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Public Outreach Planner - About the POP
From project/plan concept to implementation, the public's needs, concerns, and questions must be considered and addressed as the City of Idaho Falls works to provide a welcoming business environment, some of the lowest utility rates in the nation, and leisure opportunities to its residents and visitors. As such, planning for and executing appropriate strategies to involve and communicate with the public-at-large and individual stakeholders throughout the life cycle of projects and initiatives is critical in the City's efforts to execute successful projects and maintain transparency.

To effectively manage public outreach plans and activities, City staff need information, resources, and recommended tools to implement and conduct an effective public outreach effort. The Public Outreach Planner (POP) is that resource. The POP is a tool for analyzing, quantifying, and tracking public outreach needs, which will ultimately lead to appropriate and efficient project management.

While the POP is meant to provide users with an overview of the outreach planning process and tools to evaluate and meet the needs of projects, it is critical to note that effective outreach must be custom-designed to fit the impact's needs. Early outreach efforts allow the City to identify issues up front and plan to deal with them. That said, experience shows that projects evolve and needs change based on stakeholder input, technical and political considerations, and the changing funding environment. As such, public involvement and outreach must evolve and adapt to match the evolution of a project.

The POP is intended to assist City staff in assessing the range of outreach needs and identifying tools that may be used in meeting those needs. POP Levels and their recommendations are not mandated and staff are not held to any requirements. The POP is a resource designed to help City staff make educated decisions about public outreach.

How to use the POP

The first step in meeting any need is defining it appropriately. For communication analysis, it is necessary to consider a wide range of possible impacts and perspectives. As appropriate questions are defined and addressed, a picture begins to emerge that points a project team in a direction for meeting the public's potential needs.

Determine what category your project impact best fits. Five "worksheets" have been developed to catch all potential City impacts, projects and initiatives.

Public Works and Utility Projects

Use this worksheet to plan public involvement strategies and activities for the design and construction of city infrastructure and roadway improvements, refuse removal, water supply, utility projects and distribution and management of the City's sanitary sewer and storm water systems.

Long-Range Planning

Use this worksheet to plan public involvement strategies and activities for the development of city-wide or department specific plans. This can include but is not limited to comprehensive plans, siting plans for community buildings/resources, recreation planning or any other long-range planning process.

Civic Facilities and Programs Worksheet

Use this worksheet to plan public involvement strategies and activities for the development or implementation of projects and programs related to parks and recreation, airport, library, transit, and other civic facilities operated by the City of Idaho Falls. If creating a long-range vision plan for your department, please use the long-range planning worksheet.

Public Concerns and Community Initiatives

Use this worksheet to plan public involvement strategies and activities to assess and address community issues related to citizen safety, economic development, citizen representation, diversity/equity or any other concerns relating to the well-being and quality of life of City residents.

For each worksheet, customized multiple-choice questions were developed to address the primary needs, issues and concerns of a variety of stakeholder groups affected by project impacts. These questions appear for each worksheet. Each question's answer choices are equally weighted in a scoring range of 1-5, then averaged. This is your POP Score. Your POP Score is then rounded up to give you a recommended POP Level of 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5. One representing the most minimal public outreach effort and five representing the most robust and extensive level of public outreach.

Your recommend POP Level should be considered the guiding framework for the intensity and methodology of public involvement for any project. It provides the information necessary to write a public involvement plan that takes recommendations from the POP to guide future public involvement activities, budgets and schedules.

It is important to save a PDF of your completed questions/answers in your project file. Instructions for saving can be found at the end of the track questions.

Knowing your POP Score, a corresponding level of need can be determined by referencing the POP Level Typical Descriptions. This page describes common attributes of project impacts at each POP Level.

This allows the user to refine decisions about the most appropriate POP Level for your effort. While simple categorization of outreach need provides the benefit of being able to plan for and better manage multiple projects, project managers and teams should remember that public involvement and outreach is a dynamic process. Adjustments are often required over the life cycle of a project, with corresponding changes in approach, strategy and tasks. Given this, be aware that a project may move from level to level as it evolves from phase to phase, or even within a single project phase. You can never complete the POP questions too often. If it feels like your project has grown less or more complicated, re-answer the questions and see where you come out.

You know your POP level and you have an idea of the project impacts to stakeholders, but how do you actually do the outreach? For each track and POP Level, the Tools and Techniques page provides customized lists of recommended tools and techniques that when done right, have proved successful at effectively involving the public.

Public outreach tools listed here are not required, and it is not expected that a project or initiative will exhaust the list for its particular POP Level. It is recommended that project staff work with City Public Information Officers (PIOs) to determine which tools and techniques are most appropriate for your project and the affected public.

The POP Reference Guide and Tracking is designed to help project teams track and document public involvement activities throughout the life of a project, planning effort or community initiative. This workbook asks specific questions about the project to help current and future project teams:

  • Easily locate and reference relevant files, documents and collateral
  • Understand project history, trends, public opinions and attitudes

One POP Workbook should be used for the life of a project and provides a place to track and update public involvement changes, activities and events.