Riel wants personal PR expert to inform citizens
Councillor looking for a hike in expense budget to hire candidate for position
Peterborough’s doing a “sorrowful” job informing citizens about municipal affairs, said Coun. Keith Riel — but he could help that, he said, if he had a budget to hire his own public relations worker.
Although fellow council members largely disagree with him, Riel says he’d like all councillors to get an increased expense budget to use as they wish. If he had that extra money — about $4,000 annually — Riel says he’d use it to hire a PR expert to do some work for him.
“We have a terrible communication problem at city hall,” Riel said in an interview this past week. Fixing it could begin, he added, with him sending out newsletters to citizens (with a PR person’s help).
Then the city could also send out notices to neighbours within 300 metres of proposed construction projects — never mind 150 metres, which is the current practice.
Riel said he’s pitched that 300metre idea before, two councils ago (he’s been on council 13 years) but it was voted down. He still puzzles over it. “Why this resistance to telling people what’s going on in their community?” he asked.
However, Mayor Jeff Leal sees no such resistance. He said the city has an “excellent” communications staff that updates the city website, publishes a summary from council meetings and more.
“But if Coun. Riel has some ideas how we could better utilize some of our existing resources to provide additional information, into communities where there’s going to be potential changes, let’s have that (conversation),” Leal said.
And if councillors want to debate an increased expense budget, Leal said, the ideal time to do that is when council hammers out a 2025 city budget, in the fall.
In an interview, Coun. Gary
‘‘ We have a terrible communication problem at city hall.
KEITH RIEL COUNCILLOR
Baldwin agreed: “A more robust conversation could be had at budget time — that’s the place for it.”
Yet Riel said many citizens are being left in the dark about city plans, in the meantime. For example, he mentions the public meeting March 21 when neighbours of Bonnerworth Park were learning — many for the first time — that council is planning to build 16 pickleball courts in the park.
Riel called that meeting “embarrassing.”
“Yelling, screaming … people up on chairs, even staff up on chairs,” he said. No wonder people were angry, Riel said — they were blindsided by the plans.
Riel said he’s “not casting aspersions” on the city’s communications staff. Rather, he thinks city councillors have an unmet responsibility “to get the narrative out there,” regarding planning proposals.
“We have to start telling the public about what the hell is going on,” he said.
For Riel, that would mean a PR person to update his social media accounts. He’d do it himself, he said, but “I don’t have time. I’m a busy guy.”
“I think there’s a communications problem — and I can do a better job,” he went on. “I just don’t have the time and the money to do it. I need somebody to help.”
How much money would it take? Leal points out that councillors already have up to $5,000 they can spend annually on items such as attending conferences, hosting ward meetings or communicating with citizens.
But council voted at a meeting April 29 to offer an additional $4,000, from the mayor’s office budget, to send Coun. Kevin Duguay to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) conference in Calgary, in June, so he can run for a board position on the FCM.
Riel said at a committee meeting on April 22 that he thinks all councillors ought to get that same budget increase — money he’d use for PR. All councillors were asked this past week to weigh in. Coun. Alex Bierk and Coun. Don Vassiliadis were unavailable on short timeline, though the rest responded.
Coun. Dave Haacke said in an email that he’d like to occasionally send out postcards to highlight unfolding plans in his ward, but that it’s unmanageable for him. “I would need some type of help to organize and get it out,” he said.
But his wardmate, Coun. Andrew Beamer, said he wouldn’t support any increase to councillors’ expense budgets, and wouldn’t support spending public money on a personal PR worker. “Ultimately, this is taxpayer dollars,” he said in a text message.
Coun. Duguay said in an interview he’s “satisfied” with the expense account, and Coun. Lesley Parnell said in a text message that “we do not need more expense money for publicity, per councillor.”
“That could become very political, self-serving and misused for personal agendas very quickly,” Parnell said.
Coun. Joy Lachica said, also in a text, that “I don’t need to increase the amount of paper (ie: in the form of postcards or newsletters) that goes out to constituents.”
Coun. Matt Crowley said in an email that he updates his own social media accounts. “I have no need to hire someone to handle my communications.”