HomeMy Public PortalAbout2019-01-03 MinutesWatertown Town Council
Administration Building
149 Main Street
Watertown, MA 02472
Phone: 617-972-6470
Media and Public Outreach Committee Meeting
Meeting: January 3, 2019
Read: February 12, 2019
The meeting was called to order at 5:15 PM in the Third Floor Conference Room in Town Hall.
Present were Councilors Anthony Palomba, Chair, Lisa Feltner, Vice Chair, and Caroline Bays,
Secretary. Also present were residents David Stokes, Chair of the Stormwater Advisory
Committee, Stephanie Venizelos, Watertown's Community Wellness Program Manager, Andy
Compagna, Member of the Bike -Pedestrian Committee, and Nancy Hammett.
The initial discussion concerned the recent Information Technology Assessment RFP. While it is
quite extensive and did include an inventory use of social media, members felt its focus was on
technology infrastructure and related to hardware and software capacity and did not address
communication strategy and community engagement nor specifically addressed personnel
capacity. It was suggested that whoever is awarded the contract arrange to meet with members
of the Town Council, Department heads and employees, and members of the existing boards
and commissions to guarantee the assessments address a broad array of communication and
training needs.
The Committee briefly discussed the need for a communication director and noted that based
on the work of the Committee and the presentation of resident Mike Ward at a previous
meeting, Councilors Bay and Palomba recommended in their budget guidelines that the Town
hire a communication/engagement director.
Councilor Palomba asked that the Committee and the residents attending to turn their attention
to a discussion of next steps and possible proposals to present to the full Town Council. It
should be noted the ideas, suggestions, and comments below are not attributed to specific
individuals but they do include the helpful comments from the residents attending the meeting.
- The web site should include a Notify Me category for the Town Manager that would include,
among other items, the Miscellaneous Items that Councilors and other Town employees
regularly receive. In addition, all boards and commissions should be provided the opportunity to
have a Notify Me category.
- Consider developing a community engagement survey. It was noted that this can involve
significant time and energy and may involve creating different formats, translation into several
languages, and an intense outreach effort to convince folks it is worth their time to complete the
survey.
- Arrange for Everbridge to make a presentation to the full Town Council about the social
engagement and the emergency notification tools that are available through the Town's existing
contract.
- Post job descriptions for boards and committees and Town positions on the web site as well as
in the appropriate Notify Me category.
- Investigate the costs and feasibility of instituting a 311 system, publishing a directory of all
employees with names and extensions, creating a Town Council quarterly newsletter, and
creating easy access to a Councilor's Request for Information and the subsequent response.
- Develop strategic guidelines and training tools for Town organizations, boards, and
commissions about how to communicate in a consistent and frequent way in order to engage
the community.
- Explore the creation of standardized platforms for the different town organizations,
committees, and commissions to plug into, for example, a standardized newsletter format or
survey platform would be helpful.
- Revisit the Committee's earlier consideration of creating:
• Short Term Goals - such as making more effective use of the tools the Town already has
through Everbridge and the Notify Me categories.
• Medium Term Goals - such as active participation of employees and volunteers in the IT
Assessment, using 311, creating a newsletter, etc.
• Long Term Goals - such as creating a communication/participation strategy and action
plan and funding a communication and engagement director.
The Committee than turned to creating proposals for approval by the full Town Council.
ACTION ITEM: The Committee recommends that the Town Council ask the Town Manager to
require that the awardee of the Information Technology Assessment contract interview all
members of the Town Council as well as invite members of each existing board and
commission to be interviewed. (Passed 3-0).
ACTION ITEM: The Committee recommends that the Town Council ask the Town Manager to
have the Notify Me category of "Council" changed to "Town Council" and to create a category of
"Town Manager" to allow him to communicate directly through Notify Me. (Passed 3-0).
ACTION ITEM: The Committee recommends that the Town Council invite, through the Town
Council President, a representative of Everbridge to give a presentation to the Town Council on
the available emergency notification and community engagement tools. (Passed 3-0)
ACTION ITEM: The Committee recommends that the Town Council ask the Town Council Clerk
to create an agendas and minutes link for each Town Council Committee on the Town Council
page of the web site so that Committee agendas and minutes are easily accessible.
(Passed 3-0)
Meeting adjourned at 7:12 PM
Minutes respectfully submitted by Caroline Bays