Oceanside Council Wants the City to Boost Image Itself

Now that the city has spent about $15,000 to learn that its image rates a 6.1 on a scale of 10, more money should be spent to do something about it, the City Council decided Wednesday.

The council, by a 5-0 vote, agreed in concept to retain the Gail Stoorza Co., a San Diego-based marketing firm, to develop a public relations campaign to improve the city’s image.

The company previously was hired to conduct a public opinion survey of the city’s image. It found that traffic congestion, an unattractive downtown and its reputation as a “rowdy military town” contributed to the negative image.

The Stoorza Co. said that, given six months and $18,900, it could develop a public relations and marketing campaign to improve the city’s image; train the city’s public information officer on how to work with the news media; help design and produce newsletters and promotional marketing materials; assist in the “placement of positive feature articles” in local, regional and national publications; develop a mailing list of countywide developers, lenders, investors and business leaders; help the city improve communications with residents; help promote special events; help develop an audio-visual slide show extolling the city’s virtues, and help get positive public service announcements on radio and television.

The City Council generally supported the idea of a public relations campaign, but said it wanted one that the city could manage without the ongoing assistance of an outside marketing company.

“We need a plan that we can implement without having Stoorza here all the time,” said Councilman John McDonald.

Councilman Sam Williamson added, “I don’t want to become dependent on Stoorza to work on our image for the next 50 years. I’m looking for a how-to book (on how to improve the city’s image). We shouldn’t have to have Stoorza here to do it for us.”

The council instructed its staff to return with a contract proposal that would call for the Stoorza Co. to develop a public relations plan that the city can then implement.