City Council Minutes 2018 08 14 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

City Council Meeting Minutes August 14, 2018 Page 3 of 6 Councilmember Stolzmann stated it is hard to judge how many users actually use social media. Mayor Muckle stated it appears the newsletter is the best way to reach the most people. It seems we need a mobile app to be a modern place. Councilmember Loo stated for business promotion the private sector may be more interested in partnering with the Chamber for such work. Councilmember Keany agreed. Councilmember Maloney stated technology has ongoing costs that can be significant; this can require a great deal of effort for maintenance and other long-term costs., Councilmember Loo noted the cost of this is $150-200K annually and that is substantial and will have to be discussed in the full budget conversation. Deputy City Manager Davis stated this will come back for a decision in the budget process. Hogan stated this is a menu of options to improve service and Council can select any or all of them. Deputy City Manager Davis stated there is limited staff capacity now so if we add more options we will need staff for implementation. Councilmember Stolzmann stated part of the success of the newsletter is because it is not too frequent. Quarterly might be the right amount, but that is hard to determine. We should use it for short informational pieces and direct people to digital media for the details. She stated she struggles with the comparison of FTE's to other cities; we are already in line with that. Maybe this is the right level and we should be careful of adding additional tasks. It is good to know we can't add these items without additional staff. Mayor Pro Tem Lipton stated we do need to improve community engagement. We are still behind the curve and our residents want more. He stated he is Tess inclined to spend money on data reporting tools. We need to find better ways to push out information in a timelier basis; we need to have better marketing of the community; but this can probably be done for a modest investment, maybe one FTE and small costs to push out information, not expensive platforms. He added the expense is in content, not software. We need a person to implement this; it is a mid -range position. Councilmember Leh noted Louisville doesn't need a Boulder type solution. We need to do better getting out timely information. We need to coordinate better with the business community but not do their work for them. He agreed NextDoor may be worth the investment of some time. He supports improving the web site; thinks a mobile application is essential for things like paying bills, finding out about meetings, leaming about projects/budgets, and getting contact information. He would like to see how we get information to and get information from people who can't come to meetings. The newsletter is a tried and true method. We are missing communications on economic development.