
The Municipal District of St. Stephen (MDSS) is considering hiring a new communications and public engagement coordinator for the municipality.
“With our desire, quite frankly, to get better at the public engagement side of things,” said Chief Administrative Officer Jeff Renaud. “After much thought, I wanted to bring back the concept of creating someone whose job it is to handle these things and quarterback these things.”
The proposal and its details are in draft form and hold no standing until the council votes on it.
“We have a desire to be better about our (communications),” he said. “Keep our website better … but when everyone is doing it from the corner of their desk, no one is doing it well.”
Coun. Wade Greenlaw said he does think having a communications officer would help the municipality.
“It will help the public relations, it’ll help with educating the public and it will help everybody – the council and the administration as well,” he said.
He believes it is needed to correct misinformation.
The proposal said the position would “support strategic communication, public outreach, and stakeholder engagement for the MDSS.”
It would include communication with media organizations, but also enhancing the municipality’s digital presence and communicating effectively the programs and services, and external and internal messaging.
Mayor Allan MacEachern said it is a significant investment.
“We have to understand the cost,” he said. “It doesn’t just stop at one person, it will take some of Jeff’s time, and Celeste’s time. It will still be a team effort.”
Coun. Joyce Wright said this was a strategic priority identified by the council, not by the municipal staff.
“It’s just going to help, I think,” she said. “It is another investment for sure, but I think it’ll help us to be better.”
Coun, Marg Harding asked Renaud whether he believed this would actually help, citing an incident shared on Facebook.
“I think it’ll take a lot more than $70,000 to change the attitude of the people,” she said during the meeting. “I think it’ll come with the next election.”
Renaud said he believes it will take the person potentially hired to do this work time to break through the wall and build trust with the community.
The proposal outlines a salary of between $65,000 and $75,000 per year, plus a benefits package between $16,250 and $18,750.
A one time equipment and training fee is also included at $2,500. It totals to between $83,750 and $96,250 for one year.
Experts call it ‘best practice’
Erin Brandt Filliter, communications lead with Porter O’Brien, said hiring a communications officer is considered best practice.
“The communications profession is often misunderstood,” she said in an interview. “There are many people see communications professionals as spin doctors or people who might try to massage the message.”
She said it is more about ensuring a message, whether it be a level of government or non-governmental organization, is digestible for the public.
“It would be best practice for municipalities to have communications professionals, on staff or on contract, to support a municipality in ensuring the public, the citizens of that community, know what is happening,” she said.
Brandt Filliter said governments can fall into traps about not explaining the nuances of laws or legislation they might pass.
“They can be, sometimes, a bit boring or lacking interest,” she said.
A communications professional can take the information and show the public how it might impact them or their lives or their property.
“I’ve been doing this work for just over 20 years and I’ve seen lots of instances where there is sort of a lack of trust between an organization, a governmental body, and the citizens that they represent and a lot of times, actually, it comes down to poor communication,” she said. “Not being able to share the story in a way that is clear and well understood.”
Many municipalities in New Brunswick exist in news deserts, where little or no local news is present.
Brandt Filliter said over the years she has seen a shift in where people get their news.
“Traditional media, in my view, is a gold star,” she said. “You need to work with media to ensure the story is told well and media get the opportunity to ask questions, sometimes hard questions, about changes that are being made and holding government officials to a standard that the citizens would expect.”
Dan Murphy, the executive director of the Union of Municipalities of New Brunswick (UMNB), said having these roles comes down to a municipality’s capacity.
“I think it’s important,” he said. “Municipal councils want to be engaged with their communities and with their citizens to understand what they’re thinking and what they’re priorities are.”
He said social media has only made the need to communicate more clearly and effectively more important.
“Like many communities, we struggle with capacity,” he said, saying it comes down to the ability for a community to pay for that position or contract.
He said having local media helps, but there are many areas who are underserved and it is where communications professionals can step in to bridge the gap.
“It certainly can make a big difference in terms of bringing along and keeping them informed of what municipalities are working on on their behalf and making sure those projects are well understood,” he said.
Direct access is better
Erica Butler, local reporter with CHMA Radio in Sackville, New Brunswick, said it is always advantageous to be able to reach municipal leaders directly.
“I think a communications officer adds an extra layer on for a municipality,” she said in an interview with The Courier. “I think it is particularly advantageous when it doesn’t take away access to staff members or politicians.”
She said their role is important when there are messages and events to be sent out for coverage, but it is important to remember those professionals work for the government.
“They’re looking out for the interests of the town at all times and that is a little different than a journalist,” she said. “We have to be looking out for the sort of wider societal interests and sometimes that aligns with the town (municipal government), sometimes that doesn’t.”
A recent symposium was held on local journalism and the state in which it finds itself. Journalist and researcher April Lindgren, from Toronto Metropolitan University, told the group she’s heard from municipalities who, while local news as well as cuts from bigger networks, was faltering, were saying there was relief there weren’t “pesky reporters” around.
“But then there is a realization that ‘oh nobody knows what we’re doing now,’ ” she said.
For Butler, there is a balance to be found between communicating effectively and hiring communications professionals, especially when local media are present and available to local leaders.
She recalls the early days of covering municipal council in Halifax.
“I could call up any staff person in the entire city,” she said. “The people doing the real work and you would get great information from them. As time went on, the communications department grew and now every media request has to go through them.”
She said government communications has become a bit of a gatekeeper role. Butler said, these days, media outlets have less and less access to the governments and varying departments.
For many areas, local news is not available and the public, she explained, does turn to social media – which can become nasty, and filled with unvetted, erroneous information.
“I think sometimes they are being harassed (municipal government officials and staff), but we have lost our tolerance for healthy discourse,” she said. “I think reporters have a really important role to play to ensure that there is healthy debate and healthy discussion.”
Any decision will be part of St. Stephen’s future budget consultation process, but also must be brought forward to a regular meeting of council for a vote as well.