of the State to supervise
the formation of public opinion.
-Joseph Goebbels
We're not trying to spin it,
like in a public relations mode,
but we're actually trying to educate,
to give information about what we're
thinking or what the problem is,
get the feedback on how we can solve
it, and then to make some decisions.
-Councilman Kent Jorgenson
John Wright reports this morning that the Ogden City Council has created a new staff position to improve communications with the citizens of Ogden:
OGDEN -- In an effort to improve communication with citizens, the Ogden City Council has created a new position and set up a committee to implement a 52-page plan.
Communication problems have been evident, council members say, when it has come to hot-button issues like a proposed high-adventure recreation center, redevelopment areas and water rates.
To better inform citizens, they have hired a communications specialist for $28,700 a year and set up a five-member committee to implement the plan, drafted by a consultant at a cost of $5,000.
"We're not trying to spin it, like in a public relations mode, but we're actually trying to educate, to give information about what we're thinking or what the problem is, get the feedback on how we can solve it, and then to make some decisions," said Councilman Kent Jorgenson, a member of the committee. "We feel that we have to engage the public."
Council members are compiling a list of 1,000 stakeholders who will receive regular updates on council business via e-mail. They also plan to prioritize initiatives so they can establish individual communications plans for each.
The master communications plan offers guidance on things like framing messages, targeting audiences, disseminating information and gathering feedback. It covers such things as demographics and media relations.
In addition to the $5,000 it paid Ogden-based Design Solutions Integrated Marketing to draft the plan, the council has set aside $10,000 to implement it this year.
All funding for communications will come out of the council's $618,000 annual budget.
Communications specialist Linda Fonnesbeck will work up to 35 hours a week, producing news releases, designing surveys, gathering data, working with the local government television channel and producing reports.
Fonnesbeck also will be a member of the City Council Communications Coordinating Committee, or C5, along with Jorgenson, Zampedri, Council Executive Director Bill Cook, and Design Solutions Integrated Marketing President Jodi Holmgren.
Holmgren called the council's commitment to providing timely and accurate information to the public a "major improvement."
"I think the important thing is just that they have unanimously identified a void," she said. "I think there's a lot of exciting things going on in the community, and this will allow the community to have the information more readily."
I'm going to keep an open mind on this for now, but I already see numerous 'red flags."
The first oddity of this new arrangement is that it seems to be centered around the city council, and not the city administration itself. I've been urging Mayor Godfrey for quite a while to implement something like this on his own behalf, to promote more exchange of ideas between the city administration and the public. Yet this new communications apparatus is set up as the city council's "baby" The problem in this is that the Ogden City Council seldom speaks with one unanimous voice on any issue or subject.
There's also a second tricky problem. While it's admirable for the city council to provide a contact point between itself and the public for the exchange of information and ideas, there's a fine line between information and propaganda.
For example, it would be great to have an easy interface through which the average citizen could obtain accurate and coherent information about the details of the Rec Center bonding (other than by digesting the city's 151-page web-based PDF,) but the line between information and propaganda is crossed immediately if the raw data is to be interlaced with references to "noble ideals," or "grand visions."
Then there's the problem of electioneering. Mayor Godfrey has been repeatedly criticized for using city-owned channel 17 for political purposes. Although I've believed that such criticism was unwarranted in that case, I do see serious ethical problems with the establishment of the instant city council communications operation, especially with councilman Jorgensen occupying a chair on the steering committee, and most especially where he's running for re-election this November. Councilman Jorgensen exhibits repeated blind spots when it comes to potential conflicts of interest; and here's just another example of that.
There are many other potential problems and pitfalls in this situation that need to be discussed and explored.
I therefore invite our gentle Weber County Forum readers to do just that.
Whether this new city council communications agency will ultimately operate as a true two-way information interface for the general public -- or something more closely resembling Herr Goebbels's propaganda ministry -- remains to be seen. Nevertheless, I've already requested via email that Weber County Forum be added to Ms. Fonnesbeck's contact list.
Comments?
