The purpose of this item is to streamline the procedure for publicizing certain civic events, and to manage the length of announcements read by the Mayor at the beginning of Council meetings.  At the October 21st meeting Council Members asked staff to look at this issue and come back with recommendations. Some Council members expressed the view that too many announcements sometimes found their way into the Mayor's script, detracting from the main business of the meeting.

Background:

The Mayor's script is drafted in the City Manager's office and has traditionally contained a segment right at the beginning of the agenda, devoted to various announcements of city-sponsored or community based events taking place in the near future. For most of the year there are only a few announcements, but during certain times of the year, particularly around major holidays, the number of announcements tends to climb. Traditionally, the City Manager's office has taken a liberal view about what goes into the script, rarely declining to include an item. The notion of having the Mayor publicly announce an event has gained favor with City departments and local nonprofits and it has become increasingly popular. So popular, that in staff's view, it is now time to impose limits.

Recommendation:

Staff recommends that the number of items read by the Mayor at the beginning of meetings be trimmed, and that the focal point for managing this process be the Assistant to the City Manager working in concert with the Public Information Office.  Staff recommends that announcements about key committee openings, items having to do with boards and commissions, items about major schedule and venue changes, and emergency announcements continue to be included in the Mayor's script.  

Staff recommends that items less closely associated with the central core of the city's administration, such as items about picnics, festivals, guest speakers, local nonprofit and other localized events, not be included in the Mayor's script and that staff impose limits and become more selective with those annnouncements that take time away from the business of the evening.

Items not included in the Mayor's script still have a number of opportunities for publicity open to them such as: the channel 6 bulletin board, the employee newsletter, the citywide general newsletter, the city website, and mention on the channel 6 TV program "Burbank Council News." Some items may also be eligible for the electronic tip sheet published by the Public Information Office know as "Burbank Futures."

Staff also recommends fine tuning the cablecast schedule for the TV 6 program "Burbank Council News" so that it immediately precedes the cablecasting of Council meetings, thereby taking advantage of the relatively large TV audience that Council meetings usually enjoy, and utilizing the last couple of minutes of that program for various civic announcements.

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