Discussion Regarding Staffing for City Communications

The purpose of this discussion is to seek City Council direction, by consensus, as to how to proceed or how to further refine the position and role of the vacant Communications and Events Coordinator.  Staff proposes splitting events from Communications to better align employee duties with the respective compensation levels.  

Before talking in depth about Ramsey's program, staff would like to provide an overview of our neighbors in Elk River.  Over the last few years, staff has received a lot of feedback from a few members on the City Council regarding how impressive the City of Elk River's communications program is and conveyed how nice it would be if the City of Ramsey could mirror some of their work. 

As a result of this feedback, Administrative Services Director Lasher and City Administrator Hagen visited with the communications staff at the City of Elk River on Thursday, June 23rd.  There are some key differences between our two cities, which can be discussed on Tuesday evening, but, for the most part, Ramsey and Elk River are comparable cities. 

Elk River's communications personnel include the following:   a full-time Senior Multimedia Specialist, a full-time Multimedia Specialist, a fulltime Senior Communications Coordinator and a full-time Communications Coordinator.   The communication staff do not handle events; events are handled by the Park and Rec. Department.  With regard to the two multimedia employees, it should be noted that Elk River does its own broadcasting (they do not have QCTV-type services like Ramsey does).   Even so, of the two full-time employees, it was stated that just one would still be needed if they were more like Ramsey.  This boils down to three full-time employees handling just communications, without events. 

By comparison, Ramsey has (had) one full-time employee handing communications, which included coordinating the Happy Days festival, along with some other minor events.   

A summary of some of Elk River staff comments include: 

• Getting ahead of key messages really engages the community and diffuses resident frustrations
• Having a communications team member trained in Graphic Design is very important and has proven to be very effective and efficient
• It is really nice to have multiple trained eyes on their work prior to it going public
• The use of their drones (operated by licensed drone pilots) has increased resident engagement and understanding
• Communications staff try to meet with each department each year to get ahead of the upcoming goals and determine an approach for communicating with the residents
• One communications employee meets weekly with MNDOT and then passes on updates to residents as it relates to the Highway 169 project.
• Their two multimedia specialists produce about 70 videos/psa’s a year and also take pictures and capture drone footage for various projects

Staff has more information and ideas to share regarding Ramsey's future communications role.  Additional details will be added as time allows, or verbal updates will be provided Tuesday evening. 

 

At least 10 minutes

Not applicable at this time.

Colleen Lasher, Administrative Services Director
Brian Hagen, City Administrator

Based on discussion.