THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 5, 1995 TAG: 9511030183
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Short : 45 lines
One of the city's most important jobs is open and Acting City Manager Ron Massie is seeing to it that City Council thinks before he acts to find a new communications director.
Last Monday night council members spent almost three hours talking about the job and its functions. That was healthy because if ever a city needed to understand the function of this job, it is Portsmouth. Apparently, Massie spotted this need and opted to give city officials the opportunity to think about the importance of the job before he set about filling it.
The job is extremely complex with the person in it expected to function as facilitator and informer for city employees, citizens, the media and city officials. Obviously that person cannot spend all day pacifying citizens or waiting on city officials.
The person in the top communications job should manage the cadre of people all over the city who allegedly do public relations or provide public information for their departments. That person also should keep a handle on who is spending city money for what, whether for advertisements, brochures or photographs.
There are quite a number of communications or public information jobs in the city, but getting information from the people in them is sometimes very difficult for the media and for simply interested citizens. If they were coordinated by a person who understood the job, the city would get a whole lot more for its money.
The person in the top job should have some experience in image-building because the city can hire a person for much less money for a simple job such as distributing information to the media. It does not need to pay $60,000 for a public information person.
City Council members seemed to have better understanding of the importance and the complexity of the job after the three-hour discussion.
Let us all hope they will go ahead and give Massie the go-ahead to hire someone to fill this top - and important - position. by CNB