The Smithville Aldermen Monday night voted to hire a Nashville public relations company, the Calvert Street Group, to better educate the public, from the city’s perspective, on the impact of a plan by the DeKalb Utility District to build its own water treatment plant.
During Monday night’s city council meeting, the mayor and aldermen were told by the city’s utility engineer, J.R. Wauford, that if the DUD builds its own water plant and stops purchasing water from the city, it could mean rate increases of ten to twenty five percent for Smithville customers and up to fifty percent rate hikes for customers of the DeKalb Utility District. (SEE NEXT STORY BELOW FOR MORE DETAILS)
Wauford and Mayor Taft Hendrixson proposed hiring the Calvert Street Group to get the city’s message out to the public. The cost to the city will be $5,000 per month on a month to month basis.
The Calvert Street Group specializes in managing corporate campaigns. The group navigates clients through the political processes where business, public relations, and public policy intersect. Whether it is grassroots advocacy, land-use and development, or non-partisan electoral campaigns, Calvert Street Group manages the politics designed to shape the outcome.
Darden Copeland of Calvert Street Group addressed the mayor and aldermen Monday night, saying that his firm will launch an aggressive grassroots public awareness campaign, a program that will educate the broader public within the DUD service area, and mobilize broad local opposition, . “Since 2003, I have worked personally in probably over forty small towns across Tennessee running political campaigns but also doing a fair amount of public education, land use, public relations, and education campaigns. We work in tandem with citizen groups in communities trying to educate them on whatever the policy issue may be. We’ve literally worked from Memphis up to Bristol and everywhere in between on such issues as charter schools, rock quarries, landfills, the fairgrounds and race track in Nashville, and convention center issues. We come in and meet with community members, try and understand the issues, educate the community on what is at stake here, and then organize a coalition of folks to take action. If everybody is happy with DUD’s proposal then we won’t get any traction. But I think once you educate the public, I think they will see how this really will affect not only Smithville but DeKalb County and the other counties and I think those folks will then try to take action to affect the outcome. We gather information and enable people to make their voices heard,” said Copeland.
In his written proposal, Copeland explains that in order to construct a winning campaign on this issue, Calvert Street Group recommends three major components for success:
1. Educate the Public- We will sound the alarm.
2. Mobilize Opponents-. We will build a coalition of opponents and engage them to carry the fight on our behalf.
3. Apply Pressure- Once we create our database of opponents and likely opponents, we will encourage their participation in upcoming meetings of the DUD and DeKalb County Commission meetings. We will also start a letter writing campaign to state and local officials who oversee the process.
In his proposal, Copeland recommends the following activities, in order of importance:
Newspaper and radio advertisements-Get the word out quickly
Media Relations- Get the evening news on Channels 2, 4, 5, & 17 to tell the story as well as the local media and reporters with the Tennessean
Coalition Building- Form a citizen group to broaden opposition
Direct Mail- to households within the utility districts
Home District Pressure-. Apply public pressure to DUD members
Website- publish all the facts and include an on-line petition drive
Database- build a database of known opponents, polls and letters of support.
Phone ID Program- A LIVE identification call to all DUD service area residents to identify opponents, ask them for their email address, and give them instructions on how to get involved, as well as ask them to attend public hearings and voice their support in various ways.
Letter Campaign- Encourage persons to write letters to DUD members, and others
The Calvert Street Group’s proposal is for work to be done on behalf of the city from the start of the engagement through withdrawal of the plan for the DUD Treatment Plant project, or until acknowledgement that the project will not succeed. The group will serve on a month-to-month basis until the project is deemed “dead” or until either party terminates the relationship.
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