City Council Minutes 2014 02 04 - Laserfiche WebLink

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City Council Meeting Minutes February 4, 2014 Page 22 of 28 MOTION: Mayor Muckle moved to approve Ordinance No. 1655, Series 2014, seconded by Mayor Pro Tern Dalton. Roll call vote was taken. The motion carried by a vote of 6-0. Absent: Council member Lipton. DISCUSSION/DIRECTION/ACTION — PUBLIC OUTREACH, PUBLIC NOTICE, AND PUBLIC OUTREACH TASK FORCE Mayor Muckle requested a staff presentation. Public Relations Manager Muth reported on December 3, 2013, the City Council adopted Ordinance No.1647, Series 2013, which eliminated some significant gaps in the City's public notice process specifically to quasi-judicial and land use issues. However, more work is needed to coordinate the City's overall public outreach efforts.. The purpose of this discussion is to present the City's current public outreach program as well as plans for updates to the program and seek City Council feedback and suggestions on ways to improve the program and better integrate efforts. Additionally, staff will discuss ways to expand and customize community outreach efforts for legislative and quasi-judicial proceedings within the LMC. Currently, there is no regulatory or administrative structure for how outreach efforts are conducted for the City's special events, general information, and most city initiatives. The LMC does have specific public outreach requirements for the quasi-judicial proceedings and legislative actions. The City's Public Relations Office manages general information and special events information. However, historically, each separate City Department has been responsible for public outreach for their individual "city initiatives." For example the Finance Department would do budget information and the Public Works Department would do construction information. The Planning and Building Safety Department and the City Clerk are responsible for implementing the legal requirements stipulated in the Louisville Municipal Code (LMC) for Quasi-Judicial proceedings. The City uses much the same process for general information as for special events. Since information is meant to encourage attendance or simply notify residents, this process tends to be more about giving information out rather than gathering feedback. There has not been a coordinated effort from other departments. A new improvement will be the City's new Web Site, which will be launched by the end of the summer. It will allow the public to opt in for notice services, such as texting and email. Staff will begin instituting a process with all departments where items are reviewed by the City Managers Office to assure specific content and information is included and to determine the best course of outreach for each item. The attempt will be to standardize the look, feel, and design of notices, flyers, and handouts to get the most attention and to better brand items so they are clearly from the City of Louisville. A couple of