Columbia communications director finalists share plans for city outreach
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
The City of Columbia hosted a meet-and-greet Wednesday at the Columbia Training Center for its three finalists for its communications director role as city leaders move forward with plans to reshape how the city reaches residents.
The three finalists include Rob Jones, Christopher Ave and Shayne Martin. All three bring more than a decade of experience in strategic communications across government, education and media.
Columbia City Manager De’Carlon Seewood hired Affion Public LLC to conduct the search for a new communications director. Assistant HR Director Heather Russell told ABC 17 News the contract is worth $28,000. Previous reporting shows the job was listed on LinkedIn as having a salary range from $110,000-$169,000.
Seewood said the effort is part of a broader push to improve coordination across departments.
“I wanted to hire a new comms director for about a year, but I think we really reached out to the council about three months ago, and that's when we presented the idea of kind of doing a hybrid process for our communications where it's not necessarily centralized or decentralized, but a combination of both,” he said.
The position is open after former spokeswoman Sydney Olsen left the position for a similar role at Central Bank in March. Seewood said the city’s current structure is too fragmented and needs more unified leadership.
“I think one of the most important things that we do with our residents is how do we engage, how do we communicate with them? How do we help empower them to help us do the things that we need to do? And having a communications director will help us do just that. Right now, our process has been really decentralized, where every department is doing a little bit of it," he said.
Seewood said the goal is to find a candidate who fits the organization’s values and culture.
“It's somebody who can fit in with the staff, fit in with the organization. Someone who has the same values that we have as a city. And so that person can kind of lead those efforts.”
Jones, who is originally from St. Louis and lives in Columbia, currently serves as director of marketing and communications for the MU Extension. His previous roles include director of the Missouri Education Business Incubator with the University of Missouri and director of research insights and innovation communication with Teach for America.
“Columbia is home for me. And so being able to be in a role where I can invest in my community was important to me. But then also, I really value the infrastructure that Columbia has in place. It's very clear that Columbia is at a very pivotal time in terms of its growth,” Jones said. “It's essential that as Columbia grows, that it maintains that infrastructure. And part of doing that is being able to tell the story of why that infrastructure is so important.”
Jones also said collaboration and listening will be key.
“I recognize that I don't have all the answers, but I do know how to listen. And I'm open to ideas, I'm open to perspectives, I'm open to partnership. And coming into the position, it would be essential that I do that, and I would look forward to building those partnerships with people and building relationships with people,” Jones said.
He added the opportunity stood out because of the city’s direction.
“The No. 1 thing that has been refreshing is that there is an appetite for this work. There is a clear need in terms of the community. But then also a recognition of that need from city leadership in terms of how do we communicate better, how do we tell our story, how do we connect with our communities more efficiently, more effectively? And so that was probably the most surprising part of this.”
Ave, who is director of media relations and public affairs at the University of Missouri, said the restructuring of the city’s communications department presents a major opportunity.
“The City of Columbia is offering an incredible opportunity for whoever gets this particular job, because they are restructuring to really bring the strengths of the city's communications staffers together in a more concentrated way. I think the people of Columbia deserve excellence in communications, and largely they have it. The city's own surveys show residents say communications has gotten better here,” Ave said. “The Founding Fathers said that really democracy is not going to work unless the electorate is informed. So it's a crucial function getting actual, unbiased information to residents of the city. And it's it's an exciting opportunity.”
Ave also pointed to Columbia’s growth and diversity.
“This is a growing, vibrant city with world-class entertainment, dining, recreational options, on and on and on. It's the most-educated city in the state of Missouri. We have three institutions of higher education based right here. So, it's an incredible opportunity. There are so many stories to tell about all the great things that go on in Columbia and the person who gets this job will get to sort of work on telling those stories,” he said.
Ave’s previous roles include director of communications with the St. Louis County Department of Public Health and political and national editor with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, experience he believes will be valuable for Columbia.
“My position before I got to Mizzou, I was asked to come in and be the director of communications for the Saint Louis County Department of Public Health. I was asked this just as COVID was starting, so they knew that they needed to revamp or revitalize the communications function and bring in a leader who could get that done, even as a once in a lifetime pandemic loomed. So I accepted that challenge, and I was able to work with a lot of great colleagues building a communications office,” Ave said. “In the end, we were a small part, at least, of this fact, that at the sort of the back end of the pandemic, Saint Louis County had the highest percentage of residents who chose to be vaccinated against COVID.”
Martin, who currently serves as public information officer with the Missouri Office of Administration, said his experience building communication systems could benefit the city.
“When I talk to folks about where the city of Columbia was going. It gets me excited. I know the city has a lot of growth recently, and it's on a trajectory that I think that it will provide a lot of really good services. I live just south of the city, so being a resident and raising my family here, I want to be a part of the city as it grows," he said.
He also emphasized the challenges of modern government communication.
“It's hard in government communications to communicate. We've got a lot of different channels. People get their information in a lot of different ways. I know the city is doing its best with the resources it has. There's no silver bullet or unlimited resources," he said. "But I think going forward, having more citizens be a part of that, actually, it's really, really important that folks that are ratepayers as community members. Maybe they're a business owner, that those folks are the ones that are actually out there talking about the process, about the city, giving their opinions, not straying away from the hard conversations and allowing the citizens to lead the communications in addition to the officials.”
Martin’s previous roles include deputy director of the National Office of Communications with the USDA Forest Service, public affairs specialist at the U.S. Department of the Treasury and Communications Director at the U.S House of Representatives. Martin said under those roles, he specialized in building communication infrastructure.
“For me, I'm a builder of communication teams. I spent several years in the Forest Service, leading the national communications effort there in Washington, D.C. Originally from Missouri, so I'm glad to be back now,” Martin said. “But what I bring that's unique is I can build a communication capacity and understand the details of the job to actually get to the point where most people want to be. So at the end of the day, communications is a lot like other things. It's a process, it's a business. It produces good stories. I know how to build that capacity. I want to do it for the City of Columbia.”
