Morgan Hill Comms. Assessment-v3

A Special Ops Sgt. will ultimately approve the messaging and determine whether the

Nixle alert gets sent via SMS (text) and/or email.

Public Works, Utilities

The Public Works Department has multiple responsibilities, ranging frommanaging its water

service and wastewater collection to addressing traffic issues to overseeing the City’s Capital

Improvements Program (CIP). Morgan Hill also has its own Enterprise Fund for water and

wastewater, which is run through the Public Works Department. Tripepi Smith spoke with

three members of the Public Works Department: Public Works Director Karl Bjarke, Senior

Engineer Scott Creer and Utility Services Deputy Director Dan Repp.

The Department receives the majority of customer/resident complaints through phone calls to

the Public Works front desk. Sometimes, other City teammates will route complaints to the

Department via internal email as well. One of the more common requests is to repair roads—

these requests can come through phone calls to the Department, the Mayor (based on

inquiries/questions he receives), the City’s social media sites, and emails.

There is no single ‘Communications’ role within the Department: multiple teammates have the

ability to update content on the City website. Interviewees pointed out a reasonable concern:

transparency efforts can lead to constantly having to update project dates and statuses on the

City website. There can be multiple variables that negatively affect project timelines. If project

information on the website is inaccurate, it could invite unnecessary commentary or inquiries

about project statuses. Addressing these inquiries requires time, energy and resources from

Department staff.

On a related note, the Department’s Project Engineers do provide information on a weekly

basis to Cynthia Iwanaga (Management Analyst) for “The Scoop.” This weekly blog post and

email highlights project progress (namely, construction) that might affect the day-to-day

routines of City residents and commuters.

Recently, Public Works (working with Maureen) tested out the “Community Engagement

Strategy” document for use on the East Dunne Hillside Tank Project that includes: team

members and contact info, time frames, background information on the project,

communication objectives, a list of stakeholders, related projects, and a Communications

action plan. Currently, there is no Emergency Communications Plan for Public Works

emergencies, such as a broken water main or power outage.

Operations/Utilities

The Operations Division handles the day-to-day maintenance and administration of the city's

water and wastewater infrastructure, as well as street and park maintenance. Within the

Operations Division, Utility Services has three divisions of its own: Water Division, Program

Maintenance Division, and Sewer Division.

The City supplies water to approximately 12,900 residential, commercial, and industrial

customers.

Dan Repp is specifically in charge of the City’s Urban Water Master Plan (UWMP),

its Water & Wastewater Systems Master Plans (WSMP), and its Recycled Water Master Plan