John Jones, director of communications for the City of New Rochelle, briefed the City Council’s committee of the whole on Oct. 15 on a strategy to expand video production, redesign the city website and build more proactive processes for city messaging.

Jones said the office will emphasize three guiding principles — “timely, trusted, and truthful” — and prioritize quick, accurate information for residents. He said the office is small and described an approach built around scalable templates and a video asset library to get more visual content into the city’s social channels and NRTV.

The presentation outlined staff and vendor roles. Jones said the communications office’s public-information wing includes a communications assistant who handles graphics, a social media coordinator and an office manager who handles freedom-of-information requests. He said the office also uses contractors for NRTV and retains the PR firm BerlinRosen for strategic communications and crisis support.

Jones said video will be an “additive” asset produced at modest production values at first, using event footage collected over the summer as a b-roll bank. He said the city website (newrochellenewyork.gov) is undergoing a mobile-first redesign intended for completion in December 2025 and that federal accessibility changes are part of the update.

Council members asked how the office will gather resident input and suggested tools such as vendor surveys and more printed materials for people who are not online. Jones said the city has an existing contract that includes polling and that he will explore vendor options identified at a municipal communicators conference. Council members also encouraged outreach to community partners and suggested adding LinkedIn to the city’s platform mix to reach contractors and nonprofit leaders.

Jones described operational changes intended to make the office anticipatory rather than reactive, including project-management software to plan a communication runway for events and initiatives. He said the office was four months into his directorship and plans for 2026 include building a campaign approach, expanding templates to maintain consistent output, cultivating community partnerships and “trumpeting” city service successes.

Council members praised the presentation and expressed support for more proactive outreach, early notice about events, and the office’s focus on bandwidth and process. Jones closed by inviting follow-up questions from the council.

Ending: Council members signaled broad support for the communications goals and urged that resident survey tools, printed outreach and earlier notice to departments and community partners be part of the office’s rollout.