This Week in the Mercury
Sunday, November 29, 2009
News After E. coli Emergency, Mayor Suggests City List of Citizens' Cell Phone Numbers
Posted by Sarah Mirk on Sun, Nov 29, 2009 at 6:31 PM
First of all, the Water Bureau says it’s safe to drink your tap water again. But this weekend’s E. coli scare prompted Mayor Sam Adams to propose a new idea that’s sure to be controversial: creating a mandatory database of all Portlanders’ cell phone numbers, so that the city could contact all citizens immediately in an emergency.
In a 5 pm press conference this afternoon, Mayor Adams, Commissioner Randy Leonard and representatives from the Water Bureau and Multnomah County health department announced that “it is absolutely safe to drink Portland’s water.” Testing in 23 places this weekend revealed no E. coli traces left in Portland's water. “We have the best drinking water in the world and the best safeguards to protect our drinking water,” said Leonard, suggesting that for extra precaution, Westsiders run their taps for two minutes before using the water.
But though Adams and Leonard told reporters at the conference that this weekend’s scare “shows that we have a system in place here that works” for emergencies, the Mayor said the city must create a secure database of citizen cell phone numbers so everyone in Portland could be contacted quickly. “This changeover has to happen. This event and last year’s inclement weather event shows for the need for us all to do that.” Noting that many Portlanders would go out of their way to sign up for a voluntary database, Adams suggested fines or other penalties for people who don’t let the city put their numbers on file any violation of the privacy of the database. UPDATE 11/30: They mayor called to clarify that he does not support fining people who would not sign up for the cell phone database, but instead meant that the penalties would be levied against anyone who breaches the privacy of the service. "People will not volunteer to share their info if they don't know it's going to be protected," says Adams. That makes the emergency database more voluntary than I originally thought. /end update
Adams recalled that he phoned his mom this afternoon to say he would not be able to make it for dinner at her Eastside home tonight. She asked why. “She didn’t know about the contamination. She doesn’t watch TV particularly and she didn’t know,” says Adams, who added that the idea also stems from cut backs in media that make city reliance on TV and print reporters widespread publicity of city announcements less feasible.
Adams elaborated that he has been contemplating pushing for an emergency-contact database like this since last winter’s snowpoclaypse. “I absolutely respect and understand people’s concerns about privacy, but we gotta have it,” said Adams. “The public is desperate for clear information.” Adams also wants to create a “one stop shop” website that would post all official service disruption notices for big public and private groups like Portland Public Schools, TriMet and PGE. The beta version of this website, PublicAlerts.org, is already up.
Several questioned why the if E. coli was found on Wednesday and confirmed in a second test Friday (edit: the results of that test did not come back until Saturday), the City did not notify the public until Saturday afternoon. Water Bureau Administrator David Shaff said his group had followed Environmental Protection Agency regulation, noting that the water samples take 24 hours to test. “What our history says and what the rule says is that it’s not necessary to alert people after first specimen,” said Shaff.
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Also note that if you DID NOT want Sam Adams or his underlings to call you, you could just let him know that he is not allowed to call you and it would be a crime for them to call you.
See Oregon Revised Statute 166.090:
166.090 Telephonic harassment. (1) A telephone caller commits the crime of telephonic harassment if the caller intentionally harasses or annoys another person:
(a) By causing the telephone of the other person to ring, such caller having no communicative purpose;
(b) By causing such other person’s telephone to ring, knowing that the caller has been forbidden from so doing by a person exercising lawful authority over the receiving telephone; or
(c) By sending to, or leaving at, the other person’s telephone a text message, voice mail or any other message, knowing that the caller has been forbidden from so doing by a person exercising lawful authority over the receiving telephone.
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It seemed to me from what Adams said that he envisions a database that lists a contact number for every residence. A land line could qualify, but he stressed the cell phone angle.
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1. Intentional harrasment or annoyance? I wouldn't call it that. Unless you consider it annoying to be informed that you could be poisoned by your tap water.
a. No communicative purpose? I'm pretty sure communication is the whole point.
b & c. Forbidden from calling or texting by someone with authority over the receiving phone? Sounds like the "do not call list," and I don't think it should apply in an emergency situation.
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It's a pretty efficient system if it's used correctly. Lots of people disconnect during the weekend, and you don't want them clogging up emergency rooms just because they didn't check their Twitter.
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Old Town
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Whiner #2: How dare the city try to learn my phone number in order to do a better job informing me about shitty water!
^^^(a summary of the comments thread)
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Sure they've got my cell number, but not everyone is out to get you.
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All Adams slamming aside... would minors have to give their numbers? Would the numbers be the billing address of the owner? What about business cell phones?
The twitter idea sounds so much better and cheaper (as in free). Though now the idea has been posted... wanna take bets that Adams claims it as his own?
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http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/20…
Of all the things people whine about...
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Perhaps because they cannot account for any and every potential emergency in the water system? No government entity can--covered reservoirs or not--period.
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The one problem with this list (regardless of how it is implemented,) is I can see it being used for more and more things, and people getting annoyed/not paying attention to them. For instance, boil water alerts are generally useful to everyone. But snowing and it may not be safe to drive and the bus system may be off schedule/not running at all? I can look out my windows and tell that. Amber alert? Great, if I'm doing something outside the house, not nearly as useful if it is black Friday and I'm celebrating by staying home. Crash on some location on I-5 and it is shut down for two hours? Awful if you are stuck in traffic in it, (worse if you are in the crash itself,) but less than 1% of the city would have used any given section of I-5 in those two hours even if it was open. While a database that allows you to opt in or out of certain types of notifications would be great, by definition they are emergencies and don't always fit into neat little checkboxes. For instance: This is the first boil water order in 20 years.
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They already have my name, my income, my address, my drivers history, my utilities usage, and my garbage, for heavens sake, I'd totally sign up for an emergency text message.
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