BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT
Daily Post Staff Writer
In an update to City Council about recent storms, City Manager Ed Shikada touted the city’s online presence, and one council member said she wanted to hire more employees to “respond to the misinformation” on social media.
New Councilwoman Julie Lythcott-Haims said she wanted Shikada to request funding for communications employees who could go online and respond to questions on NextDoor and other social media platforms.
“This is where our residents are living and lurking and leaning on others for support — particularly when they’re panicking,” she said. “And so I certainly would be delighted to hear that you need more funding for staff in communications who can specifically spend their time online responding to the misinformation, responding to the panic, and the worry, and the ways in which residents feed each others’ worries when they don’t have the information at hand.”
It’s good for city employees to push out information, but they should also meet residents where they already are, Lythcott-Haims said.
The city’s chief communications officer is Meghan Horrigan-Taylor who makes $190,986 plus benefits.
Storms since New Year’s Eve damaged 13 homes and caused 20 power outages, Shikada said. Tree crews removed 150 tons of tree debris that was knocked down in the wind, he said.
Yeah, that’s what you need in a flood — a city hall PR person telling you the damage isn’t so bad! If the city has enough money for PR people, why not fund the police first.
How about funding repairs that should have been done many years ago? Then we wouldn’t need to hire new employees to track social media. NOT a good use of city funds. Palo Alto has two newspapers — both online, both reliable — where residents can go for information.
Her logic is way out in left field. Far, far left.
Defund the city PR department. Put the money into police and fire.
What a joke!! Do we really need to spend more money to have our Crackerjack “Communications” team telling us that keeping the fridge door keeps food and medicines cool longer?? Julie obviously doesn’t know the difference between useful information and “pr” and the City Manager clearly doesn’t realize that increased usage of the city’s web sites might means people can’t find find the info they need to know!
Usage soared due to the lack if timely and reliable information and people playing “Find the Sandbags” — the new Palo Alto game developed by our CrackerJack Communication$$$$ team that sent people driving around in the storm looking for sand, sandbags and shovels.
Speaking of shoveling materials, maybe Julie could push for the city to USE the timely and reliable information coming from neighborhood groups instead of discrediting it??
Time for her to start doing her homework. Maybe the teenage volunteers out filling sandbags can teach her and our $$$$$ Crackerjack City Manager and his office how to do something more useful than publishing recipes and recycling nonsense.
Both Mr Shikada and Julie should start doing their homework for a change. The last thing we need is more costly pr people writing nonsense about how we should keep our fridge doors closes during power outages.
News flash{ Increased use of city web sites isn’t something to brag about since it usually means that people can’t find the information they need to know in a timely fashion.
Or maybe our CrackerJack Communications team is starting a new game of “Find The Sandbags” which sends people out into storms on treasure hunts?
Perhaps instead of discrediting the information from our neighbors, they could learn from the teenage volunteers who were actually out filling sandbags, finding shovels and locating sandbags.
Or maybe Julie just wants more “pr” people who can keep stonewalling us ans the media since she’d rather think big thoughts than provide pesky overight of ourhighly paid staff?
Thank heavens Uplift is again publishing those recipes and advising us to drive with our headlights on!
Time for Julie to go back to school and learn the difference between “pr” and the useful information provided by neighborhood groupos.
Time for the City Manager and his costly crackerjack communications team that increased usage of city web sites during a disaster usually means people can’t find the information they need to know easily.
They should have asked the unpaid teenage volunteers for help in where to find the sandbags.
We don’t need moire “pr” from our costly “communications team that’s more adept at stonewalling than answering questions from residents and the media.
Increased usage of the web site isn’t something to brag about since it means people can’t find the information they need to know during a disaster — unless they think it’s fun to play “Where’s the sandbags” and send people driving around in the rain.
Maybe they can learn something from the UNPAID teen volunteers.
And shame on Julie for trying to discredit the accurate and timely information coming from neighborhood groups.
But thank heavens the city’s back ti providing useful tips like keeping your fridge doors shut during power outages and turning on your headlights.
From years of experience, I have found poor leaders solve problems by hiring new staff, and real leaders solve problems by actually inventing solutions.
Julie- we don’t need more comms staff! Use teenage volunteers or interns. Fix the problems where they’re at- underground our electric, and fix those bridges!! And bring back full library hours and the free shuttle! Those things would make the most difference in our community.
What a bad idea! We have a First Amendment that’s supposed to keep the government out of the information business. Let people determine for themselves what’s true and false. We don’t need the government to step in and tell us what is misinformation. People are smart enough to figure that out on their own, without a PR person’s help. If there’s excess money in the city treasury for PR, spend it on flood control. Instead of having a keyboard warrior interfering with free speech, have that person stack sandbags. Julie gets a D- for her first night on council.
This is truly embarrassing for our city, that our leaders think PR is more important than solving problems.