City Council Minutes 2018 06 05 - Laserfiche WebLink

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City Council Meeting Minutes June 5, 2018 Page 8 of 11 Councilmember Loo stated she finds it difficult to find information on the web site, particularly old information. The searching does not seem to be intuitive. She added a lot of people watch on Channel 8 and the picture and audio should be upgraded. She doesn't find Engage Louisville to be that useful and the results aren't particularly scientific. She stated the City should perhaps partner with the Chamber to make them the source for promoting local events and businesses. All of it is very expensive and we are a town of 20,000. We could do a better job for Tess money: Mayor Pro Tem Lipton agreed we have a lot of information but it can be hard to find. If people want something specific they can call staff for help, but to develop the tools to search for anything and everything is not practical. The search engine is weak and could be improved. He disagreed that social media is the tool to use to push out information. We need more just in time notifications and emergency information; not to bother people with everything but to push out what people need to know. Resources are going to be the issue and it will require budget investment for this. Citizens expect us to do better with communication and social media and we need to meet those expectations. This is not an issue for most residents, either because it is too hard or because they are happy with what they can find. The newsletter is used by many people; we should consider doing an additional one and make it nicer. Councilmember Maloney agreed the newsletter has a huge following. We need a city- wide strategy, now it is a bit fractured. We already have a lot of good information but need to keep it up to date. We have a lot of good resources but need to coordinate it. Councilmember Leh stated it would be great to be able to provide information to the people who need it and different portions of the public need different information_ We should ask more specific questions about communications in the citizen survey. Social media may not be the right way to go. We ought to be thinking about the variety of populations who may not have access to information easily. We need a strategy to get the right information to the right people at the right time. Councilmember Keany stated the City might want to use NextDoor to get out information. We should use our existing tools better. We asked for comparisons to cities with similar revenue not just size. He stated he doesn't get a lot of complaints from people on this issue. Councilmember Stolzmann stated the newsletter popularity should be built on and it should be made more visually appealing. We should consider doing an e -newsletter. She doesn't feel Envision Louisville is very effective or useful. She likes how we are promoting special events from various groups and cross promoting when possible. Perhaps we should reorganize communications staff to be more effective rather than add more staff. She noted perhaps we can use the radio station with better content. Staff needs to be sure the web site contact information is active and people are checking the emails. She stated ward meetings are very useful for in-person contacts and perhaps Council should have more of them, perhaps two or three times per year.