When Government Communications Break Down

A chaotic weekend underscores the necessity of clear messaging

A Sunny Day takes a Dark Turn

On June 24th, I took a very nice bicycle ride from my home in Troy down to Vandalia and back. The skies were sunny, the temperature was seasonably warm. A perfect day to hit the recreational trail.

All was right until I came back home and my phone was immediately blowing up. The questions and comments were coming in hot and heavy, “What is going on downtown?”, “Did you know about this?”, “This is an absolute mess!” These were just a few (and the more tame) comments I received.

I quickly found that at 2:00 p.m., City Police Officers were going door to door to downtown businesses telling owners, shoppers, visitors and everyone else to move their cars form the 100 block of West Main Street. The street was being shut down. From some of the individuals that spoke to me about this event, there was no reason given by the police for the shut down - all that was given was a strong directive to move cars from the street. The general impression one person relayed to me was that they had the feeling that it wasn’t a time for questions, it was a time for action.

Things became a bit more clear at 2:19 p.m., when a press release from the City showed up on the city’s facebook page gave a bit more clarity.

You can read the social media post here.

Finally, at 2:50 p.m., a copy of the above press release was sent to all council members. But by then, the public relations damage had already been done. Phone calls, text messages, emails had already been sent to unsuspecting council members demanding answers to actions that few, if any, saw coming.

We can have a healthy and productive debate about the wisdom of shutting down one of the most heavily used streets in the community. And no doubt, that debate is taking place. But this post isn’t about that part of the story. We aren’t going to talk about the decision, but how the decision was communicated.

Lessons from my youth

When I was a kid, I always tried to get out of trouble by always defending my actions as a reaction to something that happened to me. In other words, the only reason I did “x” (which always got me in trouble) was because someone did “y” (which they never got in trouble for). This game of “whataboutism” never worked. My wise mother always told me that only I was in control of my own actions and that no one else could force me to do something. From a young age, I was taught to keep my actions in check.

I couldn’t help but think about those youthful lessons when I read the press release the city used to inform residents of the decision it had made. Within the 283 word press release from the city, 169 of those words (or 60%) were spent explaining that this decision was really a reaction to the local Common Pleas Court.

While that might be important information to have, that information doesn’t really help anyone caught dealing with the immediate consequences of the shut down of West Main Street. From first hand experience I can tell you people really wanted to know first hand details such as:

• Do we know how long will this last?

• Why does the press release say pedestrian traffic will be closed but the graphic in the press release says it won’t be closed on the north side?

• Do we know who made this decision?

• Was this coordinated with other agencies, like ODOT?

• Are other buildings near this building safe?

• Is this building going to collapse? Is a collapse imminent?

• Were the businesses affected given any advanced notice?

Where this is hurting the most

I recently had a sit down conversation with a local business owner that is in the closed block; we spent a half hour talking about her business, her dreams and what her store means to her and her family.

The world of retail is tough, but this owner is willing to gut it out. After coming off a six-month long sidewalk and streetscape reconstruction project, this owner was looking foward to her retail store finally having a decent year. And then this shut down happened.

What became clear in my pleasant conversation with this business owner is that everyone has an opinion on this issue. Business owners, community leaders, residents, visitors….everyone. She has opinions, but she realizes her own personal thoughts takes a back seat to her efforts to make a living for her and her family. She is in the business to sell quality products to her customers, not to put forth an opinion about something she has no control over. Much of her frustration comes through in the tone and tenor in the conversations that are taking place in the wake of these shuttering of West Main Street; no one is showing a desire to solve a problem, they are more interested in being “right” (whatever that means).

I asked this business owner if anyone from the city has reached out to listen. “You are really the first one and I know as a council member, you probably can’t answer a lot of the questions I have. The only other person to talk to me about this was the police officer who told me to move my car on Saturday afternoon.” She is concerned because while everyone is willing to share their thoughts and feelings on this matter, some of the most basic concerns she has a downtown business owner are going unanswered.

I asked if groups like Troy Main Street or the Chamber have been helpful. “Yeah, but they are working with limited information, too. The other business owners have been helpful. We are all in this boat together and it’s brining us closer,” she said.

I prodded a bit about the questions she wanted answered. She replied, “I really want to know how long this is going to last and what the next steps are — saying it’s in the hands of a judge doesn’t help me. I just ordered a bunch of inventory. If I knew this was going to happen, I would have made different decisions. I have talked to some vendors and am trying to see if I can cancel some items, it’s been tough.”

Opinions are cheap, facts are priceless

One of the things public officials often get wrong is that they erroneously belive that residents care about the things they care about. They don’t. What residents care about are how a public official’s actions impact their own jobs, their own families, their own lives. When public officials can’t address the basic questions from stakeholders, they aren’t helping anyone, including themselves.

Earning and keeping the trust of residents and stakeholders comes from clear and concise communications that address the immediate consequences and the felt needs of those impacted the most. Communications that are made to simply propogate an opinion or spin-up the company line completely misses the mark and is one of the quickest ways to lose the trust and confidence of those that government is there to serve.

Communications Strategies Are A Priority…..not an Afterthought

What we are seeing play out in front of us here in Troy in real time is not an isolated incident. Governments of all sizes and all forms often make decisions and often fail to think about how they should communicate these decisions and actions to their stakeholders.

When government makes a decision, they would be well served to think about the questions that are going to arise from a specific action and think about how to communicate these answers in a clear and concise manner before these questions are asked. Failure to do so only means that more questions will be asked and the government will be caught flatfooted. Trust is broken and morale goes down. Hopefully both can recover, but it certainly isn’t going to be easy.