Jessica Mathews / news@whmi.com


The City of Howell has renewed a contract for communication services – with a goal of better telling the City’s real story.

Council met Monday night and approved a three-month contract extension with Burch Partners of Holland.

The City earlier approved an initial three-month agreement to provide a holistic approach to communication. That included developing a communication plan, training elected officials and staff, media coaching, brand alignment, community outreach, media relations, crisis communication, and creating the ability to tell the City’s story effectively.

Since staff have been working with Burch Partners, they say several strategies have been implemented to enhance the City’s ability to “tell OUR story”, manage the narrative, combat false or misleading information, and build a coalition of regional media resources while highlighting Howell.

While some in the community argue the firm was hired in direct response to white supremacist and other alt-right demonstrations held in recent years – which also took place in Brighton and other locations across the state – current and past Howell City Councils have long discussed hiring a firm to expand communication in general.

City Manager Erv Suida told WHMI while there’s a lot of attention focused on image, it’s really about a comprehensive approach to communication and outreach with the community. He said Howell has a great story – “an amazing past, great history, and a very bright future ahead of us”. Suida said the City is really good at delivering services and has great governance but getting their story out there and talking about all of the great things happening in Howell and all of the great people is difficult.

In response to claims of the firm being a knee-jerk reaction to protests, Suida said it’s understandable but also sometimes funny because the people who might say that are also maybe the same people “who say very negative things about their community, our community, so how do we combat that? it’s one of the things were getting some help with”. He stressed people can be very proud of calling Howell their home, and they want to make sure they’re relaying that message.

Suida said the City is very good at getting grants and again, delivering services, and they couldn’t ask for a better group of public servants. He commented that the problem is they have to get that story out there about all of the good things the community does, saying “we can’t let other people write our story and a lot of what they’re saying are frankly fairytales”.

When looking at the City’s reputation and some issues they’ve had, Suida again stressed their main goal is to not let other people – especially those from outside the community - try to tell their story.

Suida went on to say there is a “wonderful vibe in this community right now that’s awesome - if you go out to one of our coffee shops, breweries or restaurants, or just shopping downtown; you’ll feel it and it’s an amazing thing”.

As for the contract; additional work that will be undertaken includes bi-annual newsletters, monthly press releases, a comprehensive communication plan, branding, additional media training, outreach, and continued efforts to build a strong media network to tell the City’s story.

Following the contract renewal, the City Manager will have the ability to continue using Burch Partners at a month-to-month retainer as determined and needed.