...for City of Southlake news, business, and community happenings.
-
- Department of Public Safety
Thursday, April 18, 2024
There’s no “I” in “Team” – or “Southlake,” for that matter. This philosophy is rooted in humility, service, and selflessness, and is a key reason that the City of Southlake’s communications teams earned recognition at the Texas Association of Municipal Information Officers (TAMIO) conference this summer.
When it comes to promoting transparency, keeping the public up to date on pertinent information, and maintaining connection with citizens, communication is key. And a lot goes on in a City like Southlake. With so many moving parts, interdepartmental teamwork is necessary to ensure citizens receive the timely and efficient communication they deserve.
Many City of Southlake team members’ hands touched each project that was honored at the 2023 TAMIO Conference, especially the campaigns for the 2023 Winter Weather Communications and the 2022 Fire Annual Report. From the Office of Communications and Customer Experience (OCCE) to the Departments of Public Safety and Public Works, transparent and effective publications can only happen with a team committed to excellence – and dedicated to teamwork.
2023 Winter Weather Communications
When winter weather hit earlier this year, the OCCE, DPS, Public Works, the Library, and Community Services pooled resources and manpower to keep residents informed while snuggled indoors. These efforts earned the City a TAMI Award in the “Best Social Media Campaign (Unplanned)” category.
The winter weather campaign was truly an all-mittens-on-deck effort, with every employee becoming a communication professional as snow and ice took over the streets of Southlake. The TAMI award encompasses the cross-departmental efforts that allowed efficient communication to happen, including over 60 social media posts.
While City staff managed more than 120 customer service calls and the Public Works department spent over 117 hours plowing and sanding streets and intersections, constant inter-departmental updates on current conditions ensured the communications teams had accurate information to push out to residents.
During these efforts, Public Works personnel, including Director Rob Cohen, sent photos and videos of road conditions and sanding operations. These were used on the City’s Facebook and DPS pages to assure residents that emergency response teams were on the job!
“The Protect Southlake team always has a laser focus on safety in these situations,” said Pilar Schank, Director of Communications. “We use images and information to tell people about changing conditions, where they can turn to for help, and when appropriate, make people laugh.” 
While Southlake citizens were stuck inside, departments like the Library and Community Services made staying indoors fun with their ideas for arts and crafts, getting an at-home workout done, or curling up with one of Director of Library Services Cynthia Pfledderer’s favorite books.
These joint efforts allowed communications teams to push out news alerts on the City’s website and MySouthlakeNews, photo and video updates from the Mayor and City Staff, funny yet informative content from Southlake DPS, and more. At the end of the day, the winter storm was no match for the collaboration of the communications teams.
Pictured from left to right: Pilar Schank, Director of Communications; Jamie Cooper, Corporate Communications Manager; Amanda Meneses, Emergency Manager; Jack Thompson, Deputy Director of Public Works Operations; Lauren LaNeave, Deputy Director of Public Works Administration; Brad Uptmore, Public Information Officer.
2022 Fire Annual Report
Additionally, the City of Southlake received an Award of Excellence for their publication of the 2022 Fire Annual Report in the “Reports for Population Under 75,000” category.
To build this report, the Office of Communications and Customer Experience (OCCE), in collaboration with the Southlake Department of Public Safety, collated a wide range of statistics to show how our Fire personnel outperformed national benchmarks and demonstrated why they remain an ISO Class 1 department.
This document contains a wealth of knowledge about the department’s structure, public education opportunities, and financial stability, among many other topics. The report also contains an exclusive collection of photos captured by Southlake DPS and the OCCE, both on-and-off the scene.
“Each of us brings a piece to the table when creating this report,” Amanda Meneses, Emergency Manager, said. “We strive to live by our mission of “Providing World-Class Service,” and this report lets us highlight the many things we do to carry out that mission.”
These communication projects are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to living out the value of teamwork. In times of crisis or clarity, City Staff band together to get the job done, all in the name of providing high-quality, world-class service for Southlake citizens – but winning a few awards isn’t too shabby, either.
Check out Some of the City’s TAMIO Award-Winning Social Media Accounts and Follow Along for Updates!
Southlake Department of Public Safety Facebook
Each year, the brutal Texas summer takes its toll on previously manicured grass, AC units, and the water supply. Increased temperatures and little rainfall lead to drought conditions that make way for increased wildfires and grassfires each season; The Southlake Fire Department continues to provide assistance to areas in need.
As temperatures rise, so does the need for extra resources – water, gear, and helping hands, but Southlake Fire, a Northeast Fire Department Association (NEFDA) partner, is no stranger to a bond that begins with one of the golden rules – sharing is caring. This week on Minute with the Mayor, Mayor John Huffman meets with Lieutenant Frank Molinets of the Southlake Fire Department to get an in-depth look at the Wildland Deployment Program.
“Throughout the year, we participate in many deployments throughout the state of Texas, mainly wildland deployments, where we send wildland-trained firefighters out to support local jurisdictions in any time of need. For the last few years, Texas has experienced drought conditions, and these resources have been needed throughout the state on multiple occasions,” said Molinets.
The Southlake Fire Department debuted its new Tender, an apparatus that stores up to 3,000 gallons of water, on a deployment to Fort Stockton this summer. This piece of equipment assisted in extinguishing roadside flames and keeping people and animals who live there safe.
Positions on the Wildland team are highly coveted, and practice with new equipment and tactics continues long after the drought season is over. With firefighters dedicating over 100 hours each of initial training, yearly preparation with regional and state partners, and much more, the Southlake crews are ready to tackle the smoke and flames ahead.
Depending on the severity, deployments can last a few days to a few weeks, but no matter the duration, the Protect Southlake team continues to rise to the occasion.
As he listened in on what the program entailed, Mayor Huffman remarked, “It really speaks to the heart that you have and the heart that your team has, that you guys would take the time to get trained for this, but also take the time to deploy.”
To watch the full episode of Minute with the Mayor, click below.
The Southlake Departments of Safety received the 2022 Silver Circle Award from the City-County Communications and Marketing Association (3CMA) for their video on emergency preparedness. The national award was presented at the 3CMA Annual Conference in September 2022.
This year’s theme, “Blazing a New Trail: Exploring the Communication Landscape,” was inspired by challenges communities have faced over the past two years, as well as utilizing new routes for communicating, educating, and informing them.
The video, “Prepare Right Now for Your Home,” was part of a severe weather awareness campaign. It was designed to capture people’s attention and empower them to help spread the word about emergency preparedness and knowing what to do when a storm hits.
As emergency management staff rocked out to a parody of the 1980s rock band duo Heart’s song “Alone,” they informed citizens about safety and preparedness.
“With the Facebook audience primarily being 35-44 years old and nostalgic of the ‘good ole days, the idea to create emergency management videos in the style of 80s rock bands was formed,” Southlake DPS Public Information Officer, Brad Uptmore said.
The video became an instant hit! Within two weeks, it had over 63,000 views and was featured on local newscasts. It also caught the eye of the legends themselves, Ann and Nancy Wilson.
Judges praised the video and the way creators were able to take a “typical emergency management preparedness message and completely own it and make it relevant for their audience.” They also commended the team on the graphics, creative use of song lyrics, and overall campaign.
As part of the video, Fire Chief Michael Starr also made his rock and roll debut. He believes the message of safety and preparedness reached a wide audience.
He stated, “We serve the citizens of Southlake, but this video was broad enough to reach everyone, no matter where they live.”
The national 3CMA Savvy awards utilize judges from across the United States and recognize outstanding local government achievements in communications, public-sector marketing, citizen-government relationships, and salute skilled and effective city, county, agency, and district professionals who have creatively planned and carried out successful innovations in communications and marketing.
For more information on how you can prepare for emergencies, visit the Office of Emergency Management’s, “Get Prepared” page.
Watch the award-winning video below:
This year, Southlake DPS redirected their Summer Camp Mania fire safety in the kitchen lessons into a coloring contest.
Contests were presented to camp groups over two different weeks.
The theme, “Serve Up Fire Safety in the Kitchen,” is inspired by the National Fire Protection Agency (NFPA) 2020 campaign. The theme was required to appear prominently within the poster and had to depict safety behavior and procedures.
The judges were the Fire Marshal’s Office and camp staff. First, second and third place were awarded for each division and all participants received a ribbon and a Southlake Fire string bag.
All winning posters are on display in the Southlake Library.
Contest Winners
Division I – Ages 5 – 7
Division II – Ages 8 – 10
Division III – Ages 11 – 12
Fire station tours have been an important bond between residents and the City of Southlake Department of Public Safety. However, COVID-19 restrictions hindered how the Fire Department continued to deliver this educational service to residents.
Calendar coordination, time constraints, social distancing guidelines and even making sure those on the tour were able to see more than just offices were all considered as the team brainstormed how to continue to bring every day public education to the community.
“The message wasn’t going to change. We had to change the medium to continue to deliver our quality services and engage the community,” Southlake Public Information Officer Brad Uptmore said. “Throughout our planning, my goal was to engage viewers with a Disney World-like ride so that the education aspect stuck and people would continue watching to the very end.”
The team tested a virtual tour on groups before planning a virtual tour video for social media. Filming took place on two Mondays and included more than 20 people. Editing and finalizing the video took 2-3 weeks.
“The coordination for completion was complicated. We don’t have a dedicated film crew to put videos like this together,” Fire Prevention Officer Renni Burt said. “It was a team effort and everyone participated to make a great video that was entertaining and educational for children and adults.”
The final product combined an interactive infomercial with Uptmore’s creative concept of an amusement park ride to create a digital version of a fire station tour that was entertaining enough to keep viewers glued to the video for seven minutes.
They video was also recognized as one of the reasons the Southlake DPS Facebook page received the Government Social Media’s Facebook Favorite Award.
“We’re still here and still working for the community. The work Brad and Renni have done to stay connected to our community virtually and continue to promote public education and events has been imperative to making the lives of our residents safer,” Fire Chief Mike Starr said.
Through our Southlake values of Teamwork and Innovation, Uptmore and Burt delivered a memorable experience for the Southlake community.
For more information about the Southlake Fire Department, visit: www.CityofSouthlake.com/Fire.
The City of Southlake and the Southlake Police Department are aware of and are in regular contact with the organizers of a student-led protest scheduled to take place in Town Square this Saturday at 2:00 p.m. in response to the death of George Floyd.
The students have coordinated with the Police Department personnel so they understand what they can expect and, they have also been assigned a Southlake Police Officer Liaison for any questions they might have.
“The right to gather and peacefully protest is a right we support and ensure day-in and day-out,” said Assistant Police Chief Ashleigh Casey. “In each case, our goal is to maintain a peaceful environment while supporting freedom of speech and expression. In this instance, there are extra safety concerns since there are supposed to be young students involved.”
The Police Department has a strong operational plan and a commitment to maintaining order. “Southlake is considered a safe place, and we don’t want our well-meaning students negatively affected by unlawful activity,” Chief Casey added.
Community Conversations
“We have heard from many people with differing opinions about the protest,” said City Manager Shana Yelverton. “First amendment rights are paramount, but safety is also a big concern, and we are doing what we can to let people know about what to expect on that day so they can make an informed decision.”
Conversations about the protest have also taken place between the City and the management of Town Square and other surrounding commercial properties.
Streets Closed
Certain streets surrounding Family Park in the front of the square will be closed to traffic to help support a safe demonstration. Town Hall will also be closed to the public for the weekend.