ONLY ON 3 UPDATE: CFPUA email blames media for problems during water main break; bars us from meeting

UPDATE (8/12): Eric Hatcher is a part-time engineering technician. He’s been employed with CFPUA since October 6, 2008. Jacqueline Major is a water conservation specialist. Sh’es been employed with CFPUA since July 1, 2008.

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UPDATE (8/11): We invited CFPUA Director Matt Jordan to come to the TV station and be live on our 5:30 p.m. newscast today to discuss these issues. We explained to him that being live would allow him more time to answer our questions and he wouldn’t have to worry about being edited. He told us he didn’t think it was worth coming all the way to the station to talk about some e-mails.

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WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Last week, WWAY NewsChannel 3 made a public records request for all internal e-mail from the Cape Fear Public Utility Authority regarding the water main break at the Sweeney Water Treatment Plant.

In the first set of conversations, CFPUA employees write that they feel we the media confused the public regarding the “boil advisory.” For the most part here at WWAY, we cut, pasted and posted all of the news releases CFPUA sent us. However, CFPUA employee Eric Hatcher says, “Bottom line…the public, the restaurants…the media themselves did not understand this … some of the media were just lazy…posting what we gave them, without asking themselves how to clarify it.”

Then at the end you’ll see another email from Hatcher, which encourages his fellow CFPUA employees to meet before a “What Did We Learn” meeting with other groups around the city like NHRMC and Emergency Management. None of the media were invited to that meeting, even though communication with the public throughout the weekend was the major concern. In fact, Hatcher says he’ll make sure “no press sneaks in!”

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From: Jacqueline Major
Sent: Tuesday, July 27, 2010 1:12 PM
To: Beth Eckert; Eric Hatcher; Jim Tayson; Joel Bing
Cc: Carey Ricks; Jude Eden; Karen Durso
Subject: Advisories on web-site

From the public’s perspective, the boil water advisory seemed to be the most confusing aspect of this weekend’s event. I propose creating a new section on our website to address boil water advisories vs. notices vs. system [pressure] advisories etc. to offer clarification and to educate our customers.

There is an education & outreach section already on our website whereby we can include an explanation of these advisories. Please let me know if you concur and I will begin working on the set up and coordinate to get these posted within the next week or so.

Jacqueline

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From: Jude Eden
Sent: Tuesday, July 27, 2010 1:34 PM
To: Jacqueline Major; Beth Eckert; Eric Hatcher; Jim Tayson; Joel Bing
Cc: Carey Ricks; Karen Durso
Subject: RE: Advisories on web-site

What was it they found confusing?

Jude Eden
Server Administrator
Cape Fear Public Utility Authority
235 Government Center Drive
Wilmington, NC 28403
(w)(910) 332-6647
(c) (910) 508-3635
Helpdesk: 332-6545
Helpdesk After Hours Emergencies: 332-6603
www.cfpua.org
Stewardship. Sustainability. Service.

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From: Jacqueline Major
Sent: Tuesday, July 27, 2010 1:41 PM
To: Jude Eden
Subject: RE: Advisories on web-site

Plenty of people “understood” but what got confusing was that the releases were written to say advisory is not mandatory but necessary (or something to that effect). Also, people were questioning why we put out the advisory if it wasn’t mandatory. That sort of thing. It came up in our meeting that we could post information as to WHY they’re issued, and WHAT they mean, etc. Maybe, just maybe it’ll clear things up and we’ll have a place to refer people during the next event.

Jacq

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From: Eric Hatcher
Sent: Tuesday, July 27, 2010 3:37 PM
To: Jude Eden; Jacqueline Major; Beth Eckert; Jim Tayson; Joel Bing
Cc: Carey Ricks; Karen Durso
Subject: RE: Advisories on web-site

Jude,

From where I sit…I have a stack of paper, newspaper articles, website comments…people just didn’t get it. They didn’t know what a boil water advisory meant. I don’t know if was a reader comprehension issue, or an improper explanation by the media…or just the fact that we are familiar with all the nuances and jargon, and the general public is not. Bottom line…the public, the restaurants…the media themselves did not understand this. I have captured all the comments, and if you have time and would like to look through them, it might help. It was a language issue, even though we where spelling it out right from the book.…some of the media were just lazy…posting what we gave them, without asking themselves how to clarify it.

Eric

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After the staff meeting we just had, the specific thing was that the news had gotten the advisories wrong, not us, – the confusion with ‘necessary’ vs mandatory boil water advisory, etc. So in that case I would say we don’t need to change everything around – we did the right thing. But we can definitely have a section where we define our terms and the content of those boil water advisories will appear on the page rather than a linked document. Same with water restrictions.

I also think that they were remiss in not referring people to our website – they referred everyone to their own, WECT.com or whatever, but not ours where the advisories would be posted even before they make it to press.

And one more idea that came up in meeting was to pump the mailing list – currently people can sign up to receive an email when I post either a News Flash or Advisory notice. I’m working on getting the Emergency Alert notification too. Martha said she will look into putting a blurb about this on the bills that are sent out.

Jude Eden
Server Administrator
Cape Fear Public Utility Authority
235 Government Center Drive
Wilmington, NC 28403
(w)(910) 332-6647
(c) (910) 508-3635
Helpdesk: 332-6545
Helpdesk After Hours Emergencies: 332-6603
www.cfpua.org
Stewardship. Sustainability. Service.

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From: Eric Hatcher
Sent: Tuesday, July 27, 2010 7:48 AM
To: Frank Styers; Christene Mitchell; Beth Eckert; Jacqueline Major; Martha Zeigler
Cc: Matt Jordan; Jim Flechtner; Karen Durso
Subject: Quick Huddle Before Lessons Learned Meeting This Morning?

All,

In order to present a unified agreement about what we should talk about and focus on from our end, I believe it would be productive to meet around 0815 in the IT Conference Room to go over what we want to say..and prevent any inadvertent gaffes. I know this is between partner agencies, but the media has portrayed some disagreement between us and County Health Responsibilities. I think we should talk about that, at least.

I will make sure folks sign in at the front desk…and make sure no press sneaks in!

What do you think?

Eric T. Hatcher
Cape Fear Public Utility Authority
235 Government Center Drive
Wilmington, NC 28403
o: 910.332.6508
m: 910.599.1554
Stewardship. Sustainability. Service.