{"id":2449904,"date":"2019-10-15T21:52:01","date_gmt":"2019-10-16T03:52:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/city-of-aspen-looking-for-a-third-communicator\/"},"modified":"2019-10-15T21:52:01","modified_gmt":"2019-10-16T03:52:01","slug":"city-of-aspen-looking-for-a-third-communicator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/city-of-aspen-looking-for-a-third-communicator\/","title":{"rendered":"City of Aspen looking for a third communicator"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Aspen City Hall.<\/strong>
Aspen Times file photo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

The city of Aspen is adding a third position to its growing communications department, which until earlier this year had only one person in it.<\/p>\n

The city recently posted the open position of communications specialist II, which commands a salary between $55,000 and $66,000, plus benefits.<\/p>\n

It was an on-again, off-again full- and part-time position that was under the auspices of the Aspen Police Department. But now that it\u2019s been vacated, the new person will work in City Hall under Tracy Trulove, who was hired as the municipal government\u2019s director of communications<\/a> this past spring.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s putting a different lens on that role,\u201d Trulove said, adding she jumped at the chance to bring another communicator into her department as part of the city\u2019s grand plan to beef up communications and outreach with the public. \u201cThis is part of giving department heads more support, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new person will serve as the city\u2019s public information officer and also have a specific focus on the police department.<\/p>\n

That individual will join Mitzi Rapkin, communications manager, in the communications department.<\/p>\n

With all three salaries in that department, the city is spending at least $260,000 annually on communications, which does not include benefits and additional costs associated with public outreach.<\/p>\n

Recently hired City Manager Sara Ott said last fall when she was assistant city manager that a yearlong analysis on what the communications needs are within the organization determined it fell short on staffing.<\/p>\n

The need for high-level communication goes beyond the city\u2019s lack of communication<\/a> with the public on numerous initiatives in the past year, which Aspen City Council has acknowledged is a problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of having one resource, we now have a group to rely on,\u201d said Linda Consuegra, assistant police chief. \u201cI\u2019m excited about the position coming under the communications umbrella.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trulove said bringing the position into her department is a pilot initiative to see if the crossover and outreach can be done in a more cohesive way.<\/p>\n

The new position is advertised as the city looking for someone who enjoys creating content that impacts the community; has the knack in developing public relations products and strategies; and increasing public awareness and participation in programs.<\/p>\n

That comes in the form of creating literature, press releases, newsletters and media programs across all platforms, as well as coordinating media events and monitoring media articles, reports and broadcasts.<\/p>\n

\u201cMay be asked to follow up with corrections, rebuttals and clarification as necessary,\u201d the job description reads.<\/p>\n

The new person also will assume the role of a public information officer during emergency incidents.<\/p>\n

csackariason@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aspen City Hall.Aspen Times file photo The city of Aspen is adding a third position to its growing communications department, which until earlier this year had only one person in it. The city recently posted the open position of communications specialist II, which commands a salary between $55,000 and $66,000, plus benefits. It was an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2449904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-19 14:34:57","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2449904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2449904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2449904\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2449904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2449904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2449904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}