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City communications representatives

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Written by Amy Stansbury Friday, 07 November 2008

Will Hampton, Communications Director, City of Round Rock

Hometown: Houston

Education: Bachelor’s degree in journalism, University of Texas
Worked at City of Round Rock: Since 1998
Contact: 218-5409, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Photo courtesy City of Round Rock

Q. What is the primary purpose of your role?: A. It's really to make sure that there's effective two-way communication between citizens and their city government. I mean, that’s my primary purpose. I also have responsibilities for some internal communication in doing an internal newsletter, and we also have an internal blog.
Q. Why is your role important to Round Rock citizens?: A. Good communication is critical to good government. People need to know what the local government is doing, what our city council goals are and why we’re doing what we’re doing, so they can give us more input and feedback, so we can stay on the right track. It's just fundamental. You cannot have good government if you're not in touch with the people that you serve. You’ve got to listen and you’ve got to have those conversations, and those conversations take place in a lot of different ways today — some are online, some are face to face. And we do newsletters and all that sort of stuff to let people know what’s going on. But you just can’t have good government without good communication.
Q. What are the key issues you need to communicate to citizens?: A. Over the next 12 months we'll be working on the General Plan, the Strategic Plan and the Downtown Redevelopment and Expansion Plan, all of which will require citizen participation to be successful.
The General Plan is how land is going to be used: what's going to be residential, what's going to be commercial, what’s industrial. Where do the roads go, water, wastewater, utilities, parks — it’s a really significant plan. It really helps shape what the community's going to look like in 20-, 30-, 40 years.
The Strategic Plan is really how we're going to accomplish the goals the city council has set out for us. It’s sort of a business plan — how we’re going to go about our business in government to deliver the services and do things we need to do to achieve the council’s vision.
The Downtown Redevelopment and Expansion Plan is really about capturing the heart and soul of Round Rock. It really is downtown, but there's just not a whole lot of “downtown” in downtown. There’s sort that two-block historic area that people love, but there’s just not enough other retail businesses and dining and shopping to draw people downtown on a regular basis. The council's vision is to create this dense, urban core in our downtown area, and we really think this is the right time to be doing that.; So we’ve got those big plans going on, but I think the other key issue is we need to let folks know what's going on in the national and global economy and how it's affecting their local government. It's not crystal clear today. I mean, it's hard to know where all this stuff will wind up. But with Dell here and all the other global businesses, all of this stuff affects us at the local level.
Q. How can citizens find the most up-to-date, relevant information about issues they care about in Round Rock?: A. We work hard to keep our website up to date, and people can access that information online 24/7 at their convenience. They can get news and calendar listings, and they can watch the city council meetings, both live and the replay. The important decisions are made at city council meetings. They can watch it and read faces and body language. There's also our city focus video news magazine. It's a podcast. But I really think www.roundrocktexas.gov is where folks can find the best information.
Q. Who should citizens contact if they have questions?: A. If you're not sure who to call, the best way to reach us is by calling our main number, 218-5400. If it's after 5 p.m. and you have a question, you can go to the website because all of us have our e-mail addresses on the website.

Lori Paul, Public Information Officer, City of Pflugerville

Hometown: Pflugerville

Education: Bachelor’s degree in communication studies, University of Texas
Worked at City of Pflugerville: From Nov. 2006-Sept. 2008 as assistant to the city manager; since Oct. 2008 as the city’s first public information officer
Contact: 990-4363, ext. 287 This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Q. What is the primary purpose of your role?: A. Basically, it’s to establish and maintain a communication line with the public. We do that through press releases, newsletters out to the city, the city website and all the different forms we have of getting information out. We just want to make sure the citizens of Pflugerville are well informed about what’s going on in their city, whether it’s a change in policy, a new service we’re offering, an event that’s coming up, a city emergency — we just want to make sure that they know what is going on.
Q. Why is your role important to Pflugerville citizens?: A. As the city has grown tremendously over the past few years, it has become more and more important for us to be able to get timely and accurate information out to our citizens. While we’ve relied in the past more on the departments getting out their own information, with a PIO on staff it takes the pressure off the departments so they can stay focused on their own work. It’s also more effective for all the city’s information to be coming from the same office so we can make sure that it’s accurate and consistent.
Q. What are the key issues you need to communicate to citizens?: A. The new Comprehensive Plan [for the city] is a big one. We will gather public input, probably through open forums like the downtown [planning] open forums we’ve done. We started out with a big group, then we did break out sessions. It has been successful with the other groups that we’ve met with. We will also be communicating about some changes in solid waste and recycling services that are going to occur over the next year. Other issues are the finances of the city in relation to what’s going on in the national economy, construction projects and economic development — that always seems to be the big thing people are interested in. They want to know what’s coming next so we want to keep everyone informed of that. There are other key issues we’ll be talking about to our citizens that are typical of a growing city like Pflugerville.
Q. What is the most challenging aspect of your job?: A. Being in a new city position that has not ever existed before. We will really be defining what the role is and what it entails. And then also just constantly educating and re-educating myself on what is going on in all the different departments and making sure I know the latest from the city council meetings. So, just keeping up with all the information will be challenging.
Q. What is the most rewarding aspect of your job?: A. Getting to go out and meet the citizens at city events like the recent National Night Out. I think the reason I like that part the best is because I grew up in Pflugerville and really treasure the whole small town and sense of community that still survived here despite the growth. That kind of keeps that intact — getting to go out and meet with everybody and meet new people. Growing up here, you used to feel like you knew everybody. But now, at these events, maybe there will be one person I know. It’s rewarding to be out in the community and still try to help keep that sense of community together.
Q. How can citizens get up-to-date and accurate information?: A. The city website is a great source. It's always real informative and up to date. We have the slides on public access [Suddenlink cable] channel 10, and we run videos on there as well. The city departments create their own videos about different things, like if they have a new service they're going to offer or if they have something they really want the citizens to know about. Our weekly Key to the City newsletter is a great way to stay informed about meetings and events that are coming up. You just go to the website and register for the newsletter. We also have the monthly project status report that gives more details and status on projects underway. I also recommend that citizens come to council meetings because I think unless you've been to one, you don't really understand what all goes on and it can give citizens a good understanding of how their government works. They can see it firsthand. They can also view the council meetings on the city website or on [Suddenlink cable] channel 10.