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Services: Branding a New Name
When I first began as a media contact and special project coordinator for Charlotte County in 1995 my title was executive assistant to the County Administrator. As the need for communication grew I was allowed to establish a department to manage all of the programs I had developed as well as the other duties that I had inherited. At that time, I proposed numerous department names to the Administrator, who was a very conservative person. He rejected PIO (Public Information Office) as too "official", and most of the other designations I suggested as too "threatening". He did not want the public to think we were slanting the news that they received. He selected "Community Outreach" as a name that better described (in his opinion) what he wanted us to do, which was, reach out into the community. Fairfax County, located approximately 14 miles from Washington D.C., is Virginia’s largest county, covering 399 square miles with a population of 969,749 people. The county is governed by a Board of Supervisors composed of 10 members; 9 from designated districts and a chairman elected at large. The Board appoints the County Executive to administer the county government, which has an annual budget of $2.4 billion. The Fairfax County Office of Public Affairs (OPA) has 14 employees, an annual budget of $860,000 and provides communication support for the Board of Supervisors, County Executive and county agencies. In addition, 11 county agencies, such as Police, Fire and Rescue and Libraries, have information officers who function independently, but work closely with, the Office of Public Affairs.
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