Information Office will actively market the App s new features including a dedicated live stream of Pasco Television. The Public Information Office is cultivating relationships with morning show producers in the Tampa Bay Area to secure more air-time for positive County messages on ABC s The Morning Blend, FOX s Good Day Tampa Bay and 10 News Great Day TB. The Public Information Office is working with more departments to produce in-depth video segments that will replace outdated content on Pasco TV and be shared across Pasco County social media platforms.
PASCO COUNTY PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE FY 2016 YEARBOOK 8 PIO Return on Investment Pasco County has seen incredible benefits by adding two Public Information Officers. (Board approved one full-time PIO in February, 2014. Board approved half-time Public Communications Specialist [PCS] in FY 2015. Job reclassification study promoted PCS to full-time Assistant Public Information Officer effective FY 2017. The Public Information Office is now made up of one Public Information Officer and one Assistant Public Information Officer.) Overall, the monetary impact of adding the PIO has been a conservative estimate of $2.379 M since 2014. This is broken down by measuring the positive impact of press releases and other efforts of the Public Information Office. $1.169 M: Positive impact from FY 2016 press releases $372,732: Positive impact from FY 2015 press releases $100,000: In-house Branding initiative FY 2015-16 $597,750: PIO effort during 2015 Flood Event $218,336: Positive impact from FY 2014 press releases
PASCO COUNTY PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE FY 2016 YEARBOOK 9 Pasco County PIO/Communications Staff Comparison by County Full-time employees (FTE) dedicated to PIO/Communications Departments ORGANIZATION FTE s COUNTY POP. (2013) Pinellas County 23 929,048 Polk County 22 623,009 Orange County 18 1,225,000 Hillsborough County 11 1,292,000 Pasco Co. Sheriff s Office 5 475,502 Hernando County 4 174,441 Osceola Co. Government 4 298,504 Lee County Government 2 661,115 Pasco Co. Government 2 475,502
PASCO COUNTY PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE FY 2016 YEARBOOK 10 Public Information Office Actions for Emergency Management FY 2016 Major Events Event Press Releases Media Alerts Press Conferences Media Tours Dade City Wind Event 0 3 0 0 Port Richey Tornado 2 6 2 1 Tropical Storm Colin 14 21 3 2 Hurricane Hermine 45 68 6 3 Hurricane Matthew 8 4 1 0 TOTAL 69 102 12 6 Overall Emergency Services Department (EM & 911) Press Releases for FY 2016: 76 Total Press Releases. (FY 2016 BCC approved Business Plan for PIO & Emergency Management to work together to increase public education and outreach.)
PASCO COUNTY PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE FY 2016 YEARBOOK 11 Production Totals for Pasco Television October 1, 2015 September 30, 2016 LIVE EVENTS NO. OF EVENTS TRT (Hours) BCC Regular Meetings 24 115:19:19 BCC Special Meetings 5 8:22:59 BCC Workshops 11 48:05:18 MPO 1 2:25:37 Press Conference 1 0:30:00 Election Returns 3 5:00:00 Total Live Events 45 Total Running Time (TRT) 179:43:13 ORIGINAL PROGRAMMING NO. OF EVENTS TRT (Hours) Pasco 360 3 0:58:52 Pasco 360 Short Takes 14 0:50:47 Local PSAs 2 0:04:26 Press Events 12 3:55:44 Total Programming 31 Total Running Time (TRT) 5:49:49 SLIDESHOWS NO. OF EVENTS TRT (Hours) Jobs 47 17:09:47 Pets 42 8:20:21 Library Events 52 8:19:55 Current Events Fillers 578 83:51:11 Total Slideshows 719 Total Running Time (TRT) 117:41:14 TOTAL LOCAL CONTENT 795 303:14:16 SUPPLIED PROGRAMMING NO. OF EVENTS TRT (Hours) Series Aging 8 3:56:30 Other Gov t Meetings 12 19:47:47 Total Supplied 20 Total Running Time (TRT) 23:44:17 PIO & Information Technology launched MYPasco App in the summer of 2015. Currently there are more than 7,500 users of the MyPasco App.
PASCO COUNTY PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE FY 2016 YEARBOOK 12 Results Of Press Releases And PIO Communications Plan Number of Press Releases 250 Earned Media (millions) $ 1.250 200 $ 1.000 150 $ 0.750 100 $ 0.500 50 $ 0.250 0 Not 25 Avail 80 $218,336 187 $970,464 222 $1.169 M FY 2013 FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2016 $ 0.000 The Public Information Office participated in the original committee that developed the new County Logo.