by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
The City’s Public Information division of the Neighborhoods Department recently won 10 local 2003 Image Awards.
Dave Roman and his staff earned the awards in several categories and divisions. The most impressive may be the Grand Image Award they won for the ethics training video that took several months to produce. The video is shown to every new City employee and, along with a booklet, is the basis for the City’s ethics program.
“That was Carolyn Broughton’s video,” said Kim Greason of the Public Information department. “It’s an ethics training video called ‘Surviving the Ethics Jungle.’ It has a ‘Survivor’ theme.”
The annual awards are given by the Florida Public Relations Association and they incorporate both private companies and public entities. Within the three divisions, 41 awards were presented. Greason and Roman both agreed the 10 awards the City garnered were impressive, especially considering some of the local competition and the differences in operating budgets.
“We are competing against the private sector, people who have lots of money to work with,” said Greason. “We have a very small budget. One of our judge’s awards was a solid project made without lots of money. We competed against companies like The Robin Shepherd Group and Blue Cross and Blue Shield.”
With that limited budget and 17-member staff, the Neighborhoods Department handles a vast majority of the public information produced by the City. In addition to the several TV shows, they also write, shoot, produce and distribute Neighborhoods Magazine, the Consolidator and several other City publications and newsletters. And, they don’t outsource anything.
“We do everything in house,” said Greason, who has been with the City for almost three years after working at Ch. 4 as a sports anchor. “All the actors are City employees. We film the spots, write them and edit them. We have a production studio on the mezzanine floor.”
In addition to the ethics video, the department also won awards for videos on animal care and control (the work of the division’s Angela Vigil), litter (“Clean it up Jacksonville) and “Jax to the Max” — a 30-minute show that airs several times a month on Ch. 7. The show, which Greason won two awards for, is shot predominantly downtown and tries to stay as current as possible.
“That show is produced with just our salary,” said Greason, explaining that no one and no equipment from outside the department is used. “We even make all the props ourselves.”
It also includes the feature “A Minute with the Mayor” in which Mayor John Delaney talks about anything he wants — or a subject suggested by the Public Information staff — for 60 seconds. Because production of the July/August “Jax to the Max” will wrap by July 4, one of Greason’s first tasks after Tuesday’s general election will be to secure either John Peyton or Nat Glover for their first segment as the new mayor.
“We’ll have to sit down with him pretty quickly,” said Greason. “The new mayor will be the lead of our next show.”