PUBLIC OUTREACH COMMITTEE

ITEM:		ACTION ITEMS
2.	INITIATE DEVELOPMENT OF PUBLIC OUTREACH PLAN AND STATUS REPORT ON OTHER STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION OBJECTIVES
Meeting Date:			October 3, 2007
From:			David A. Berger,
			General Manager
Prepared By:			Same

SUMMARY: The District’s current Strategic Plan contains several objectives aimed at fulfilling the Board’s three-year strategic goal of establishing respectful and effective relationships with California American Water, the general public, Seaside Basin Watermaster, and the eight land use jurisdictions within the District. Among these objectives are Nos. 2, 3 and 5 shown in Exhibit 2-A. Strategic objective No. 3 is the primary focus of this agenda item. Related to strategic objective 5, also attached is an outline of the District rule change notification and information dissemination process affecting cities, airport and county planning/building departments, which District staff reviewed with the Technical Advisory Committee last May (Exhibit 2-B). Staff will provide a brief oral update on the status of implementing objectives 2 and 5 at this meeting.

Objective No. 3 calls for the Public Outreach Committee and staff to develop a “Public Outreach Plan” by October 31, 2007 and submit it to the Board for consideration. The plan would guide the District’s future efforts aimed at educating the public on District activities and regulation changes. In 2005 the Association of California Water Agencies produced an excellent handbook to guide water districts in ways and means to better communicate with the customers and communities they serve, i.e. Open and Accessible: A Public Water Agency Guide to Communication and Transparency (Exhibit 2-C). Section II of this handbook that is entitled “Establish Community Outreach” covers several communication activities that District officials and staff already engage in, such as our annual open house, speaking to service organizations and other community groups, establishing citizens advisory committees, and the annual newsletter that is mailed to all residents and businesses. However, the ACWA handbook presents numerous ideas that the District could consider to improve or expand on our existing public information techniques, as well potential new ways to communicate with the community and customers. The District also lacks a comprehensive plan to organize, prioritize and assign resources to our public communication efforts, which is the purpose of this strategic objective.

RECOMMENDATION: Public Outreach Committee members should a) discuss how they desire to approach implementing strategic objective No. 3; b) “brainstorm” among themselves and staff, and reach consensus on specific communication elements suggested in the ACWA handbook, plus any other ideas that emerge, for potential inclusion in a formal Public Outreach Plan; and 3) ask staff to draft a Plan for review at a November Committee meeting, using the members’ suggested communication elements.

BACKGROUND: The MPWMD Board initially established the three-year goal described above, in its Strategic Plan adopted on October 16, 2006. In its update of the current Strategic Plan approved on May 21, the Board added “public” to the goal, and created objective No. 3 in order to focus efforts on increasing District communication regarding its regulation changes and other key activities with customers and the community.

IMPACT TO STAFF/RESOURCES: Unknown at this point, as a Public Outreach Plan has not been drafted. Because its implementation is a strategic objective, District staff considers this policy item as a priority in relation to other workload demands.

EXHIBITS

2-A MPWMD Six-Month Strategic Plan, April 19-September 30, 2007 (pp. 2-3)

2-B MPWMD Process for Notification of Rule Changes (May, 2007-draft)

2-C ACWA Publication, Open and Accessible: A Public Water Agency Guide to Communication and Transparency (2005)

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