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Gary City media department asks for modest budget increases as it launches new website, newsletter and social channels
Summary
The city's media director told the finance committee the department has been rebuilt, the website consolidated onto one platform (about 11,000 daily visitors), and requested increases for materials, professional services, travel and advertising to expand outreach and paid promotions.
The head of the City of Gary media department told the finance committee the office has rebuilt a local team, migrated the municipal website onto one platform, launched a new city Facebook page and begun distributing a monthly newsletter reaching roughly 24,000 people, and asked the committee to approve targeted budget increases.
"Within 12 months, we have been able to rebuild and rebalance the team," the media director (S5) said, noting staff expertise in public relations, graphic design, videography and photography and that all new hires are local. The director said the website migration consolidated about 20 small mini‑sites into a single platform and that the site is seeing about 11,000 visitors per day.
Budget requests and rationale
S5 said the department kept salaries flat because it is a new team that still needs evaluation, but requested increases elsewhere: materials (from $4,000 to $6,000) to buy desks and equipment; professional services (from roughly $10,000 to $15,000) for copywriting, videography and design; travel and education (from $4,500 to $16,000) as training for new staff; advertising (initially zero) with an approximate $20,000 line to boost outreach; and $10,000 for sponsorships. The current charges line (largely software) rose to about $45,000.
S5 said the advertising line would be used for digital platforms (Meta, Google, YouTube) and local print partners to increase reach for services such as 3‑1‑1 constituent services, illegal‑dumping initiatives and public‑safety messages. "Previously our advertising budget was 0. I think this is kind of astounding given the fact that it's a communications department," S5 said.
Staffing and next steps
S5 said the department is fully staffed and has recently added a videographer and photographer; the director asked the council to allow time to evaluate the new team before proposing salary changes. The committee asked that updated job titles and descriptions be emailed to members; S5 agreed to resend the packet and to provide additional materials electronically.
What was not decided
The committee heard the presentation and asked questions; the transcript does not record a final vote on the media department budget lines in the excerpt provided.
