The office of Public Information Officer is hereby created.
The Public Information Officer (PIO) shall be the Mayor or a
designee so assigned by the Mayor. Should the Mayor be absent and
unable to appoint a designee during any multiagency incident, the
Chief of Police shall be the designee until the Mayor is present or
assigns some other designee.
The PIO or designee shall be the exclusive individual in charge
of disseminating information about any multiagency event to the public,
both resident and nonresident, after first conferring with the Incident
Commander to obtain and coordinate all relevant and pertinent information.
Since the PIO is the exclusive individual to disseminate incident
information, this precludes dissemination by any other employee or
department head to residents or media without the permission of the
PIO. The PIO shall also maintain communication with the Incident Commander
(IC) throughout any such event. The duties of the Public Information
Officer shall also include the performance of any additional information-related
tasks as the Mayor and Council may from time to time require and approve.
Nothing contained in this article shall be deemed to diminish,
increase, impair or alter the duties imposed by law upon the Mayor
and members of the Council, nor construed to authorize the delegation
to others of any duty, power or authority that is required by law
to be performed by the Mayor or by the members of the Council, jointly
or severally.