Communications and Engagement Workshop- Virtual, 9-26-22 7-8PM

The community engagement workshop is today, and will be covering the city’s draft communications and engagement plan, which can be found here (pdf). You can join the meeting by zoom link, entering the /Meeting ID:/*// *881 1151 2483/and Passcode: /825643 into zoom directly, or calling 16699006833, entering the meeting ID 88111512483#, and then entering the password *825643#. Once in the meeting by phone, you can raise your hand by pressing *9, and unmute by pressing *6 once called on.

Because the draft plan is 144 pages including appendices, I’m going to summarize the key points here.

1. All departments should plan out key communication points and have someone who is in charge of communication (page 6).

2. The city’s website needs to be redesigned, and information on it needs to be kept up to date. Someone needs to be in charge of the website. The city may want to change its web services provider (pages 7-8).

3. The city needs to gain control of and actively use all of its social media accounts. The city also needs to have a social media strategy and policies (pages 10-11).

4. The city needs to develop a unified brand style, not just a logo. The city should use Pinole Community Television to create video content about city events (pages 12-13).

5. The administrative report newsletter has some engagement, but could be simplified. A survey should be sent out to the community to see whether the cost of a printed newsletter would be worthwhile (pages 14-15).

6. The city needs to have internal and external social media policies. Someone needs to be in charge of enforcing those policies. Policies and how to contact key staff should be readily available (page 15).

7. The city needs to create a crisis management plan. It also needs to identify how outreach should be done in a crisis (pages 16-19).

8. The city needs to have a plan for media outreach, including a policy, frequent press releases and a point person for media contacts (pages 19-20).

9. Pinole needs to do better at providing language access. Have a process for identifying which documents should be translated, and how fully. Have a staff member or contractor who is responsible for this. Boost multi-lingual social media posts (page 21).

10. Pinole should create a resident academy to explain how the city works and how to engage with it (pages 22-23).

11. Pinole should use metrics to track what is working and what is not (pages 23-24).