The URL can be used to link to this page

Home My Public Portal About2020-01-14 - Minutes of December 19 2019 Mtg_202001081211403651 Watertown Town Council Committee on Media and Public Outreach Councilor Palomba-Chair, Councilor Feltner-Vice Chair, Councilor Bays-Secretary Committee Report— December 19, 2019, 5:00 PM Philip Pane Conference Room Attendees included Councilor Tony Palomba, Chair, Councilor Lisa Feltner, Vice-chair, Councilor Caroline Bays, Secretary; Watertown Community Conversations members Ora Grodsky, Bill Madsen, and Nancy Hammett, Larry Raskin, and Stephanie Venizelos and David Stokes. The meeting was called to order at 5:02. The purpose of the meeting was to evaluate the Community Engagement Project and review the findings from the Committee's October 23 meeting. Councilor Palomba noted that the report of the Committee's October 23 meeting to the full Town Council was missing an important attachment. The attachment, Survey-Options to Explore Final was not included and attachment, Survey- Top 3 Currently Used Tools Final was listed twice. The missing attachment is attached to this report. The committee reviewed the top priorities from the October 23 meeting and discussed how to follow up with the results. There was universal agreement that a top priority is to hire a Communications manager and Engagement specialist. Councilor Bays said this was an opinion shared by many Town Councilors since it was included as the number one priority in the 2021 Budget Priority Guidelines. A Deputy Town Manager would be responsible, in part, for developing a communications strategy and enhancing public engagement, which might include the following top recommendations from the October 23 meeting: 1) Improve town website • Dedicate resources for managing the website • Create a cohesive calendar to consolidate all town meetings and community events • Create an online place to go for all things Watertown • Create something like "Find It" Cambridge in the website • Train staff and community organization leaders about how they use the calendar to list their events • Train staff and community organizations on communication best practices • Improve translation for website • Provide Interactive construction map -2- 2) Implement recommended strategies of communication and engagement • Develop alternative ways to present information besides the website (e.g. a town bulletin board like the one at the Library) • Create a 311 system • Introduce new ways to welcome newcomers - such as send welcome letters and a package with information about the town • Create more town sponsored events to bring people together • Use neutral facilitators for selected public meetings • Offer walks and talks with town councilors • Publish a Town Councilor Newsletter • Create and implement a Town Government Academy • Have an annual "State of the Town" address - possibly by the Town Council President 3) Schedule feedback event in a year about the process inviting everyone who attended a KTC or the October 23 event. Nancy Hammett felt that we needed further discussion and work in order to provide clarity and solutions to the issues. All present agreed that the committee needed to continue its work and creating a new committee, which Councilor Palomba suggested naming the Communications and Engagement Committee, is necessary in order to ensure that we follow throuqh with the recommendations and the identified priorities. We concluded the meeting with a discussion of how well the process worked and what we learned. Success and lessons learned Things we could do differently next time included: • streamlining and standardizing data collection • holding the conversations at another time besides the summer • ensuring we are more inclusive and reach out to a broader audience • giving the at-large councilors more of an opportunity to participate Overall, we were successful. Reasons include: • A very positive and cooperative partnership between the Town Council and Watertown Community Conversations. • The Kitchen Table Conversations became themselves a great strategy for community engagement, which enhanced a feeling of connectedness, built community, and increased Town involvement. • We were successful in finding out how residents receive information, which will help us identify ways to disseminate information more effectively. • We achieved the goal of bringing in new people who had not previously been engaged in Town. Larry Raskin said the Watertown Community Foundation, which helped to fund the KTCs, requested one councilor and one WCC facilitator attend the next board meeting and report on the results. Councilor Bays and Larry Raskin will present to their board on Jan. 15. The meeting adjourned at 6:45 p.m. Minutes were prepared by Caroline Bays October 13, 2019 Survey Responses: Engagement Tools to Explore (in order of# mentions by 123 Survey Respondents) All Selected Tools to Explore: All Selected # % Yes Calendar for town community events 91 74% Improve Town website functionality 80 65% Develop interactive construction map 65 53% Town Council newsletter 60 49% Hire Communications staff 58 47% Council Listening Sessions or Talk-Backs 55 45% Adopt 311 program 53 43% Open Office Hrs/Houses for Depts or Elected Officials 50 41% Walk-n-Talks —Town or Elected Officials 48 39% State of the Union 45 37% Citizen's Town Hall Academy 28 23% CATV regular appearances or call in show 13 11% Town Hall Scavenger Hunt 11 9% Top 3 Choices Tools to Explore: Top 3 Choices # Improve Town website functionality 60 49% Calendar for town community events 51 44% Hire Communications staff 40 33% Develop interactive construction map 32 26% Adopt 311 program 29 24% Open Office Hrs/Houses for Depts or Elected Officials 19 15% Town Council Listening Sessions or Talk-Backs 18 15% Town Council newsletter 17 14% State of the Union 17 14% Walk-n-Talks - Town or Elected Officials 14 11% Citizen's Town Hall Academy 6 5% Town Hall Scavenger Hunt 2 2% CATV regular appearances or call in show 2 2%