WVU IMC 637: Internal Communications Plan for the City of Morgantown, WV

S s u l l i v 5 @ m i x . w v u . e d u

Improving Internal Communications at the City of Morgantown Susan Sullivan -‐ IMC 637 -‐ Week 9 Final Assignment Your final project for this course is to write an 8-‐10 page paper (i.e. case study) auditing the internal branding and communication efforts of a company or other organization of your choice. The organization should be one that you feel either needs to seriously revamp its internal branding and communication efforts or has recently faced a major external crisis and needs to develop a new internal communications program as a result. This could be a large, well-‐known company or a lesser known, smaller one.For example, the company could have recently acquired another organization or fended off an acquisition. They may have recently faced or be about to face a major labor dispute. They may be dealing with new government regulation or facing major challenges because of the volatile economy. Perhaps they’ve had a recent change in senior management or just faced an acute crisis situation such as those described in Lesson 6.

Spring 14

08 Fall

Contents Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 3 The Industry ................................................................................................................................................................................. 3 History ............................................................................................................................................................................................ 4 Its Mission ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 4 Strengths ........................................................................................................................................................................................ 6 Challenges ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 6 Services ............................................................................................................................................................................................ 7

Departments ................................................................................................................................................................................ 9 City Manager ................................................................................................................................................................................ 9 City Council ................................................................................................................................................................................. 10 City Clerk ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 11 Legal .............................................................................................................................................................................................. 12 Finance ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 13 Human Resources .................................................................................................................................................................... 13 Development Services Department .................................................................................................................................. 14 Public Works/Streets ............................................................................................................................................................. 16 Engineering ................................................................................................................................................................................ 16 Urban Landscapes ................................................................................................................................................................... 17 Public Communications ........................................................................................................................................................ 17 Other Agencies .......................................................................................................................................................................... 19 Current/Past Internal Communications ....................................................................................................................... 24

Discussion ............................................................................................................................................. 27 Possibilities for Internal Communications .................................................................................................................. 27 Intranet ........................................................................................................................................................................................ 27 Yammer! ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 28 ActiveData .................................................................................................................................................................................. 28 NIXLE ............................................................................................................................................................................................ 31 Newsletters ................................................................................................................................................................................. 31

Downloadable Assessment Tool ...................................................................................................................................... 31 Point 1: Lack of Intranet/One place for all employee information ................................................................... 33 Solution ........................................................................................................................................................................................ 33

Point 2: No correlation between internal messaging and external messaging and branding creates two different pictures of the City: the view for Employees, and the view for citizens ............................. 34 Solution ........................................................................................................................................................................................ 34

Point 3: Employees lack assurance they are being fully informed .................................................................... 35 Solution ........................................................................................................................................................................................ 35

The Team .................................................................................................................................................................................... 37 Measurement ............................................................................................................................................................................ 38 Timeline ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 39 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................ 40 Works Cited .......................................................................................................................................... 42

Introduction The City of Morgantown’s Public

Communications Department (Office 16), an extension

of the City Manager’s Department, exists to efficiently

inform the public of news, events, and programs available for citizens. However, the City’s

in-‐house organization lacks any kind of internal communication, and could be improved

with slight changes that would make everyone more productive.

Leadership will need to improve online presence, coordinate internal and external

messaging, and reassure employees that they will know everything to come in order to

create this improved system. Forward is a look into the City, how each department

communicates, research into possible avenues, and assessment on what points are found

that need to be addressed most.

No plan is complete without a timeline for implementation, which is also included in

order to provide a path to success.

The Industry The Municipal Government industry must be highly reactive in order to keep up

with the demands of today’s society and community, but often decreased budgets and a

higher demand for citizen satisfaction can slow progress. Morgantown is not unlike any

other municipal government – striving to stay ahead of citizens needs with an increasingly

smaller revenue stream. Here are how each Department aims to work for its residents,

visitors, and businesses, and how it interacts with others internally.

History Morgantown was built around the great Monongalia River, whose name means,

“falling banks” in the native tongue of the Indians who lived in this area. The river brought

flatboats, and with them, men looking for a place to make whiskey.

Col. Zackquill Morgan, the area’s first white settler, founded Morgan’s Town in 1785.

There is currently fundraising going on to erect a bronze statue of Col. Morgantown in front

of the Public Safety Building. (Some outlets report that it will be placed at the Hazel Ruby

McQuain Waterfront Park, but that’s since changed.)

The University was founded in 1867 under the Morril Land-‐Grant Colleges Act as the

Agricultural College of West Virginia. It played a big part in Morgantown not being taken

by the Confederates during the Civil War.

Its Mission CITY

Mission: To provide outstanding municipal services and support to the citizens,

residents, businesses, and institutions of the City of Morgantown based upon the

priorities of the City Manager and City Council.

Vision: To develop a City Staff capable of continuous improvement through

performance measures (metrics) driven data and visionary proactive leadership. To

provide a well-‐trained and professional staff thoroughly capable of meeting the needs

of the citizens, businesses, and higher learning institutions of Morgantown; based upon

the priorities established by the City Manager and City Council.

CORE VALUES

Public service is our purpose – It is why we are here. We commit to provide

competent, dependable, and efficient services to all by knowing our job duties,

responsibilities, and our City.

Mutual Respect – We will give professional and courteous service to our citizens,

visitors, and customers. We will act professionally toward our co-‐workers,

subordinates, and superiors and maintain respect and courtesy in all our operations

and dealings.

We will act ethically (we will not lie, cheat, or steal) or tolerate this behavior. – We

deal ethically in all situations and bring inconsistency to the attention of leadership

wherever it exists. We must also demand high quality products and services from

suppliers and contractors as they represent the City of Morgantown.

We will strive to analyze business practices for accuracy and thoroughness and

work to make them as fair and simple as possible.

We value and expect tactful, useful, informative and honest communication among

ourselves and with our community. Listening to the needs of our citizens is critical

to the communication and problem solving process.

PUBLIC COMMUNICATIONS OFFICE

Mission: To inform the public of news, information, events, and programs available

to them from the City Government. To help the City’s departments and facilities

identify what information and messages need to be conveyed to Morgantown’s

diverse audiences in the most effective manner possible. To promote what makes

Morgantown the great community that it is and to celebrate the successes of City

government, our residents, businesses, visitors, and institutions. To act as a liaison

and spokesperson for the City, reaching a hand to anyone who works closely with

the City and those looking to make connections with us.

Vision: To raise the level of knowledge and awareness of City news, information,

events, and programs so that each citizens is armed with the knowledge they need

to be a productive and informed resident, business, or institution. To foster a sense

of community between the City government and its residents, visitors, and

businesses. To increase the activity that strengthens bonds between Morgantown

and WVU. To adequately measure performance using metrics.

Strengths

Low Employee Turnover – Many of those working at City Hall and the Public Safety

Building in an administrative capacity have been employees of the City for some time. This

established base helps to strengthen the work done at the city because departments aren’t

constantly retraining new employees.

Challenges

Finances -‐ When the last City Manager left, Administrators discovered that money

through to be in a Contingency Account was not actually allocated – and we had much less

in our coffers than so thought. He kind of left us in a tough place to discover this after he

left so quickly. In response, Interim (and now acting) City Manager Jeff Mikorski did not

take a pay raise with his new position; City employees were not given a quality-‐of-‐life

adjustment at the beginning of the 2013-‐2014 Fiscal Year (July); we are currently in a

hiring freeze, except to replace those who leave us; and a Assistant City Manager of

Operations was hired who has a strong history of fiscal responsibility and also experience

turning tight budgets around. In February, the 2013-‐2014 FY Budget was presented. In the

transmittal letter, written by Mikorski, these financial considerations are presented, which

all reflect the need to stabilize the City’s budget:

• No levels of service are expected to be reduced for the 2013-‐2014 budget year. • The Hiring Freeze remains in effect. • The City will take on the cost of one Police Officer to the personnel costs due to

grant expiration. • A smaller-‐than-‐expected carryover from fiscal year 2012-‐2013 should be expected

since revenues in December 2012 were not as high as projected in the first six months of the 2012-‐2013 Budget.

• A payment of $153,000 of a million-‐dollar capital lease will need to be paid in 2013-‐2014.

• The City can’t accurately estimate what Mon County Property Tax assessments will be.

• Non-‐civil service employee pension contributions will not change this year. • Employee Health Insurance Contributions will go up by 4%. • Contributions to the Police & Fire Pension program will increase by 7%. • The City will experience a reduction of $276,000 in Wine & Liquor Tax collections

due to appeals last year. • City cannot afford to provide cost-‐of-‐living adjustments (COLA) for employees this

year. • A ten-‐percent increase (approx. $200,000) in Fire Service Fees is suggested to

increase funding for the Fire Department.

Services The City provides these services, detailed in the aforewritten pages, to its residents:

• Trash & Recycling • Housing Assistance • Downtown Business District Organization & Promotion • Public Works • Code Enforcement • Public Safety (Police & Fire Services)] • Municipal Court proceedings • Bicycle efforts • Green efforts • Urban landscape beautification • Information services • Trash & Recycling Services • Parking Services

o 2,022 Spaces o Permits o Garages

• Parks & Recreation Venues • Library

o Book/eBook rental • Air Transportation • Business Services

o Licensing o Fire Fees o Business & Occupation Taxes

• Streets & Signals Service & Maintenance • Development Services

o Plan approval o Variance approval

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Trash & Recycling • Housing Assistance • Downtown Business District

Organization & Promotion • Public Works • Code Enforcement • Public Safety (Police & Fire

Services)] • Municipal Court proceedings • Bicycle efforts • Green efforts • Urban landscape beautification • Information services • Trash & Recycling Services • Parking Services

o 2,022 Spaces

o Permits o Garages

• Parks & Recreation Venues • Library

o Book/eBook rental • Air Transportation • Business Services

o Licensing o Fire Fees o Business & Occupation Taxes

• Streets & Signals Service & Maintenance

• Development Services o Plan approval o Variance approval

Departments

City Manager The City Manager’s office houses the City Manager, Assistant City Manager of

Operations, and an Administrative Secretary. It is where all calls to City Hall ring.

Typically, if a resident wanders in with a question, it would be their destination.

• The City Manager, if not in a meeting, is always available to all residents, media,

business owners, etc. He manages the day-‐to-‐day operations of the departments

and how they work with outside agencies and influences, including WVU, Utilities,

Transportations, and State and County government.

• The Assistant City Manager of Operations was hired in March 2013 and serves to

make the City more efficient internally.

• Executive Team – The Executive Team convenes each Monday morning at 10 a.m.

These meetings serve as the trendsetter for the week, and have come increasing

more important as the City looks to balance its budget in the 2013-‐2014 Fiscal Year.

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The City Manager’s office houses the City Manager, Assistant City Manager of

Operations, and an Administrative Secretary. It is where all calls to City Hall ring.

Typically, if a resident wanders in with a question, it would be their destination.

City Council City Council is the governing and legislative body for the municipal government of

the City of Morgantown. It is comprised of seven representatives from seven wards

(Sypolt, 2014). It meets in a regular capacity on the first and third Tuesdays of the month,

at 7 p.m. in Council Chambers.

Council Member Phone Ron Bane -‐ First Ward ([email protected]) 304-‐376-‐5518

Bill Kawecki -‐ Second Ward ([email protected]) 304-‐292-‐5154

Wes Nugent -‐ Third Ward 304-‐291-‐3403

Figure 1: Morgantown City Council. Row 1 (L-‐R): Nancy Ganz, Jenny Selin, Marti Shamberger. Row 2: Wes Nugent, Mike Fike, Bill Kawecki, Ron Bane.

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([email protected]) Mayor Jennifer Selin -‐ Fourth Ward ([email protected] ) 304-‐598-‐9650

Deputy Mayor Marti Shamberger -‐ Fifth Ward ([email protected]) 304-‐296-‐2090

Mike Fike -‐ Sixth Ward ([email protected]) 304-‐291-‐2766

Nancy Ganz -‐ Seventh Ward ([email protected]) 304-‐599-‐0953

Although City Council plays a large part in running our city, as it takes the

recommendations of the City Manager and constituents and makes the final decisions.

However, it does not hold offices within City Hall. It is allowed to communicate internally

in two ways:

• Getting regular documents and information from the City Clerk

• Passing information to be shared from their individual wards through my office by

communicating to me through the City Manager. (Councilors are not permitted to

go directly to a department to discuss an issue – they must bring it up to the City

Manager in a meeting, and have him convey the message internally. This is for the

sake of transparency, so that the public can see on record about what issues are

being inquired.)

o All boards, commissions, and ad hoc committees are required to communicate to

City Employees through the City Clerk’s office, as they are under the City Council,

and not the City Manager.

City Clerk The City Clerk and her Deputy serve as the administrative support to City Council.

The office keeps records from Council meetings and Minutes, Ordinances, Deeds, and

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Resolutions of the City, in addition to an official history. The Office is in charge of

administrating Elections, as well.

The City Clerk communicates to the Boards and Commissions through email or by

post, if official notification, but not with any sort of internal communications medium, as

most do not work for the City and are not in City Hall. The Clerk is responsible for

The Deputy City Clerk is in charge of disseminating agendas and meeting packets for

City Council meetings. As one of our tech savvy employees, the Deputy Clerk uses Dropbox

to upload the .pdf to a cloud server, and all invited can access, regardless of location. This

works well as opposed to email, where as folks are added to the mailing list, they can’t see

emails that have been sent in the past. In Dropbox, as soon as the folder has been shared

with them, they can see all past and present documents.

Legal There are two City Attorneys for Morgantown: one serves to guide City Council &

the City Manager in the day-‐to-‐day business. The other serves in the Municipal Court.

Both City Attorneys have been employed with the City since the 1980s. The

Municipal Court Attorney works on numerous cases, and has had to upgrade his personal

way of communicating and organizing his work when the Municipal Court upgrades its

technology. However, the City Council/Manager Attorney prefers to hand-‐write his work,

and have his secretary type and share it. Both prefer to meet face-‐to-‐face with whom they

need to meet, instead of phone or write emails; the department chooses to communicate on

a largely non-‐technological basis.

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Finance Finance operates largely within its own department. It is responsible for the

management of the taxpayer’s funds, and carefully organizes how we use it. They manage

Business & Occupation taxes; permit fees, and the mail. However, it does need to regularly

communicate with Code Enforcement and planning to coordinate on large projects. To do

this, they use a dedicated server for Planning and Zoning, which includes any and all

information needed for Development Services Department and Finance responsibilities

pertaining to residents or businesses tax, zoning, and variances.

Human Resources The Human Resources Director manages internal relations, including employment

and benefits management. This person also acts as the administrative support to the City

Attorneys, and heads up the Personnel Board, which approves and offers insight on

employment and personnel decisions.

Our current Human Resources Director doubles as the Attorney’s secretary. She has

been around for some time as well, and chooses to address questions and issues face-‐to-‐

face, but she knows the benefits of email, as she uses this to communicate our legal notices

to the newspaper through that avenue.

When information needs to be delivered to each employee, she does it through a

hard copy, signed personally, with the person’s name written at the top, so that she can say

she was able to deliver information to each employee, addressed personally. These

normally are delivered directly to our in-‐house mailboxes.

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Development Services Department The Development Services Division helps to guide people through the development

process, address current housing, and administers the Community Development Block

Grant Program (MorgantownWV.gov, 2013).

• Planning & Zoning

o Planning Commission – This commission combines useful public input with

technical assistance from the Planning Department to offer recommendations

and guidance on development and growth for Morgantown

(MorgantownWV.gov, 2013).

o BZA -‐ The Board of Zoning Appeals’ job is to uphold zoning ordinances while

offering guidance and variances to certain rules for those who apply


o Ward & Boundary Commission – The Ward and Boundary Commission, made up

of one resident of each ward of the City of Morgantown, serves as an advisory

board with whom to discuss the boundaries of the City of Morgantown


Most planning and zoning communication is going out to people who have applied for

permits, variances, conditional uses, etc. However, it does use a dedicated server to

communicate with Finance and Code Enforcement.

• Code Enforcement – The main responsibility of Code Enforcement is to ensure that

buildings and rentals are suitable for human occupation (MorgantownWV.gov,

2013).

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o Building Code Appeals Board – The Building Code Appeals Board is whom

residents come to talk to when they think that their inspection needs to be

reviewed by someone above the Code Enforcement Official.

o Rental Housing – This division focuses on helping landlords keep their rental

units up to code. This is also who helps renters who believe they are being

treated unfairly.

o Litter Prevention Officers – Litter Prevention Officers are CE Officers whose

main goal is to enforce code as it pertains to litter and trash. A recent effort to

enforce trash toter code has been enlivened in Morgantown


o Hoarding Task Force – The Hoarding Task Force was created in 2012 to help

organize efforts to address hoarding within the City Limits of Morgantown. This

is the first Hoarding Task Force in the State (MorgantownWV.gov, 2013).

o Homelessness Task Force – This Task Force is a joint effort between the City and

the County to address homelessness and its effects on our area. It has completed

a Community Plan to Reduce Homelessness and is currently seeking funds to

implement it (MorgantownWV.gov, 2013).

Code Enforcement utilizes email and our email calendar to communicate with its officers.

Assignments are added to personal calendars by the person in charge of taking requests,

gathering tasks, and maintaining the annual/seasonal cycle of code enforcement. It does

not do a lot of sending information to all employees; however, it is one department that has

discovered the benefit of using the public Communications Office to send information

directly to the residents. It largely uses email to communicate with Public Works;

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templated documents are filled in, then copied and pasted into an email to be sent for filing

by Public Works.

Community Development is responsible for working with public agencies and local

housing and social services to improve the quality of life for all residents. It also manages

the Community Development Block Grant annual funds.

Public Works/Streets According to its page on MorgantownWV.gov, the goals of Public Works are to

maintain safe roadways for drivers, assist MUB in the maintenance and upkeep of its

utility projects, and helping to maintain and assist in recovery after a disaster.

• Signs & Signals – As already mentioned, Signs & Signals has worked to replace City

street signs with more durable signs that will withstand abuse.

• Traffic Commission – The Traffic Commission meets on the first Wednesday of the

month to discuss issues that affect traffic and streets in Morgantown. It meets with

members of the Pedestrian Safety Board and the Bicycle Board, as well as WVDOT

officials, to find ways to create the most efficient and highly constructed roadways

Morgantown can offer.

Engineering The City Engineers use their expertise to help in many ways. They work with

developers to check site plans and ensure that blueprints are sound before a project can

begin. They also will visit the site during construction to ensure that it is going smoothly.

In addition, they work with Traffic Commission and Planning in ways to improve and

maintain our City’s growth.

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Its internal communications operate largely on the dependence of physical file folders

that hold all information pertinent to each job, issue, request, or application. It uses email

to share information about certificates of occupancy, building permits, or requests for

service.

Urban Landscapes The Urban Landscape Superintendent oversees nearly 50 project sites across the

City of Morgantown. It is the Superintendent’s job to make Morgantown a beautiful,

attractive city (MorgantownWV.gov, 2013).

• Urban Landscape Commission – This advisory board helps to assist the

Superintendent in management, creation, and volunteer operation of all of the

project sites.

• Tree Board – The Tree Board’s main interest is the City’s leafy green residents. Its

goal is to ensure that those that are protected are, and that residents are

knowledgeable about how to properly care for those on their own property

(MorgantownWV.gov). This group has been very active in the Year of the Tree

during 2013.

Public Communications All of these departments, agencies, organizations, and the transparent goings-‐on of

each are all infinite wells of information from which the public can draw. There must be

some order to the way this information is presented, and in such a way that it is attractive

to the publics that this information could best benefit. It is the job of the Public

Communications Office to craft messages from this information to guide and inform the

citizens of our City. This Public Relations plan will strive to guide those transmissions to

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our taxpayers in way that is effective, efficient, and creates the right brand in our public’s

mind.

The Public Communications Manager oversees the Public Communications Office. It

is the Manager’s job to administrate the outgoing messages and branding surrounding the

City of Morgantown. It meets with the City Manager every two weeks to discuss current

City issues, programs, and campaigns. It also acts as a media liaison – in the event of a

large-‐scale disaster (County-‐wide), the PCM will also act as the Public Information Officer,

conducting Press Conferences and ensuring all residents are notified of the issue.

• MorgantownWV.gov: The City’s Website. Provides information on all departments,

boards, commissions, meetings, events, and news.

• Media Releases: Periodically, the Public Communications Office needs to share

information with the public. To do so, it crafts releases, possibly supplemented with

videos, info graphics, albums, or links to additional information. These media

release are sent to our listserv, [email protected]. Then, the

release and all pertinent information is shared on our website, through social media,

and Channel 15, if applicable.

• eNewsletters: The City sends two main eNewsletters: one monthly that is addressed

to Neighborhood Associations and like-‐minded residents who want news

specifically for their part of town, and a Morgantown News newsletter, sent the

Friday before a City Council Meeting, that updates recipients on action being taken

by Council by supplying them with an update from the last meeting and a look at

what’s coming up next.

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• NIXLE: This email/text alert system is currently being used to advertise MUB work,

road closures, and will be used in the event of a large-‐scale disaster to reach all

residents. Signup is easy: text MORGANTOWN to 888777. The system was updated

with all employees mobile numbers at its inception, but requires updating. It is

possible to send mass text messages to all employees this way.

• COMCAST Channel 15: This Government Access Network is used to publicize

municipal programs and airs public meeting videos.

• Granicus – Live Streaming meeting video straight from Council Chambers.

• Social Media – the City of Morgantown can be found on Facebook, Twitter,

Instagram, YouTube, FourSquare, and more.

Additional information about the scope of work by the Public Communications

Manager can be found in the Fall 2013 City of Morgantown Media Guide, created for new

reporters as a comprehensive resource for information.

Stories, news, and projects are collected in Campaigns. View sample campaign

template. Campaigns can just be a news item or event, or can span and entire year, like the

Urban Deer Archery Hunt.

The Public Communications Office does not currently manage any internal

communications.

Other Agencies The remainders of those City that may come to mind operate individually from City Hall.

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Police

The Police Department is made up of 65 sworn officers and an 11-‐civilian support

staff. It oversees 11 square miles of jurisdiction and works with the Sheriff’s Department

and WVU Police on a myriad of cases and projects.

• Police Civil Service Commission – This governing body oversees the hiring of Police

Officers.

• Special Services Division – This small group of trained officers helps to organize and

plan for municipal events, those applied for by the public, as well as managing

parade plans and working with film crews while they are filming within City Limits.

Police Chief Ed Preston has been pushing for an intranet for the Police Department

for some time now. The Police Department does use an internal software system and the

county’s emergency software to manage tasks. Email is also a large part of this.

The Police Department, just as the Fire Department, are housed in the Public Safety

Building and will not be included in an in-‐house communications plan, as it already has its

own to make up for a lack of intranet.

Fire

The Morgantown Fire Department is made up of 48 paid fire fighters and 2 civilian

administrative assistants. This department houses a Fire Marshal, the Chief, and three

firehouses strategically located throughout Morgantown.

• Fire Marshal – The Fire Marshal Division investigates fires to find their origin.

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• Training – This arm is in charge of ensuring that all of Morgantown’s paid fire

fighters are up to snuff.

• Operations – This division manages operations on a daily basis to ensure complete

coverage at all times.

• Fire Civil Service Commission – This governing body oversees the hiring of firemen.

The Fire Department does use an internal software system and the county’s emergency

software to manage tasks. Email is also a large part of this.

The Fire Department, just as the Police Department, are housed in the Public Safety

Building and will not be included in an in-‐house communications plan, as it already has its

own to make up for a lack of intranet.

Morgantown Utility Board

The Morgantown Utility Board manages water and sewer services for the City of

Morgantown (MUB.org, 2014). Its Weekly Work Lists and Daily Road Closures are

publicized daily by the Morgantown Public Communications Office. Meetings are held and

aired live in Council Chambers on the second Tuesday of the month, at 6:30 p.m.

MUB’s Communications Manager, Chris Dale, uses social media and email alerts sent

through the City’s NIXLE Alert System (Nixle.com, 2014) to notify residents of alerts near

their home or place of employment.

Board of Parks & Recreation Commissioners (BOPARC)

BOPARC is dedicated to providing indoor and outdoor recreation to the citizens of

Morgantown, both through maintenance of parks and venues, as well as organization of

programming that encourages activity in all parts of town (BOPARC.org, 2014).

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• Metropolitan Theatre Commission – One of the big venues that BOPARC manages is

the Metropolitan Theatre. Having recently undergone a renovation, the Met

provides all residents with a variety of shows year-‐round (MorgantownMet.com,

2014).

• Dorsey’s Knob – This Park is popular for not only the highest point in Morgantown

(and a great place to get sunset pictures), but also Dorsey’s Lodge, which is a fantast

weekend getaway, or just the right size for a small team retreat or conference.

• Hazel Ruby McQuain Amphitheatre – This Amphitheatre is the cornerstone of the

HRMcQ Park in the Wharf District. Events happen year-‐round, including the

Celebration of America on July 4, and the International Festival in September.

• Morgantown Ice Arena – Open March 7, 2014 for the season, the Morgantown Ice

Arena offers open skating, rehearsal slots and lessons, as well as houses the WVU

Hockey Team and other adult and youth teams, too.

• Marilla Park – Marilla Park is near Sabraton and has a baseball field, skate park,

tennis courts, lots of outdoor picnic areas, and Marilla Pool which features slides

and the annual Dog Splash on the last day of the season.

• Krepps Park – Krepps Park is on the other side of town in the Suncrest Area and has

picnic areas, lots of wooded acreage, Krepps Pool, and one of the two dog parks that

BOPARC also manages.

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Solid Waste

The City contracts its waste services to Republic Services. It is currently using a

Clean Community Concept, whose enforcement called for two major changes, which you

can read about under Growth.

• Recycling: The City overhauled its services in 2013 to provide each resident with a

recycling toter (MorgantownWV.gov, 2013).

• Trash: Reorganization of billing responsibilities is helping to lower management

costs. If a rental building has 2+ occupants (and therefore two separate toters), then

responsibility for the bill is moved to the landlord, and he is then responsible for

sharing the costs of the bill within the rent costs instead of that individual tenant

having their own account and bill. This cuts back on the number of toters in front of

residences in student housing parts of town.

Morgantown Parking Authority (MPA)

The Morgantown Parking Authority manages 2,022 spaces in the downtown area

(Spencer, 2013). Its comprehensive website helps residents find somewhere to park, has

downloadable applications for permits, as well as offers billing services to pay your parking

ticket online (ParkMPA.com, 2014). It meets on the third Wednesday at 3 p.m. in the Public

Safety Building Conference Room.

Fairmont Morgantown Housing Authority (FMHA)

The FMHA helps to assist low-‐income families find and budget for housing. It also

offers Grant assistance to help improve the lives of those who have already found a place to

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live, but can’t afford to make basic home improvements or make their home more

accessible (FMHousing.com, 2014).

Morgantown Public Library

The Morgantown Public Library provides a variety of services to the citizens of

Morgantown. It offers book and ebook rentals, Internet and printing access, book clubs,

Curiosity Quest Summer Programs, and hosts Green Nights at the Library in conjunction

with the Green Team. It has five branches across Mon County (Morgantown Public Library,

2014).

Morgantown Municipal Airport (MGW)

United Airlines provides flight services in Morgantown through the Morgantown

Municipal Airport. The airport offers 5 flights a day to Washington Dulles Airport in D.C.,

and from there, travelers can reach nearly anywhere in the world

(MorgantownAirport.com, 2014).

The Airport offers office space to a few entities, including the Morgantown

Monongalia Metropolitan Planning Organization and the National Guard Band, as well as

hangars for many private renters.

Current/Past Internal Communications

1.) Traditional, tangible hard copies of documents with attached Memos – This is the

most “official” and “most loved” way of sharing documents. There have been efforts

to “greenify” the document system, and much leeway has been made in the realm of

the vast amount of trees killed in the process of printing Council Meeting Packets for

7 Councilors, 2 City Managers, 1 City Clerk and 1 Attorney three times a

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month. Now, only those Councilors who request hard copies are provided with

those – the majority of Council has a laptop or tablet that they use to access those

documents during a meeting.

2.) Scanned .pdfs emailed between officials/departments – This is probably the

furthest that City Hall has evolved in document sharing. Council Packets are a prime

example of these two avenues being used.

3.) “Intranet” Server – This “City Server,” or M:\ (“M Drive”), is the most the City of

Morgantown has in the way of an Intranet.

Figure 2: Screenshot of Current Intranet Server, City of Morgantown, 2014.

City Manager Jeff Mikorski reports that at one time, there actually was an internal

Internet page, but it was only up for a few months before it crashed, and the server

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was simply created as a place to save files. It’s used to save documents for one-‐time

projects, for the most part.

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Discussion To fully investigate the current internal communications atmosphere at the City of

Morgantown (more specifically, City Hall), one must begin with a look into each

department, provided prior to this discussion.

In addition to researching current communications in each department, I also

looked into possibilities for replacement. I signed up for, or participated in webinars

explaining, Yammer!, ActiveData, and Google Calendar.

I chose to also use an analysis tool that provided its own assessment of our current

internal communications based upon a survey completed.

Possibilities for Internal Communications Several approaches were researched and tested, including intranet, social media,

and subscription services.

Intranet For the most part, many of the City’s employees have only had experience with the

Intranet system that was briefly in place. It was managed by the Mr. Mikorski and the IT

Director, and had no input from Human Relations. It was the first and only chance at digital

internal communications that City Hall has had.

The costs associated with the Intranet trial were such that subsequent consideration

for Intranets was turned down due to the amount lost on the crashed system. Being a

government entity, the City of Morgantown attempts to operate exactly at budget, and does

well with the money that they do receive. However, internal communications is not a

priority in this regard, and money has not been allotted for this type of feature for our

employees.

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Yammer! The City Manager and the Public Information Officer explored yammer. When gauging

employee reactions, two audiences were identified:

1. The few younger, social-‐media savvy employees immediately signed up and added

their coworkers’ emails, which in turn, invited more and more employees. It did

take off fast for a test run.

2. The older, seasoned employees responded thusly: What is this Yammer thing, and

do I have to do it?

It is clear that the majority of employees are not interested in putting time into an

entirely new service, while some of them are completely turned off by the idea of social

media. We did have ample excitement for any sort of mass communications tool for in-‐

house communications, however.

ActiveData One singular voice the City Manager’s and Public Communications office is able to

hear regularly is the use of calendars for internal communications. When a meeting is set

up in our Zimbra Email Client calendar, one can attach documents and notes. This is an

easy way for employees to share agendas for in-‐house private meetings. They contain

employees’ appointments, Public Meetings, Code Enforcement assignments, and more. It is

a system already implemented at City Hall.

Externally, Calendars are used to share events. However, we have four calendars for

the public, in addition to the 200+ we have operating inside City Hall for employees.

ActiveData gives us both public and private calendars, allowing us to consolidate all four of

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our calendars into an interactive interface that can be used by employees and residents

alike.

Features include:

a. A Marketing Calendar with a wide variety of sharing options and third party

integration

b. Event/Volunteer Registration and Ticket Payment Options

c. Private Calendar for employees

d. Room Scheduler

e. Community Publishing Capabilities (residents can add events)

f. Calendar Sharing, iCal capabilities

Below is an excerpt from a memo to the City Manager regarding the suggestion to

use ActiveData versus other services. The entire ActiveData Memo to City Manager Jeff

Mikorski can be viewed here.

Internal Benefits - Transparency for open communications organization-‐wide - Event Conflict Avoidance - Everything found easily - Event Awareness through social media - Tip: ActiveData can auto publish to social media when added to a calendar - Increase Event Exposure when everyone goes to same calendar for everything - Reduce Administrative time associated with data entry

Calendar Toolbox: - Quickly create code and URLs – make the web team more efficient - Persistently send and receive info from 3rd party apps - Easy-‐to-‐use form to put in information for internal & external (Sullivan,

2014).

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While this obviously isn’t an Intranet, or social media, this does seem to be a much

better fit for employees. The general feeling from the majority of employees is that they

don’t want to have to “sign in and check stuff all the time.” They have operated so long

without having to check anything but email and personal calendars (which could be in

Zimbra, Google, our physical desktop calendars, our phones, etc. etc.) that employees just

aren’t willing to do it anymore. The only person with access to the room-‐scheduling

calendar is the City Manager’s secretary, inaccessible to other employees.

WebEvent is the current for our City Calendar, and it utilizes html, and can only

show one calendar at a time. ActiveData is different. Visitors, outsiders, community

members, administrators and employees don’t want to have to check these three calendars

separately – a concise, easy-‐to-‐use calendar with alert notifications, event submission, and

personalization. It has a private calendar on which employees can post blood drives, City

birthdays, internal meetings like the Monday Morning Executive Team meetings, and you

can set up alerts for any meetings that use a specific word in the title, so you never miss a

planning meeting, even if you didn’t sign up to get alerts for that particular meeting on that

specific day.

ActiveData is definitely not social media – it certainly doesn’t carry the “social media

intimidation factor” that Yammer has on our older employees – but it is an integration of

the traditional shared calendar system and shared access to avenues that already exist, like

being able to simply add an event to the public calendar, then it automatically

(“persistently” [Sullivan, pp. 2]) sends updated information to everyone who has the

calendar shared with their iPhone calendar, Tweets, and posts to a calendar feed on our

website. Citizens can add the agenda for everyone inside and outside of City Hall, and that

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ensures that both audiences are talking about the same things and are all on the same page

when it comes to municipal activity. In addition, this will appeal to both categories of

employees: the younger, social-‐savvy crowd, who no doubt tries new apps and services on

a regular basis, will eagerly learn the ins and outs quickly, while the opposite crowd doesn’t

have to sign up for social media, and doesn’t have to ADD a responsibility – simply replace

the calendar method they use, and the Public Communications Manager can take care of the

sharing to everyone inside and out.

NIXLE A communications tool that is used for external communications would also make a

great internal communications tool. NIXLE, our text and email alert system (see Public

Communications), is used to send text alerts to any citizen who sends a keyword to a

dedicated six-‐digit number. Employees and department heads are already programmed

into the system for emergency notifications.

Newsletters Another external communications tool that the Public Communications Manager

uses is the newsletter. Two are currently sent: one as a news-‐based, City Council-‐centric

semi-‐weekly enewsletter, and another, a neighborhood-‐association focused monthly

enewsletter (See Public Communications).

Downloadable Assessment Tool

This Internal Communications Assessment Tool, a Microsoft Excel template

downloaded from the website of McLean & Company (2014), provided me with these

results, after filling out a roughly 75 question survey, including questions about Human

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Relations, Business Communications, Change Communications, Culture & Events,

Knowledge Sharing, and Crisis Communications (McLean & Company, 2014).

Results are as follows:

Figure 3: Current Internal Communications Assessment, McLean & Co, 2014.

While City employees have been relatively satisfied with the current methods, the complete

lack of an internal communications plan brings up three strong points that need to be

addressed:

• Each employee uses their own method of communication/No one place for

information for employees

• Internal Messaging does not reflect external messaging or branding

• Employees are notified once, at the same time, about upcoming changes.

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All three of these cause an inconsistency in internal communications that cannot be

corrected without a cohesive approach.

Point 1: Lack of Intranet/One place for all employee information The City Manager manages his calendars on his Samsung G4, and saves documents

from HR on his personal server. The City Manager’s secretary manages the City Manager’s

meeting schedule, as well as the City Hall Council Chambers Room Reservation calendar in

our Zimbra email client. We all have remote calendars for our desktops, which can be

shared. The Public Communications Manager keeps her schedule on her desk calendar in

paper and ink, and saves her employee information in hard copies at her desk. These are

only a few examples of how each employee uses their own methods to keep their day

organized.

The problem with this is that there isn’t a single location that all employees can

access information. For our current Zimbra email/calendar system, calendar sharing

requires approval, and not everyone is willing to share his or her calendars. Also, there is

no “home page” to which employee documents, news, social media, or discussions can take

place, so each employee must receive the document individually, creating 50+ copies of the

same file on our servers when it goes out to employees and they all save it in a different

place. Having the document in one central location on our server, and then emailing to

notify about its presence, would be a much more efficient use of email to distribute

information without fatiguing our infrastructure.

Solution For this, a combination of internal server and Active Data might be sought. Linking

meetings with details on where they can find further files in-‐house on the City Server (The

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M:/ Drive”) is possible, as well as a more through utilization of the server by all

departments.

Having all events in one place will help to reduce errors, as each employee won’t

have to put it in their own calendar, which is compatible with smartphone calendar

systems.

Point 2: No correlation between internal messaging and external messaging and branding creates two different pictures of the City: the view for Employees, and the view for citizens

The Public Communications Office came about in 2011, long after internal

messaging had time to develop. Although there isn’t much, what can be said is that it has

not changed since the Public Communications office came to be, and it has developed

external messaging and a standardized brand identity since then. However, there is not

much to be applied to.

Solution ActiveData can also make sure that all citizens and employees are viewing the same

special events, public meeting, inclusive community, and neighborhood association

calendars, and that creates a transparent cohesiveness – the feeling that everyone in the

City, inside and out, is on the same page.

Newsletters are used to communicate recent website news to the public, but unless

employees are going there on a regular basis, they do not get direct exposure to the

information that we send externally. To change this, an enewsletter can be created that can

help to send the same messages internally as externally. It can also include content such as

employee anniversaries, birthdays, and celebrations.

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Point 3: Employees lack assurance they are being fully informed The Public Communications Manager recently took her paycheck downstairs to

Finance to report a miscalculation on her paycheck. It appeared as though her wages were

incorrectly calculated. However, she was flabbergasted to discover that she had gotten a

raise.

“Remember, that bump was supposed to go into effect for us this paycheck,” said the

payroll manager.

“What bump?”

“The raise we’re getting to replace our loss of COLA [cost of living allowances] from

last year. Don’t you remember the email?”

In fact, she didn’t – she didn’t know a raise was even on the way. This office

operates so closely with the City Manager’s office that sometimes it is assumed to know

things that are to be announced.

This is just one situation in which communications could be improved. How do you

build confidence back that you are going to be aware that a change is coming?

Solution Creating a communications tree and following it – instead of depending on Department

Heads to inform all other employees, including those who are not in a department, of the

changes to come.

Preparing employees for future implementation of this ActiveData program is crucial to

making sure it is well received.

1.) Initially inform well, and keep employees informed along the way. Surprising

employees the day of implementation is not a method that is going to be

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successful. “Both upper management and end user employees must understand the

need for and advantages of the new system,” says Sarah White, who fully believes in

planning from the beginning and keeping everyone informed. Technology cannot

function without the end user (White, 2011), so its important that everyone knows how

to use the system, understands their role in its execution, and follows through with

interacting on a regular basis. In addition, giving the employees a way to help plan and

implement the system can also encourage them to “accept and adapt“ to the changes

(White, 2011).

2.) Implement game changers aggressively. John Mehrmann suggests that a company

should take an aggressive approach to implementing a system that will give the

company a competitive edge, much like a bank putting an ATM outside to allow

customers to self-‐serve (2014). This ActiveData system will work exactly like this ATM,

giving employees all the ability to enter their own meetings into a calendar everyone

can see, sharing a private event with department heads, or allowing employees to share

an upcoming community event to their personal Facebook page to share with friends

and family: that’s right, giving the City a competitive edge.

3.) Make Major changes slowly, and minor changes quickly (Merhmann, 2014). If we

are simply upgrading our web page, this can be done quickly, as it affects only a few

employees who manage their pages. However, changing a calendar system so that

everyone can benefit is going to be approached slowly, preparing employees, then

executed quickly, and then be prepared to troubleshoot or answer questions for a

period afterwards. Time cannot be wasted after you make the initial announcement;

losing momentum due to delays can do more harm than good (Mehrmann, 2014).

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4.) Get support of Leadership to help drive employees’ feelings. In City Hall,

Department Heads trust the City Manager. They have all been working together for a

long time, years and years before Mr. Mikorski moved from Grant Writer/Assistant City

Manager to City Manager in 2013. They also share similar values, political views, and

recreation. Getting Mr. Mikorski’s support for the project and having his “face” on the

efforts will definitely ensure that I can gain support for the communications change

(White, 2011).

While these new measures incorporate a calendar system that is relatively intuitive, it is

still possible that not all employees are satisfied with the changes. Rob Bernshteyn, CEO

for Coupa, which provides cloud management solutions for companies like Amazon & Rent-‐

A-‐Center, offers these tips for increasing the viability of new technology in the workplace

(2011):

• Select intuitive products. • Follow the 80/20 rule. • Deploy to “friends” first. • Sell it hard. • Keep reiterating.

NIXLE can be used to send reminders and alerts, links to additional information, and

more to increase the flow of information to employees.

Who is going to do this?

The Team While hiring a dedicated internal communications manager may not be plausible,

given the City’s current financial situation, it may be possible to achieve this with the help

of a few employees on a team. This would include:

-‐ Human Resources Director -‐ City Manager’s Secretary

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-‐ City Clerk -‐ Public Communications Manager -‐ Deputy Finance Director -‐ Code Enforcement presence -‐ Overseen by the Assistant City Manager

By implementing a plan with each of them in charge of a specific task, even if it is

just gathering content, little effort can be given by a dedicated few brand advocates to

provide all employees with a way to stay engaged with all branches of our government.

Measurement In the Internal Communications Team’s Plan, it will map certain numbers to show that it is successfully implementing systems that improve internal communications. To Track Point 1: Intranet/Server

Measure usage of City Server: Quarterly survey question during first year of Active Data implementation

Provided all Department Heads with FAQ for implementation, pre-‐implementation/First Quarter

Get response back from each department about preferred way to add to calendar (self-‐addition versus submitting event to team for submission), Second Quarter

Track submissions per category, Monthly Successfully have ActiveData Fully Implemented, Fourth Quarter

Point 2: Correlation between Internal and External Communications Successfully transfer calendar data to new ActiveData Calendar, pre-‐implementation/First Quarter

Measure consistency between external and internal newsletters (include news in both, not just external), monthly

Measure ease of use with Quarterly survey question

Point 3: Assurance of Knowledge Create Communications Tree so all can be informed, First Quarter Measure internal brand confidence with Quarterly survey question Keep track of number of internal communications sent and measure against how many employees believe they were informed of, Quarterly survey question Measure effectiveness of NIXLE alerts with reports on clicks, reads, reach.

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Timeline

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Conclusion While there is no dialogue in an online sense, employees are relatively open with

each other, and will address issues in a hallway meeting or by “walk-‐in appointment.” Due

to the nature of proximity to each other, as well as a long tenure of working together, the

administration largely knows how to communicate business issues. However, there is no

sense of community between the department heads and those who exist below them –

clerks, tellers, street workers, and janitor. There are many conversations and ideas that

would be useful to other departments if they were aware of them. Canceling duplication of

efforts could save time. The City’s departments might work better together if all employees

could see programs and projects from other departments in action.

This is one reason Yammer would have been such a visual solution. Different

“communities” could be made to address different issues and projects and responsibilities

and teams. However, ActiveData also does this, as Planning is able to see meetings that also

apply to the Neighborhood Association and the Pedestrian Safety Board, as well as the next

event to happen in that part of town (oh, during construction – let’s move it) without the

social media intimidation factor. Those employees who do enjoy social media can share a

story that they would not have seen if they weren’t looking directly at the news feed going

out to the public.

In addition, notifications can be sent from NIXLE, the City’s text and email alert

system. With it already existing and capable, this would be a great way to quickly send

employees communications – enewsletter urls, fun facts, and event notifications.

However, none of this will be possible with a plan – and this plan means nothing

without commitment (Smith, 2012, p. 25). “…They give people a sense of ownership of the

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goals and the strategies to get there – even if those goals and plans weren’t their idea in the

first place” (Smith, p. 25). People are more likely to enjoy their own ideas, ideas created by

their department or office, rather than those fed to them by someone to whom they do not

relate. In the end, they are more committed to the idea of City Hall as a community, built

upon the foundation of our missions and goals.

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WVU IMC 637: Internal Communications Plan for the City of Morgantown, WV

Government & Nonprofit