To:

Mayor Sandy Lucy

From:

Ellie Ging

Date:

August 6, 2015

Re:

A Proposal to Improve Communication in Washington, Missouri

PURPOSE:
I propose that the city of Washington implement ways to better communicate with the citizens of
the city. By expanding communication throughout the city, residents will be properly educated
and notified if and when a crisis occurs, and the safety of the people of Washington will greatly
improve as well. A survey regarding the recent boil order placed on Washington, Missouri on
Thursday, July 16 showed that communication in the city is lacking in certain areas. The results
showed that 53 percent of the people surveyed were not notified until Friday, July 17. This is a
startling percentage when the safety and health of residents is considered. As the chart below
shows, a large portion of citizens were not even first notified by the city, but by other means.

How were residents first notified about the boil order placed on Washington, Missouri?
(By Percentage)
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0

Newspaper

Email

Phone Call

Word of Mouth

Other

PROBLEM:
The city of Washington has grown significantly in the last few years. With this growth comes a
larger number of citizens within the limits of Washington. When a crisis occurs, for example the
boil order placed on July 16, 2015, urgent communication to all of the affected people of the city
is crucial.
Not only does the city need more ways of informing citizens, but speed and efficiency should be
kept in mind as well. With the recent situation, over half of residents surveyed were not notified
until 24 hours after the boil order had been officially put in place. There needs to be a way to
notify everyone affected sooner and with thorough details. In any situation, the city should have
a solid form of communication that the residents know precisely where to turn to for quick,
dependable answers and information.
Although a small percentage of residents were satisfied with the handling of this specific boil
order situation overall, a development and improvement of the citys communication outlets is
needed.

SOLUTION:
A few actions can be taken to improve communication throughout Washington. One critical
solution is to implement the use of automatic alert text messaging. Through this plan, with a
touch of a button, hundreds of residents in the city can be notified in a message that usually
averages around 160 characters. This is an excellent option to improve the speed of alerts and
information to be available to the public.
Improving the citys social media cites will also dramatically increase communication with
residents. Creating and/or improving Facebook and Twitter cites will provide a resource that is
known to all citizens as a consistent outlet for information.
There are a few simple options that the City of Washington can use to gather the opinions from
its residents. For example, when citizens in the city register to vote, they can be presented with a
form to fill out their preference of communication if a crisis or natural disaster were to occur.
These choices can include email, text message alerts, recorded automatic phone call, or even
social media updates. Those in the city who are already registered to vote can be mailed this
specific form.

CASE STUDY:
A somewhat similar situation occurred in the city of Brisbane in 2011. There was a significant
amount of flooding from a nearby river, and many roads were immobilized as well as several
homes. The city used all available communication methods including newspapers, radio, and the
television. There was still a need for getting additional information out to more residents and
outsiders. The city of Brisbane used this opportunity to develop specific social media channels to

quickly spread information. The main resources used were Facebook and Twitter for the sharing
of mass information. The case study found that after the flooding, their specific Facebook and
Twitter accounts viewings increased rapidly. With an increase of readers and information being
distributed, the city also quickly organized volunteer efforts and other opportunities that could
have only been distributed so quickly through social media.

TIMMETABLE:
This plan can be put into action as soon as possible. With the boil order still fresh in their minds,
residents of Washington are more likely to converge together with the new communication
efforts. The gathering of preferences from residents will most likely take up to four months.
Depending on the amount of workers, gathering and processing this information may take a
couple more months. The text messaging system however, should be developed rather quickly
and promptly. Along with the text messaging system, social media cites including Facebook and
Twitter, can be developed and advertised in a matter of weeks.
COSTS:
The main cost of this proposal involves the automatic text messaging plan. Mass alert message
systems average around fifty dollars a month, and with the Simplified Alerts Program, discounts
are offered for bulk groups. An advanced update of this message system starts at fifty-nine
dollars a month, which involves the convenience of updates being automatically sent to
Facebook and Twitter as well.
CONCLUSION:

Based on all of the reasons I have mentioned, I believe proceeding with this proposal will greatly
benefit the city of Washington. The recent boil order situation reveals that the communication of
the city can be improved. By implementing automatic alert text messaging and updating social
media cites, residents of the city will be notified quicker and know precisely where to look for
information. We can only hope that a crisis does not arise in the city of Washington, but with our
communication outlets intact, residents will know the city stands ready to keep them safe and
well informed.
STRATEGIC PLAN:
Objective: To improve communication between the city of Washington and its residents.
Actions to Take:

Immediately gather team to develop social media cites (primarily Facebook and Twitter)
Design and send out form to gather preferences of communication from residents
Using results from preference forms, gather willing residents phone numbers to develop
automatic alert text messaging program