03/10/2003 - City Council Communications CommitteeCommunications Committee
Meeting Minutes
3/10/03
Present: Councilmember Carlson, Councilmember Maguire, Communications Director
Garrison
The committee met to review and comment on the 2003 communications plan, how to
increase understanding and reduce jargon in notification letters the City sends out, and
other short range and long range communication opportunities and challenges.
In reviewing the communications plan, committee commented favorably overall that
these were the right objectives and goals. Councilmember Maguire suggested greater
detail in the plan, however, Councilmember Carlson commented that when the previous
Council had asked for the plan, they wanted a general outline and more emphasis put on
actually accomplishing the objectives rather than detailing everything in a thick plan.
There was general agreement that the plan serves as a useful guideline for
communication goals in 2003.
The plan listed five primary objectives for 2003:
Successfully marketing and promoting the new Eagan Community Center
Expanding and improving city communications via the Web
Developing an overall branding strategy and professional graphic standards for
use of the Eagan logo and applying standards to City publications
Improving communications efforts, particularly to new Eagan residents
Building relationships with local media
The Committee raised three specific concerns:
1. That significant publications not go out without the Communications Department
having first reviewed;
2. That a focus be not just on the general flow of information out of City Hall, but on
encouraging citizen feedback coming back in to City Hall;
3. While the City does legal notifications well, there was a concern or perception
that City staff could do a better job with common courtesy notifications and
invitations; and a related concern that notifications we do send may contain
difficult to understand terms or jargon and may be lacking an understandable map
of affected areas.
It was agreed that for items two and three the City’s new Web site technology (to debut
later this Spring) will aid in two-way interactions and information delivery. Maps and
definitions of terms should be posted on the Web too. The committee recommended that
the initial priority for e-mail subscription lists should be:
a) Council agendas and minutes
b) Community Center programming
c) Perhaps Cedar Grove updates
The committee recommended a glossary of terms be included in standard letters.
Director Garrison will review the most common standard letters and meet with staff to
develop easy-to-understand definitions in April. (This task was added to the Council’s
Management by Objectives list.)
Regarding reviewing copy of publications that go out, it was agreed that the proper role
for Communications was to review contents page and covers; not every single page of
every publication put out by other departments. Director Garrison is also available to
meet with individual departments or directors regarding their publication plans, and he
should look for ways to unify the look of these City publications. Councilmember
Carlson felt there may be need for some formal policies requiring prior review of
publications by Communications before they are published by other departments. (Note:
the city newsletter and business newsletter are Communications Department projects and
are already reviewed. Discover Us, the water quality report, etc., are examples of other
department publications not generated by Communications.)
Councilmember Maguire indicated his strong desire for periodic public forums for
residents to be able to raise their concerns.