HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN 04.10.2012 CC-WThe City Council of the City of Georgetown, Texas, met in Regular Session on the above date with Mayor
George Garver presiding.
Council Present: Council Absent:
Patty Eason, Danny Meigs, Bill Sattler, Pat All Council Present.
Berryman, Tommy Gonzalez, Rachael Jonrowe,
Troy Hellmann
Staff Present:
Paul E. Brandenburg, City Manager; Bridget Chapman, City Attorney; Jessica Brettle, City Secretary;
Laurie Brewer, Deputy City Manager; Micki Rundell, Chief Financial Officer; Jim Briggs, Assistant City
Manager; Keith Hutchinson, Public Communications Directors; Erin McDonald, Webmaster; Mike
Peters, Information Technology Director;
Minutes
A Update on City Websites and Social Media -- Keith Hutchinson, Public Communications Director and Erin
McDonald, Webmaster
Berryman absent.
Mayor introduced Hutchinson and McDonald and complimented them on their hard work and innovative ideas
With a Powerpoint Presentation, Hutchinson spoke briefly about what he and Erin McDonald do for the City. He
spoke about the Public Communications department and said they are located in the old fire station. He said,
when he started ten years ago, the only way he could communicate is by faxing out a news release He said it is
amazing how much things have changed in the past ten years. He spoke about the current media landscape and
said that there is a common wisdom that print is dead. He noted the Sun had a recent article proclaiming that
they are not dead yet. He provided Council with a list of sources that people use to obtain news about the City of
Georgetown and added the Sun is the largest source for local news followed by the city website He said the Sun
remains one of the best methods to reach people. He said thirty to thirty five percent of the households
subscribe to the Sun. He spoke about some monthly print publications that came out recently, including
Community Impact, Georgetown View and Focus on Georgetown. He noted seventy percent of households have
Suddenlink cable. He provided Council with the most recent Nielson rating for a local news program which
reached about 5.3 percent of households in Georgetown. He said the city Facebook page reaches about 7
percent of the population or 5 percent of households. He said this is similar to local TV news. He said one of the
best ways they reach people is through the City Reporter. He said the Reporter is included with all utility bills. He
spoke about the City Update which is a monthly ad that is placed in the Sun. He spoke about GTV as well.
Berryman arrived at the dais.
McDonald provided Council with a summary of the Citys various websites and what they provide to the
Community. She said, out of a year, there were over 3 million views to the City website pages. She said the City
has eight social media websites as well. She said the calendars are one of the most viewed sections of the
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website. She continued to speak about the calendar and how other calendars are synched with the City calendar.
She spoke about other features of the website including the Economic Updates section which is information
updated by the Finance Department. She said other cities keep stealing this idea from Georgetown. She said
one of the staff members in Finance gets phone calls from Taylor and other cities asking how the city does this.
She said journalists and other people are subscribed to this data. She said the City also has local business
listings on the website as well. She noted Convention and Visitors Bureau does a good job at updating the
website with new businesses. She continued to show the Council the local business listings. She spoke about
the "Live Here" website, which shows people why Georgetown is a great place to live and why they should move
to Georgetown. She said the City provides maps of neighborhoods in the community as well. She said the maps
will also allow them to browse housing clusters by price range. She said the website also shows the "hard data"
of why Georgetown is the best place to live. She said there is a man in Parks that came up with the idea of
posting local athletics scores online. She said all City leagues can be posted online. Mayor mentioned the
possibility of offering notices to people of emergency situations. McDonald confirmed this service is available and
she described how the City offers emergency notifications to citizens via the website and the Facebook page
McDonald said another focus they are working on is to provide mobile friendly versions of all of the City websites
She spoke about why the front pages of the mobile site is different from the actual website She spoke about
GTV and added they are integrating those meeting videos into different city websites according to topics She
described the email alerts that are tied with GTV and added they tied with Seattle for a national award She
spoke how the City asked the vendor to provide the City with an RSS feed that is tied with each agenda item
She said they have a lot of these feeds and added, some topics are active and some are not as popular. She
said this is automated and noted people do not have to come to Council to get information. She said other email
alerts that are set up include job openings and economy. She showed Council an example of some of the slides
that go on Channel 10. She said Council an example of the email newsletter and noted they are sent out weekly
to over 1200 subscribers. She spoke about how the City has reserved advertising slots at the City Lights
Theater. She said the Theater estimated over a half a million people come through that theater per year. She
said the City runs five Facebook sites, which started three years ago. Jonrowe asked and McDonald listed the
different Facebook sites the City manages. She spoke about the Shop Georgetown Facebook website as well as
the Live and Play Facebook site. She spoke about the Downtown Georgetown Facebook and how the city is
collaborating with other downtown organizations She spoke about the competition with Round Rock and how
the City has a higher percentage of the population subscribed. Mayor asked and McDonald said the future of the
web is that sites will become more geographically based. She said maps will become the table of contents and
subjects will be based on a person's location. Berryman thanked McDonald and spoke about how much the City
Council appreciates her. McDonald said she creates the frame for the Mona Lisa but noted there are many
admins that input the actual information. Berryman said Hammerlun told her that the website is incredibly open
Hutchinson spoke about some of the future trends for public communications in the community.
B IT Master Plan Update — Mike Peters, Information Technology Director and Micki Rundell, Chief Financial Officer
This item was pulled from the agenda by staff.
Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 05:10 PM.
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t: QQ
C y Secretary J ssica Brettle