HMPRESENTLY: PR-101 and the Archuleta County BOCC

When only 4% of the folks weighing in on a survey “‘strongly agree’ that the (Archuleta) County government can be trusted to make good fiscal decisions,” that’s a PR situation, for county officials. In the PR business, problems aren’t problems, they’re ‘situations.’

In PR lingo, this particular situation might be described as a ‘concerning deficit of trust among survey respondents’… to say the least.

Sometimes, the rule of thumb in PR, might involve owning up to what’s going haywire, depending on circumstances. So, a business might come up with some wishy-washy PR lingo, like “We’re aware of the problem, and we’re taking immediate steps to address it.”

Or, with something stronger, if there’s the intestinal fortitude to do that.

That’s sort of PR-101, addressing problems, head-on.

Now, of course, I’ve got to qualify everything, since I’m out on the West Coast, quite a distance from Archuleta County, but even if I resided out your way, I’d still have to speculate about the exact nature of this trust issue, afflicting your County officials. Especially since, as noted in the Daily Post, the “citizen task force to recommend new STR (short-term rental) policies” has been holding meetings “behind closed doors.”

When there are trust issues… maybe that’s not the way to build trust?

So even if I was right down the street, that’s what I’d be running up against… closed doors, in all likelihood.

In my recent article about shaping opinion, I mentioned the power of only a word, or two, sometimes, in shaping opinion. “Agitated rooster,” I suggested for describing an Ohio congressman, who sometimes comes across that way. And I mentioned “bloodsuckers,” as another evocative word.

The hope, if maybe not always the expectation, is that officials everywhere — in Washington DC, and state, county, city and town governments — won’t be bloodsuckers.

Because once they land on some part of a human being, those little bloodsuckers sure can take advantage of things.

Harvey Radin

Harvey Radin

Harvey Radin is former senior vice president in charge of corporate communications and media relations, Bank of America Western Region. He makes his home in Redwood City, CA.