PUBLIC OUTREACH COMMITTEE

ITEM:		ACTION ITEMS
3.	REVIEW AND CONSIDERATION OF DRAFT PUBLIC OUTREACH PLAN
Meeting Date:			October 23, 2007
From:			David A. Berger,
			General Manager
Prepared By:			Same

SUMMARY: At its October 3, 2007 meeting the Public Outreach Committee considered staff’s suggested approach for implementing the objective in the District’s current Strategic Plan, which calls for the Committee and staff to develop a proposed “Public Outreach Plan” for consideration at the November 19 regular Board meeting. Staff has drafted a Public Outreach Plan (Exhibit 3-A) that reflects the Committee’s consensus on elements that should be included in the recommended plan. The Committee also identified a potential desire to add an additional element to the Plan related to upgrading the District’s website. CTO Inder Osahan leads the staff’s website team, and he will attend the October 23 meeting to brief Committee members on the details and status of that team’s strategic objectives for website enhancement.

RECOMMENDATION: Public Outreach Committee members should identify and reach consensus on any desired changes to the draft Public Outreach Plan, to enable staff to finalize the document for recommended consideration by the Board at its November 19, 2007 meeting. Alternatively, should it appear desirable and feasible for a website upgrade element to be included in the draft Plan at this time, the Committee should request that the Strategic Plan target date be further adjusted to enable it to review a revised draft and subsequent submittal to the Board.

BACKGROUND: In its Strategic Plan adopted on October 16, 2006 the Board initially created its three-year goal of “Establishing respectful and effective relationships with California American Water, the eight land use jurisdictions and the Seaside Basin Watermaster.” In its update of the current Strategic Plan approved last May 21, the Board added the general “public” to the goal, and created the objective described above in order to focus efforts on increasing District communication with members of the community regarding its regulation changes and other key activities.

IMPACT TO STAFF/RESOURCES: The draft Public Outreach Plan describes, but does not yet quantify, the impact on District resources that would be required to implement it. The Committee consensus was that the District’s current, informal public outreach programs and practices were largely effective, and only a few enhancements were identified that would increase the current level of staff effort or add expense. Examples are the one time cost of creating a District display booth, and the biennial expense associated with public communication training. If the Committee chooses to recommend the draft Plan without significant changes, staff will obtain cost estimates for these items for inclusion in the fiscal impact section of the November 19 Board report. Because its implementation is a strategic objective, District staff considers this policy item as a priority in relation to other workload demands.

EXHIBITS

3-A Draft Public Outreach Plan

U:\staff\word\committees\PubOutreach\2007\20071023\03\item3.doc