Communication, Transparency,  Trust

Building a foundation of trust through open communication, having transparency on the issues and striving to meet commitments.

Emmett Street "Fold" Development:   An example of how not to consider your stakeholders when rolling out new rules. 

College Street / Emmett Street Reconstruction Project:   In a low trust environment communication, outreach, dialogue are paramount. 

Chronic annual tax increases, transparency on financial performance.   How to marginalize costs by slicing into small digestible pieces.

Tom’s Action Plan for Better Communication and transparency leading to building trust.

Establishing a quarterly "Town Hall" series. Tom will be hold one-hour face-to-face meetings for Pelham residents to discuss issues, share updates, and answer your questions directly.  Encourage other council members, and administrative staff, to do the same.  Measure council face to face time with residents and other Town stakeholders.

Outreach and communication: Encourage the Town to develop electronic means for proactively reaching out to stakeholders to inform them of an issue that may be of interest to them.   This could be a service that flags issues by geography and topic.  Whenever the Town publishes an announcement, it will have to select what topics it covers and what geographies.  Then a simple txt or email to say come have a look.

Guidelines for paper communications to residents.   This will include greater time periods between actual mailings and event occurring.  For example, a three-week window between a mailing and a meeting of interest to the public.