Okaloosa County BOCC — January 7, 2014 — reading text

Packet Pg. 250  a) Department directors will provide a copy of the communications policy to all employees who are assigned a mobile device. b) Employees must read and abide by the communications policy. c) Department directors are responsible for enforcing the communications policy and monitoring the usage of all electronic equipment used in the department to include usage of minutes and personal use. d) Mobile device group leaders may be designated by department directors to manage electronic equipment within departments and divisions. e) Employees must return mobile device equipment to their supervisors upon termination of employment, transfer to a position that does not require a mobile device, or upon request. f) Employees must report to their supervisors, lost, stolen or damaged devices as soon as possible. Section D – E Text Messaging All Okaloosa County electronic business communication should be completed primarily through County e-mail. Due to the County’s obligation to comply with Florida’s Public Records law and its technology limitations, County employees may only communicate by text message when the message being sent and/or received is considered transitory in nature and has no archival value as defined by the Department of State, Division of Archives, Bureau of Records Management. “Transitory” refers to short-term value based upon the content and purpose of the message, not the format or technology used to transmit it. Examples of transitory messages include, but are not limited to, reminders to employees about scheduled meetings or appointments; most telephone messages (whether in paper, voice mail, or other electronic form); announcements of office events such as holiday parties or group lunches; and recipient copies of announcements of agency-sponsored events such as exhibits, lectures, workshops, etc. Transitory messages are not intended to formalize or perpetuate knowledge and do not set policy, establish guidelines or procedures, certify a transaction, or become a receipt. Using a wireless communication device to text while driving presents an unsafe condition and employees shall not compose, read or send text or e-mail messages while driving. Furthermore, County employees should have no reasonable expectation of privacy when texting from a County issued wireless device. Section E F– Use of Equipment Telephones, cellular phones, voicemail systems, fax machines, and computers, including electronic mail systems (e-mail) and Internet are provided for county business use and personal use of these devices is generally prohibited except as expressly authorized. (See “Personal Use Defined” below). Packet Pg. 251 Also prohibited is the use of any of these systems to transmit or receive inappropriate messages, to access inappropriate information, or to harass or annoy another party. Inappropriate messages and information include, but are not limited to, those that are for personal benefit and those involving discriminatory, hostile, suggestive, obscene, or otherwise unsuitable language and content. Violations of this policy will be considered grounds for disciplinary action, up to and including dismissal of employment. Employees are prohibited from e-mailing the entire County directory. Only the County Administrator and approved personnel may e-mail the entire Okaloosa County directory. Section F G – Monitoring Communications through the above-mentioned county devices is subject to monitoring by the county for business purposes. Section G H- Personal Use Defined While communications equipment is generally provided for county business only, the County recognizes there may be occasional situations in which an employee needs to use such equipment for brief periods of time for personal reasons. Employees are required to obtain their department directors’ permission before they engage in personal use of any communications equipment. In addition, employees must reimburse the County for any cost of personal use upon department receipt of itemized billing. In an effort to reduce staff time in reconciling monthly itemized cell phone bills to identify personal calls, employees may authorize a bi-weekly payroll deduction amount determined by the County Administrator to cover personal calls. The bi-weekly deduction will continue until such time the employee and department initiates an action to discontinue personal use. Section H I– Public Records Information generated on e-mail and by computer is a public record subject to public inspection and is not confidential, unless specifically cited by statute. Users are responsible for assuring that any public records that are confidential by statute are safeguarded in a manner consistent with the practices normally provided for public records in a paper format. To ensure full compliance with the Public Records Law, Chapter 119 Florida Statutes, and the governing public’s right to access public records, all employees and elected officials with current or existing County e-mail accounts are required to use County e-mail accounts for all County business. No other e-mail accounts may be used to conduct County business. Employees or officials who receive business related e-mail at another account must forward that e-mail to their County e-mail accounts with a response to senders to please use the employee’s or the official’s County e-mail account for further business purposes. Logins and passwords are issued solely for the use of employees in conducting official county business. All employees are prohibited from: 1) Disclosing or transferring logins or passwords to unauthorized persons or entities; and Packet Pg. 252 2) Sharing logins or passwords with other county employees without prior authorization from their department director. Section I J– Retention of Electronic Mail The State of Florida requires the retention of “all documents, papers, letters, maps, books, tapes, photographs, films, sound recordings, data processing software, or other material, regardless of the physical form, characteristics, or means of transmission, made or received pursuant to law or ordinance or in connection with the transaction of official business by any agency” [F.S. 119.011(1)]. As it is for all documents, requirements for retention of e-mail are determined by content. It is each department’s responsibility to evaluate e-mail for content to determine the length of time and how the message must be retained, just as it does with paper documentation. Methods of retaining e-mail documents include saving messages to files on floppy disk, hard drive, or printing messages and filing in a paper file. The Information Systems Department is available to advise users in the specifics of different methods. Retention schedules must be followed in accordance with the State Library and Archives of Florida. Section J K– Software, ITunes, and Domain Registration Okaloosa County purchases and licenses the use of computer software. Employees shall use that software only in accordance with the license agreement for that software. All software developed in-house or by vendors for Okaloosa County is the sole property of Okaloosa County. “Shareware”, “Freeware”, and all other similar software, unless pre-approved by the Information Systems Director, are not permitted on the network. Applications software, such as ITunes, must be approved by the county Information Systems Department in the same manner as software on a personal computer. An ITunes Gift Card must be purchased for application software transactions unless otherwise authorized by Information Systems. No domain name can be registered on behalf of Okaloosa County Board of County Commissioners or their reporting departments without the approval and inclusion of the Information Systems Department. The Information Systems Department shall manage domain name services (DNS) and shall be listed as at least one of the administrative and technical contacts. Section KL – Information Technology Project Management 1) Lack of planning is a primary cause of schedule slippage, cost overruns, poor quality, and high maintenance costs. An information technology project becomes better understood as it progresses through the following processes: problem definition; system justification; analysis and conceptual design; implementation planning; implementation and testing; and operations and maintenance. 2) In order to ensure a well planned and designed approach to information technology projects, the problem definition must be submitted to the Information Systems Director for review and approval. Approved projects will follow the process established by the Information Systems Department. a) The Information Systems Department responsibilities include, but are not limited to, the following: Packet Pg. 253  i) Directing and coordinating all information technology related activities for the County; ii) Directing and managing all computer equipment and networks; iii) Directing and managing enterprise-wide projects such as e-mail services, security systems, the County imaging system and enterprise licensing agreements; iv) Directing and managing all departmental level applications and departmental licensing agreements that involve technology; v) Initiating and implementing all contract negotiations and grants involving an information technology component; vi) Specifying the appropriate operating environment for all computer equipment; vii) Coordinating development, maintaining and managing web-based solutions; viii) Reviewing and approving all new computer equipment acquisitions; ix) Installing and configuring all computer equipment for all departments; x) Delegating software administration responsibilities to departmental software administrators for each departmental level as needed; xi) Directing and coordinating computer equipment training; xii) Directing and coordinating all Geographic Information System (GIS) related activities for the County; xiii) Managing the County Aerial Photography and Digital Mapping projects; xiv) Managing the County Geodetic Control Network. b) Department responsibilities include the following: i) Coordinating with the Information Systems Department during the budgetary process for any new computer equipment, information technology projects, data acquisitions, applications and upgrades; ii) Channeling all communication agreements, contracts and grants through the Information Systems Department prior to and for negotiation; iii) Ensuring the use of all computer equipment and data in accordance with this policy; iv) Providing the specified environment for computer equipment; v) Reporting computer equipment and data problems; vi) Logging out at the end of the day; Packet Pg. 254  vii) Protecting all logins and passwords to ensure security; viii) Maintaining an inventory of all licensed software for each PC and the associated disc or CD containing the software for backup purposes (this is not applicable to enterprise-wide software); ix) Providing at least one (1) departmental software administrator for each departmental level application, when applicable; x) Designating at least one (1) liaison between the user department