West Basin Municipal Water District

EXPERIENCED A SHORT WAR… AND AN INVASION OF SMALL COUNTRY LOSS OF MY BOSS AT PARSONS ON RON BROWN’S PLANE CRASH IN BOSNIA AND A FEW CRASHES OF NAVY JETS

IT IS HOW YOU COMMUNICATE AND BUILD TRUST IN YOUR AGENCY, ON DAY TO DAY BASIS BEFORE THE CRISIS THAT WILL SEE YOU THROUGH THE CRISIS

Bad news is like garbage, the longer you sit on it, the smellier it gets!

Never ever, ever lie or shape the truth!

In 2012, West Basin’s Ocean Water Desal Demonstration Facility had a chlorine leak that fed bleach into two aquariums Headlines: “Bleach leak kills more than 7,000 fish at SEA Lab in Redondo Beach” Thousands of sea bass bred for ocean conservation die in Redondo Beach power outage

We called in the media & briefed them first thing Gave Daily Breeze the story to give it a local slant and walked them through the site…kept it out of LA Times as a result Briefed them at the site & walked them thru probable cause Briefed them without knowing all the answers Told them we fixed the problem Had shut down the plant, stopping leak Also briefed local weekly reporter Sent information to all of our stakeholder immediately via We have a e-newsletter list of about 5,000 people Went to local electeds, community leaders, industry people, environmentalists, etc. Wanted them to hear it from us before they read it in the media the next day Allowed us to carry our messages Actually received praise for being open and transparent in a difficult situation

In the fall of 2014, one of our Board of Directors was arrested for misuse of District funds BEFORE AFTER

Headlines: “West Basin water district official Mr. Wrong pleads guilty to conflict of interest charge, resigns from position” Sent information to all of our stakeholder immediately via Voluntarily brought in an outside firm to do an independent audit Again, went to local electeds, community leaders, industry people, environmentalists, etc. Again, actually received praise for being open and transparent in a difficult situation

1.We told our story fast and truthfully 2.Tried and usually beat media coverage with our information to stakeholders 3.We went out to our stakeholders and the media proactively 4.We stopped & fixed what was causing the problem 5.Kept everyone informed until resolution 6.We were actually complimented for our outreach

Have a crisis plan on the shelf Have the most likely scenarios in you plan Rehearse them if possible Staffing plan by position title Have your stakeholders contact lists up-to-date Know your spokesperson & method of approving information to be released CEO or GM should respond Crisis is an “All Hands On Deck” situation, not just the PR office Use whomever you need to get the information out Have agency experts standing by and trained Have the Board and Senior management’s buy in of your plan and method of releasing information Have a system to record what you do Best to have a communications person at the crisis site Never forget that it happened

Recent empirical study of trust & credibility found perception of agency’s trust & credibility depends on 3 factors: Knowledge & expertise, Past openness & honesty, and Concern & caring Study found that agencies that proactively release information about bad news can actually gain in public’s trust and credibility as an agency

Bad news stinks over time, good news will shrinks over time! Improve your act, not just words Ongoing truthful, positive communications is like an insurance policy when things go wrong