A View From Harbor Street
By David Buckingham ~
How can you most easily stay informed about what is going on in your community?
Some folks want tons of information about their City. Others are quite happy just to hear the big stuff. Your City government is serious about providing great information to all, and debuting this month are a number of important improvements that allow our residents better access to better information.
The City has placed significant emphasis and effort on improving the quality of our communication to the community and how the community can interact with us.
With a population growing in comfort with digital communication tools, but still with many residents preferring the old fashioned way, the City has improved our communication in both the digital and print realms.
Here are the key places you can go to know what is happening in your community, and to communicate your thoughts to your City government:
• New website — MorroBayCA.gov. The City’s newly redesigned website is not only beautiful, it is functional and it is the first place many will want to go to get information. Centrally accessible are three “What’s Happening” areas of information on the lower half home page.
“Hot Topics” is where we post current info on the most important activities in the City right now.
The adjacent “City News” section contains all recent “news” from the City. Of note: the City has also shortened the web address for the site, so you can now visit: www.morrobayca.gov for all things Morro Bay community government.
• Facebook. If the website is primarily “what happened, and what is going to happen,” the City Facebook page is what is happening now and you don’t need to have a Facebook account to visit.
While we will continue to use more traditional methods to communicate broadly, including reverse 9-1-1 in extreme public safety emergencies, Facebook is the first place we go to update you on very important information from water outages to shark sightings to critical public safety updates.
Helpful, our Facebook feed is actually embedded in the new website, so if you are not a Facebook user, you can scroll through our Facebook on the right side of the new home page.
• My Morro Bay Service Requests — the old “Let Us Know” system has been completely replaced by a pair of linked tools to help us better hear from you about problems that need to be corrected, and to keep our residents better informed of what we are doing about those issues.
The “Service Requests” button leads to a simple form where you can provide contact info, map precisely where the problem is, then fill in some details and even upload a picture of the problem.
This form gets directed to the appropriate staff member for action. Staff actions are logged and the requester will get an update on the status of the City’s work on the issue.
For those with a smartphone, the new “My Morro Bay” app (free in the Apple App Store or Google Play) allows users to do all of this on a smartphone.
• Bay News column. This regular Bay News column will provide additional details on key City activities.
• Monthly water bill mailers. To ensure we are reaching our less electronically inclined residents, the City is now sending out flyers with utility bills.
• “Notify Me” news flashes — to get the City’s most important info emailed directly to them, our residents should consider signing up for News Flashes and other subscriptions at the “Notify Me” link on the website.
From water outages to public safety items, to info and major City activities, we push out a few news flashes a week and if you are signed up, you can get those immediately by either email or text message.
Get access to all the above, and all of our original content at our new website: https://morrobayca.gov. Stay engaged on the web, on Facebook, using the My Morro Bay smartphone app, reading this Bay News column and your water bill insert, and signing up for City Hall news flashes.
Please communicate with us directly on how we are communicating with you by sending an email to Sam Taylor, our public information expert, at: [email protected], or to me at: [email protected].
David Buckingham is the city manager of Morro Bay. His “A View From Harbor Street” column is a regular feature of The Bay News. Send Letters to the Editor to: [email protected].
