Crisis Communications

West Basin Municipal Water District

Tell the truth to key audiences as fast as possible, even if it hurts!

BEEN DEALING WITH CRISES MY WHOLE LIFE!

EXPERIENCED A SHORT WAR…

AND AN INVASIONOF SMALL COUNTRY

LOSS OF MY BOSS AT PARSONS ON RON BROWN’S PLANE CRASH

IN BOSNIA

AND A FEW CRASHES OF

NAVY JETS

I DID NOT EXPECT TO HAVE TO DO CRISIS COMMUNICATIONS IN WATER INDUSTRY!!!

IT IS HOW YOU COMMUNICATE AND BUILD TRUST IN YOUR

AGENCY, ON DAY TO DAY BASIS BEFORE THE CRISIS THAT WILL

SEE YOU THROUGH THE CRISIS

What Not To Do….

•Bad news is like garbage, the longer you sit on it, the smellier it gets!

What Not To Do…

•Never ever, ever lie or shape the truth!

What Do You Do When Your Water Project Kills All the Fish in a Public Aquarium?

• In 2012, West Basin’s Ocean Water Desal Demonstration Facility had a chlorine leak that fed bleach into two aquariums

• Headlines: “Bleach leak kills more than 7,000 fish at SEA Lab in Redondo Beach”

• Thousands of sea bass bred for ocean conservation die in Redondo Beach power outage

Here is What We Did: Chlorine Leak• We called in the media & briefed them first thing

• Gave Daily Breeze the story to give it a local slant and walked them through the site…kept it out of LA Times as a result

• Briefed them at the site & walked them thru probable cause• Briefed them without knowing all the answers

• Told them we fixed the problem• Had shut down the plant, stopping leak

• Also briefed local weekly reporter

• Sent information to all of our stakeholder immediately via email• We have a e-newsletter list of about 5,000 people• Went to local electeds, community leaders, industry people,

environmentalists, etc.• Wanted them to hear it from us before they read it in the media the next day• Allowed us to carry our messages• Actually received praise for being open and transparent in a difficult situation

What do you do when your Director ends up in a jail jump suit?

• In the fall of 2014, one of our Board of Directors was arrested for misuse of District funds

BEFORE AFTER

Here is What We Did: Board Member Jailed• Headlines: “West Basin water

district official Mr. Wrong pleads guilty to conflict of interest charge, resigns from position”

• Sent information to all of our stakeholder immediately via email• Voluntarily brought in an outside firm to do an

independent audit• Again, went to local electeds, community

leaders, industry people, environmentalists, etc.• Again, actually received praise for being open

and transparent in a difficult situation

IN EACH CRISIS WE DID THE SAME THING…

1. We told our story fast and truthfully2. Tried and usually beat media coverage

with our information to stakeholders3. We went out to our stakeholders and the

media proactively4. We stopped & fixed what was causing the

problem5. Kept everyone informed until resolution6. We were actually complimented for our

outreach

Planning: What To Do• Have a crisis plan on the shelf• Have the most likely scenarios in you plan

• Rehearse them if possible• Staffing plan by position title

• Have your email stakeholders contact lists up-to-date• Know your spokesperson & method of approving information to be

released• CEO or GM should respond• Crisis is an “All Hands On Deck” situation, not just the PR office• Use whomever you need to get the information out• Have agency experts standing by and trained

• Have the Board and Senior management’s buy in of your plan and method of releasing information

• Have a system to record what you do• Best to have a communications person at the crisis site• Never forget that it happened

Crisis Is Opportunity to Gain Trust

• Recent empirical study of trust & credibility found perception of agency’s trust & credibility depends on 3 factors:• Knowledge & expertise, • Past openness & honesty, and• Concern & caring

• Study found that agencies that proactively release information about bad news can actually gain in public’s trust and credibility as an agency

Make Sure You Engage All of Your Stakeholders!

“Muthisms”• Bad news stinks over time, good

news will shrinks over time!• Improve your act, not just words• Ongoing truthful, positive

communications is like an insurance policy when things go wrong