The comments about possibly entering a $5,000 contract with the text messaging company were made Monday, June 17, during a Village Board meeting.
"Facebook can turn into a s**t storm sometimes ... where people just overstep," Murphy said.
The service would allow village officials to issue simple text notifications to subscribers about issues such as water main breaks, road closures, important announcements, and emergency information. The level under consideration would allow 50,000 text messages to be sent by the village and would provide a way for residents to send messages to specific departments.
TextMyGov representative Jayden Eastman said after the meeting that the service is a way for municipal leaders to avoid the frustration Murphy expressed about getting information to the public.
"It is a good alternative because people ask questions on (social media) and someone who isn't affiliated with the town and doesn't work there will answer the question and then it's misinformation," he said. "Social media definitely has its place, events and community engagement, but not for official business."
There is also a time-saving element of keeping information technology employees focused on issues that directly affect the welfare of residents.
"Usually, it's somebody in administration that takes a lot of calls and they also managed a Facebook account," Eastman said. "They usually want to get away from it because citizens use that as a platform to complain or ask questions ... (that) they just don't necessarily have the time to answer. Municipalities will purchase something like this just simply to get information out and answer residents' questions by using simple texting."
However, there was concern that there are already elements of the village government that handle the same tasks, such as providing information about forms and documents, being offered through TextMyGov.
"Basically, we have those questions answered on our web page," Trustee Terry Parisian said. "I get texts about water (line) breaks through our ... building software. Streets closed (information) I've gotten on my phone."
Murphy considers a central system as a way to prioritize responses, have relevant information reach a wider audience and provide information to people who might be missing the information board members receive.
"Not everybody gets the texts ... that you get or I get," he said. "This would be one system that everybody would have the opportunity to have access to."
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