DAUPHIN COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
WORKSHOP MEETING
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2007 10:00 A.M.

MEMBERS PRESENT

Jeff Haste, Chairman
Dominic D. DiFrancesco, II, Vice Chairman
George P. Hartwick, III, Secretary

STAFF PRESENT

Marie Rebuck, Controller; Chad Saylor, Chief Clerk; Scott Burford, Deputy Chief Clerk; Edgar Cohen, Director of Facilities Maintenance; Tom Guenther, Director of Information Technology; Randy Baratucci, Director of Purchasing; Mike Pries, Director of Security; Dave Schreiber, Personnel; Kay Lengle, Personnel; Bruce Foreman, Esq., Solicitor's Office; Brad Winnich, Esq., Public Defender's Office; Elke Moyer, Human Services Director's Office; Leila McAdoo, Solicitor's Office; Diane McNaughton, Press Secretary; Amy Richards, Commissioners' Office; Brenda Hoffer, Commissioners' Office; Jena Wolgemuth, Commissioners' Office; and Richie-Ann Martz, Commissioners' Office.

GUESTS PRESENT

Garry Lenton, Josh Benton, David Hickethier, Evan Keller, and Rev. Alvin Taylor.

MINUTES

CALL TO ORDER

Mr. Haste, Chairman of the Board, called the meeting to order at 10:00 a.m.

MOMENT OF SILENCE

Everyone stood and observed a moment of silence.

PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE

Everyone recited the Pledge of Allegiance.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

Mr. Haste: We have five sets of meeting minutes that we will take up at next week's meeting.

PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

Mr. Haste: We are at the point in time in the meeting for public participation. Is there anyone in the audience that would like to address the Board at this time? (There was none.)

DEPARTMENT DIRECTORS/GUESTS

1. Joe Massaro, Hilton
   1. andCulture - Hotel Concierge

Mr. Haste: I understand Josh is going to do a presentation on behalf of Joe Massaro.

Chad Saylor: Commissioners, while they are coming forward I probably should mention, I am sure you are all aware, the last time Mary Smith and the Tourism Bureau was before us, one of the things we've been working on is the hotel concierge service. They are moving forward with that project and Mary asked that the company andCulture come before you guys and give a presentation of what the product is going to look like as they move forward with it. Unfortunately, she could not be here, but Josh is here to make the presentation.

Josh Benton: I'm Josh Benton, Director of Business Development. David Hickethier is our President and CEO. Evan Keller is our Executive Creative Director. Basically, what Chad has described, this project is the culmination of many months of working with a variety of partners developing what was at first termed an electronic concierge. Of course I think we've taken it one step further and it's grown beyond that. I'll turn it over to Evan and David at this point.

David Hickethier: This is an outgrowth of the quality of life committee that Joe Massaro had led a year or so ago. It has grown from what we originally anticipated as a concierge system. Joe called me this morning and apologized profusely for not being able to be here and told me to tell you that he is very excited about this project and he hopes to see it go forward aggressively. With that, I think we'll start. We brought some boards to basically show two different sides of what we've done so far. This is work in progress, so we'll keep you guys updated on where things are. This area has countless websites and other ways of getting events and location information out to visitors and also to local people as well. What we've attempted to do here, is build a system that will be used by all of these multiple parties to put in events and locations into one aggregated system so we can then disperse them via the website we are building as well as eventually disperse that to all the multiple sites. We'll have one global database of events and locations. What we've done is we've broken this stage down into two parts. The first part is the brand we created for the website that is going to house these events and locations. We spent a long time putting together this brand and the name itself.

Evan Keller: The word is "spotobe." It is the brand for the new website and is one component of what we are talking about as a larger system. It is obviously made up of "spot to be," which most people get right away. This is uniquely branded for this entire system outside of all their entities so that it can work with any and all of the other entities. "Spotobe" will be a website; it will be one destination and one way to view information that can be housed in this system. So far it has received great feedback. It is currently in the finalization stages; you'll be able to see the details up close. Essentially what you see here is a very vibrant, very colorful page that allows you to access events and location information throughout the region. Specifically, all the different partner websites and different places that a consumer can go today are very spread out all over the place. This hopes to create one central location for data and also a central location for people to view. It is a consumer-focused website. People will have the ability to come to one location and find all the events throughout the area. It has a good bit of rotational space for fun and exciting seasonal graphics. Of course, the underlying functionality is the ability to search throughout for events. It has a lot of social web features tied into it; so you can think of the things that are very popular among the younger audiences and their ability to make their own spots, their own pages. This is simply a view of the events that you can browse. When you interact with it, it is a very dynamic web page that uses the latest technology to be able to interactively load information right on the page. It features a calendar, categories, and events throughout the area. Up close you can see some of the rich functionality of mapping, event tags, related events, and things that might be in the system. So if I'm looking, for example, of one event happening at Whitaker and trying to find related events that I might be interested in based on my own preferences, this shows some of the capability of full details to be able to provide imagery, maps, descriptions, times, related events and other things that might be related via key words. One of the unique features of the system is when media events are entered in the system throughout the region currently locations are put in. The way those are put in the system almost all of the systems today are event focused only, so you put in the name of the event and you see for example Whitaker Center. You enter another event and say that's also happening at Whitaker Center. Neither of them shares Whitaker Center as a data element though. Now it links to the same things. This system uses location; everything is keyed off the data such that you can easily relate things so that when people put events in the system it is very easy to do so because you don't have to enter all of that event location every single time. It will be there and it will be accurate for the end user. When the end user uses the website and they want to find an event or a location in this area, a place to eat or to see a show, something like that, not only will the information be up to date and accurate, but it will be related so that you can find other things happening in the area. This is really saving a lot of trouble, because today a lot of sites say see website for details.

Mr. Hickethier: We were going to show the system. This is actually the front end. The website that will house all of the aggregated locations and events from this region. The real power behind this brilliant website is the ability to display everything is the system behind this. Currently there are five partners that are going to be entering all of their events and locations. They are distributing houses for restaurants, any type of event, usually gets passed to one of these five partners and they put that into the system. We've printed the system boards for you guys to take a look at. Without going into details, but the idea behind these is that we've created a web-based system that is going to allow each of these five partners to log in and there are three modules created for this. One is locations; one is events; and one is feeds. The idea is that as each partner logs in, they'll go to an events module, enter all of the events they have into this central database. Locations will also be entered through this locations module. Once all of that data is aggregated from all five partners, the idea is with feeds the last one, this is where the real power of Phase 2 and Phase 3 comes out. Once we have all of this aggregated data, we can then have specific filtered feeds of events and locations actually distributed out to other websites via this database. So, "spotobe" is where everything will be housed - all events and all locations - but the Downtown Improvement District's website did house a specific filtered feed of events and locations just for their website from this database. The Harrisburg Regional Chamber could also pull out a filter just for their website. Eventually, Phase 2 and Phase 3 we're looking at allowing people to come to this website, view aggregated events and locations and maybe purchase via ecommerce module the ability to reserve a hotel stay, eventually see restaurant menus, plan a trip based around where they are going to be on the weekend, etc. The power behind this is in the ability to allow the consumer to be able to see in an aggregated format everything in this region and hopefully start to interact with it in a way they are not used to at this point.

Mr. Haste: They can purchase event tickets?

Mr. Hickethier: Correct. Phase 1 is to get it all in one place and display it all. Phase 2 will be to allow the ecommerce functionality and let you actually plan trips. We eventually see the ability to also allow on the homepage of this website you'll notice there is something called "my spots." The consumer can actually register on the website and start to pick things they are interested in and save them into their "my spots" for that area, which will let them plan trips. Eventually the idea is that other people can see what trips their friends or family have maybe planned and adopt them as their own. The social aspect of this is pretty powerful.

Mr. Hartwick: Two questions, just on this particular board. These are things you might want to take a note. The rollercoaster has palm trees in the background. We don't want to misguide anybody that this is some tropical destination point. The second one is the Commerce Bank Park picture is of the Altoona ballpark, not of Commerce Bank Park.
Mr. Hickethier: I apologize for that. These were meant to literally display and are not actually on the website.

Mr. Hartwick: I understand; but I want to make sure we are promoting our parks. How did you come up with "spotobe?"

Mr. Hickethier: We spent a long time looking at names and tossed around a lot of branding aspects of this. We really ended up with "spotobe" based on a consumer outside of this region looking to come here for a visit and also people locally. We really wanted to make it simple enough for people to remember that this is the spot to be and there is a lot going on here. So, aggregating all the information in one location and making it your spot to be is the idea.

Mr. Hartwick: Maybe I'm not as savvy as I need to be from a technology side, but I'm just a regular traveler trying to take a look at destination points. What key words would actually bring up "spotobe" in a general search mechanism?

Mr. Hickethier: We are doing search optimization that will have keywords for Central Pennsylvania, different cities and towns in this region which will hopefully eventually tie into the "spotobe" brand. But obviously look at regular keywords like travel and event names. The idea behind the search would be eventually that "spotobe" would house all of these different events; and events are also searched by the search engine spiders as well so eventually, hopefully, the search engines will pick up that events are coming from this one local region and destination on this site.

Mr. Hartwick: I guess The Spot going out of business does not have any copyright infringements. Looks good.

Mr. DiFrancesco: You mentioned about how there are five partners basically where you'll get all your information. Who are they and how does Middletown, Hummelstown, Lykens or Gratz get their information onto the system?

Mr. Hickethier: For Phase 1 we decided to limit our partners to these five so we can have a quality of data put into the system. Originally, the plan was to allow the public to be able to enter events; but we quickly decided it is smarter to pick five key partners and make sure we are getting clean data. The events and information are only as good as the data. The Hershey-Harrisburg Regional Visitors Bureau (HHRVB) is one; the Harrisburg Downtown Improvement District is another; the Harrisburg Regional Chamber is a third; City of Harrisburg is the fourth; and Dauphin County is the fifth. The idea is we'll start with those five partners. They'll each have their own individual log-in to input this information. Once we get into Phase 2 the hope is that we will allow another round of partners to get in and start entering data with an eventual goal of allowing everyone access to the system for events and locations.

Mr. DiFrancesco: How does the marketing go out? How do the invitations go out to hotels and restaurants, or is that a further phase down?

Mr. Hickethier: It is a phase down. Currently, between those five partners we are anticipating that HHRVB will gather information from parties. They will ask for that information and they will then input it themselves to keep the data clean. But for the next phase we are looking at hotels and restaurants to be able to access their listings specifically, modify it, and be able to add information on their own.

Mr. DiFrancesco: But in Phase 1 if a restaurant wants to put their menu on, the capacity is there to do it through one of those five.

Mr. Hickethier: Absolutely.

Mr. Hartwick: Will there be any cost?

Mr. Hickethier: No. Currently, we are looking at putting together a plan for HHRVB for advertising and marketing the site so we can get a consumer to it is the next phase of this. In addition, we are thinking about actual advertising on the website - being able to have people purchase featured banner ads and so forth on the website. For this first phase, there will be no fee for anyone to add events and locations. The more data we can get the better, at this phase. Thinking regionally for us and trying to keep this from being only the elite can get their information in; we want everyone to be able to get their information in there.

Mr. Hartwick: You certainly raise a good point. What about individuals from Lancaster? Are we making sure we are working together with all of those regions to provide our information on their websites?

Mr. Hickethier: Absolutely. Good question. I think it is critical to look at those other areas and have them cooperate. Currently, the five partners have not reached out to any other region or area at this point to try to get them involved. We are trying to keep this small and growing with a start-up mentality, but we are hopeful that all of the areas in this region will want to participate and cooperate with us.

Mr. Hartwick: I am almost certain that the Amish region has their own. York has their own. We should, ideally, be having the same information on all three websites. If not, trying to work towards combining them into one, being Central Pennsylvania. I guess the first step would be sharing information and having access to all those websites and sharing all that information. If you need our help in trying to assist and getting everybody on the same page, we are certainly willing to try to put together such a meeting.

Mr. Hickethier: I appreciate that; and I think we will need your help for that.

Mr. Haste: Once we open it up and anybody can put in content, how do we keep inappropriate events from being on the site?

Mr. Hickethier: There will be a cue set up in the back end system that will let them approve events before they go live on the system. There are two ways to do this long-term. One is the firefighter approach where people can actually click on something that is inappropriate, and say this is inappropriate and should be taken off. But the first approach for us right now is to prevent everything from going live until it has been approved.

Mr. Haste: Good. Thank you.

PERSONNEL

Ms. Lengle: Good morning, Commissioners. The first item in the packet is a Salary Board request. Are there any questions on that? (There were none.) Are there any questions on the items in the Personnel Packet?

Mr. Haste: Is Diane's memo part of the packet?

Ms. Lengle: That is part of the packet; and I'd like to request a vote on that today. I also would like to request a vote on change #26.

It was moved by Mr. DiFrancesco and seconded by Mr. Hartwick to approve Item #26 of the Personnel Packet and Diane McNaughton's memo; motion carried.

PURCHASE ORDERS

Mr. Baratucci: You should have received your packet yesterday. If there are any questions, I'd be happy to answer them; otherwise it will be for your review next week. In addition, I have one Blackberry request. I'll pass it out to you for action next week as well. It's from Emergency Management. One person is going to use their personal Blackberry, but Steve is asking that the County pick-up the $50 hook-up cost. There is an explanation on the second page for it. I'll add it onto next week for a vote.

Mr. Haste: Any questions for Randy? (There were none.)

TRAINING PACKET

Mr. Haste: I didn't see anything in the Training Packet.

Mr. Saylor: I believe we need to vote on #19 and #20.

It was moved by Mr. Hartwick and seconded by Mr. DiFrancesco that the Board approve Items #19 and #20 of the Training Packet; motion carried.

ITEMS FOR DISCUSSION

Mr. Haste: I see items B, C and D are requesting a vote. Is there any discussion or concerns on items B, C or D?

Mr. Hartwick: I'd just like to bring the Board up to speed related to our meeting this morning with the Deputy Secretary for the Department of Public Welfare as it relates to the needs based plan. Dauphin County has obviously been in a position where we have placed more of the County's general fund dollars into the needs based budget because of the high numbers of kids in placement in the Children & Youth system and in secured detention in Juvenile Probation. This meeting this morning actually was very good. It was one that it appears we are going to be able to take some really different strategies in trying to address, particularly the re-entry side of Juvenile Probation. Dauphin County, through the leadership of Sandy Moore and Joe Dougher, has put Dauphin County in the position to be the test location for a number of these innovative, research-based, outcome driven programs that hopefully in the long-term will reduce our overall commitment to the Children & Youth needs based budget and reduce the amount of kids in placement in the formal system and hopefully have a much more successful re-entry program. It was very good and it appears that a number of the new initiatives that we had put in the request were tentatively approved today by the Deputy Secretary. So, good news. The bad news is we are still in overmatch.

Mr. Haste: Is there a motion to approve B, C, and D?

It was moved by Mr. Hartwick and seconded by Mr. DiFrancesco to approve items B, C and D of the Items for Discussion; motion carried.

Tax Refunds:

Refund of 2005 Interim Real Estate Taxes and Refund of 2006 and 2007 Annual Real Estate Taxes, Parcel #62-069-106 - Virgenmina Castillo - $193.00.

Refund of 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007 Real Estate Taxes, Parcel #56-001-025 - Irvin and Janice Engle - $271.47.

Refund of 2007 Real Estate Taxes, Parcel #63-073-029 - Bruce & Cyntria Cavanaugh - $989.98.

Refund of 2007 Real Estate Taxes - Parcel #33-006-026, #33-006-032 and #33-006-044 - Terrence and Valerie Doyle - $477.30.

Refund of 2007 Real Estate Taxes, Parcel #62-019-102 - Robert and Lan Ziegler - $128.88.

Lease Agreement between Dauphin County and Ruth G. Robinson, leasing approximately 2064 square feet of office space at 1025 Peters Mountain Road, Middle Paxton Township, for a magisterial district judge. Lease has a 5-year original term and one renewal term of 5 years with the annual rent of $25,284.00 paid in monthly installments of $2,107.00. (***A VOTE IS REQUESTED 10/3/07***)

TANF Transition Grant Application. (***A VOTE IS REQUESTED 10/3/07***)

Needs Based Plan and Budget Amendment Certification Statement. (***A VOTE IS REQUESTED 10/3/07***)

SOLICITOR'S REPORT - BRUCE FOREMAN, ESQ.

Mr. Foreman: I'd be happy to answer any questions. I have nothing else to bring to the Board today.

Mr. Haste: Thank you. Any questions? (There were none.)

CHIEF CLERK'S REPORT - CHAD SAYLOR

Mr. Saylor: I have one item, regarding the Incinerator. As you know, last week it was announced that an agreement of some form had been reached to pay some past-due invoices that Covanta had to keep them on the job in operating the Incinerator and that the County along with the City and the City Authority would be partners in this plan and that Covanta agreed to stay on the job past the expiration of the contract for another week, which would end this Friday. Unfortunately, although the initial indications were that everyone was on board, apparently that is not the case. City Council failed to even come up with a quorum, I understand, last night. So indeed I have nothing to give to you to approve today. The only thing I can suggest at this point, if you are in agreement with it, is to slate a special meeting for the end of the day Friday in hopes that City Council does finally take action and get us a plan that will keep Covanta out there operating and running. So I guess I'm looking for some direction. If we get an advertisement into The Patriot; give proper notice, we can pull off a meeting at 4 o'clock and give City Council that kind of time.

Mr. Haste: I'm glad The Patriot is here to get that information.

Mr. Hartwick: I think the term that was used in an editorial recently was "capitulating." I think that referred to the Dauphin County Board of Commissioners. I believe the capitulation that is occurring here is a result of giving your word and then backing away from your word and now not understanding where your votes are and now City Council has again refused to meet this week. I think it's not just we're going to advertise a meeting, I think that by Friday if City Council refuses to act I think Dauphin County is going to move its position away as a partner. So the gamesmanship is over as of Friday.

Mr. Haste: I think you have the blessing to advertise the meeting.

Mr. Saylor: Okay. That's how we'll move forward. Other than that, I have nothing else to report, unless there are any questions of me. (There were none.)

COMMISSIONERS' COMMENTS

Mr. Haste: Anything to be brought up by any other members of the Board? (There was none.)

PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

Mr. Haste: We are again at the point in time for public participation. Is there anyone in the audience that would like to address the Board? (There was none.)

ADJOURNMENT

There being no further business, it was moved by Mr. DiFrancesco and seconded by Mr. Hartwick that the Board adjourned.