MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WBTW)- After viral videos brought negative publicity to the city of Myrtle Beach this year, city leaders hired a communications consultant to do a 90 day study.
Consultant Gordon Hirsch said he spent 90 days and 260 hours working on this report.
He said right now the city has no clear policy in place for communications. He said there’s public conversation of what the city should not be, but not what it should be, and wants the city to work on changing the discussion.
The consultant suggests taking a survey of the public to get their thoughts on issues that are of greatest concern. He also suggests the city work to educate people on how local government works.
The consultant said the city is great at providing information when asked, but suggests informing people on issues in advance and what the city is doing about it.
When it comes to social media he said the city does a great job of getting events out there, but he also notes it’s not the place to get into serious discussions.
One issue Hirsch did bring up was transparency of tax payer money.
“I don’t know if the tens of millions of dollars a year that we spent with the chamber of commerce are making a difference in terms of the number of visitors that come here. We gave them 25 million dollars in tax money and they need to tell us how they spent it end of story. The city needs to take responsibility for requiring the chamber to do that,” said Hirsch.
Now, the city council will start looking deeper at how to handle these recommendations.
