Page 182 - Ord 866 Adopting a revised Fiscal Year 17-18 and new proposed Fiscal Year 18-19 budget

Goals and Objectives

22 Communications Department

and gatherings, social media, serves/ supports our local chambers of commerce at meetings
and events, assists in various economic development efforts for the Town, and
serves/ supports the Westlake Historical Preservation Society as Town liaison.
The Communications Manager position reports to the director of communications and
provides overall assistance as requested with department responsibilities. This position
manages all aspects of the town’ s social media platforms; and is team lead on website
updates and maintenance, photography and video work, department’ s records
management with Laserfiche, and assists as necessary with media relations and
coordination regarding press releases, events, and WHPS board efforts as needed.

Program Trends
While the 2017 DirectionFinders Residents’ Survey noted an 11% decrease in satisfaction of
overall communication effectiveness since setting a national benchmark of 92% in 2015, a
resident/ stakeholder focus group was formed and utilized to provide deeper insight and
collaboration for continuous improvement efforts.
The 2016 annual Westlake Academy Parents Survey revealed an increase of 7% in both,
overall satisfaction with the quality of communications received and methods of
communication.
Benchmarks are being gathered with the implementation of the tier One Strategy Map for
our Balanced Score Card system relative to the municipality’ s website, social media
platform, and citizen engagement.
Simply Westlake, a monthly resident newsletter/ magazine now in 5th year of publication,
continues to garner even more support with each passing year with increased growth in
resident contributors, advertisers, and requests to be a feature family now months in
advance.
Advertising and events in major local and social publications/ websites on a state level and in
local DFW publications regularly occur throughout the year in order to maintain brand
awareness and knowledge about Town of Westlake and Westlake Academy. This process
has now been implemented on the international level and efforts continue to raise and/ or
maintain promotion on this additional level each year.
Due to the continuing growth in the Westlake community and increasing demands on
departmental personnel, utilize services of external marketing consultants to assist in
branding, promotion, and strategic messaging efforts for continued success in citizen
education and engagement efforts, local government awareness, and increased sense of
community.

2017- 2018 Highlights
Complete development and roll-out of new Town of Westlake website redesign and mobile
app; Coordinate training for all municipal departments of new website and mobile app
features and create communication plan for promotion to residents and stakeholders.
Develop and implement a strategic messaging communication plan for a series of
educational and informational topics to educate residents and stakeholders new to our
community over the last several years’ growth; Topics will range from contact/ accessibility to
Town staff and leaders, from Westlake’ s governance structure and Academy charter to

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