First Blast of Winter 2019 - 2020

With the first threat of winter weather here in Kansas City we had the opportunity to host three of our major TV outlets this morning to show and discuss what we were doing today, what our plans are for the Winter, and winter traffic safety. Thanks to our media friends and our Communications Director Valarie Poindexter for setting this up.

This is the 40th anniversary of my first TV news interview on WXYZ in Detroit, and in all those years I must say that of the 100's I have done only one has been a bit difficult, the rest allowed me to get out our messages, whether it was snow, construction, a tornado, or simply what our organization was doing. I have never had the Mayor, City Manager or my Board Chairs tell me to "shut-up", and I have had many people tell me they appreciate the information.

If you are in Public Works you need to want to do this kind of contact with the public. It is not the arduous "need to avoid task" that many in public works make it out to be. You simply need to have your message ready and be willing to tailor it to the time and the questions you can get. Remember we are the ones responsible for getting our messages out, so we need to be the ones out in front of the cameras and microphones/