Webinar: Building Trust & Transparency with Your Public

The key to transparent winter operations lies in how effectively you can communicate with the media, officials and citizens in your communities. Our recent webinar explored strategies public works departments can use to foster trust and transparency during winter weather events. 

To start us out, Lisa Hiebert, Public Information Officer at St. Paul Public Works highlighted the critical role of communication in winter operations, emphasizing that St. Paul's strategy is as vital as snow removal itself. By aligning communication with on-the-ground efforts and providing timely updates, agencies can build trust and transparency.

Citing a 2024 Edelman Trust Barometer report indicating how government entities are seen as significantly less competent and ethical than businesses by the public, Hiebert stressed the need for agencies to "humanize" their work, ensuring actions align with words and building genuine connections with the community.

“People trust people. We have to humanize our work - not just with snow, but all of our operations in public works.”

To learn more from Lisa about building trust through effective public works communication strategies:

Watch the full webinar here

Our next speaker, Bryan Karp, AVP of Optimization at Geotab, showcased how public-facing technology can bolster communications strategies by providing residents with up-to-date visibility into public services like snow cleanup.

Karp also hosted a Q&A session with Brendan Ford, GIS Specialist for D.C. Public Works. Ford explained how the District of Columbia’s snow operations involve collaboration between two key teams: the operations unit and the snow command unit. This cross-functional approach promotes efficient ice removal and streamlined communication with the public. 

Ford dove into the tools his team uses, not only to manage call volumes but also to maintain alignment across all levels, from field staff to the mayor's office.

“From a communications standpoint, the most important thing that our operations people want to know is what is our completion percentage on a route-by-route basis and an overall basis. And, we have a central snow command that controls that message as to how we’re doing,” said Ford. “In both the operational units and the snow command unit, they’re looking to people like me – there’s a small team of us – that are providing those metrics, and I refer to Geotab as our system of record for those snow completion metrics.”

Hear more about how technology is transforming D.C.’s snow operations:

Watch the full webinar here