The City Council Lead
The first step in writing the meeting story is to catalog the items
to be covered. What are the elements of the CITY COUNCIL story? Just
following the agenda in chronological order you come up with a list
like this:
- Call to order -- Not really newsworthy*
- Pledge of allegiance -- Not really newsworthy*
- Invocation -- Not really newsworthy*
- Approval of minutes -- Valuable background, but not newsworthy*
- Coast guard proclamation -- Establishment of Safe Boating Week
is insignificant by itself, but gains more importance after budget
adoption includes deletion of safe boating classes.
- National Cold Storage dock -- A local agricultural business
violates the building permit rules, but gets to keep its loading
dock.
- Flemish fence encroachment -- A local couple violates the building
permit rules and is told to remove the fence.
- Sister City program -- The city adopts a sister city from another
country.
- Norseville gala -- Plans are made for this year's annual celebration.
Two parks will beused instead of one and there will be no outside
carnival this year.
- City bowling team -- The city staff bowling team wins its league.
- City administrator -- The city adopts a new form of government
and appoints a person to the city administrator position.
- Parking resolution -- A restrictive parking zone in the downtown
area is contemplated.
- Budget adoption -- A budget lower than last year is adopted,
despite some pay raises and the inclusion of a new city administrator
position. That means there are some deep cuts somewhere.
- Police walking patrols -- Police want to eliminate walking patrols
during Little League games as budget cutting move.
- Senior citizen request -- Senior citizens want a representative
on the Parks and Recreation Commission to make sure they are represented
when program cuts are decided.
- Conley request/disposal rates -- A local couple wants a modification
of its garbage collection rates.
- Adjournment -- Not really newsworthy*
* These items appear on
most agendas and rarely are newsworthy. It would take the unexpected
to make them newsworthy.
But you don't want to write a story chronologically. With the inverted pyramid style of
writing you want to emphasize the most important or most interesting and de-emphasize the
least important/interesting.
Likewise, you won't be giving equal coverage to every item. About three-quarters of your
story should be on the main topic(s) and the remainder should simply summarize the
remaining items of any importance.
So, your next job should be to take that list above and 1) determine the most important
item(s) and 2) rank order the items for importance. This is a very subjective part of
reporting. But if you follow the guidelines we learned earlier in the "What
is News?" lecture and subsequent assignments you might come up with an order
something like this:
- City Administrator position -- A new form of government is significant
- Adoption of the budget -- The way our representatives spend our
tax money is significant. Related items on this budget include:
- some raises and some cuts
- police walking patrols
- coast guard resolution (and the cutting of safe boating
classes)
- senior citizen request
- Norseville gala -- This is a big event that affects a lot of people.
- Sister city -- Doesn't affect a lot of people, but interesting.
- Parking zoning across from high school -- Controversial, but no real action taken this
meeting
- Building permits -- The Cold Storage issue has interest, but the fact that it gets to
keep its dock while a local couple doesn't get to keep its fence is an interesting issue.
- Disposal rates -- Could have affected a lot of people if it had been decided the other
way.
- City Staff Bowling team -- Good for the team, but belongs on the sports page, not the
news page.
After you've established an order, the next step is to work on the lead. How do you
introduce items in the summary lead? You can't just write about one topic, then go to the
next, then go to the next. The point of the inverted pyramid lead is to give the reader a
clue early as to the items included in the story. Then you develop the items.
With meeting stories you often end up with a mult-element lead that focuses on more than
one item. You've got a lot of items here. But notice the list above. We've found a theme
tow work with: Budget. In fact, the City Administrator position is even budget related.
Anytime you can combine several major items into a single theme you can make writing the
story easier.
Let's look at how your story MIGHT evolve:
- Lead -- Introduce budget adoption (lead item A) and news city administrator form of
government (lead item B).
- Build on lead item A: budget is down but there are pay raises.
- Continute to build on lead item A: Talk about areas of budget that were cut
- Build on lead item B: City administrator position created. What is it?
- Continue to build on lead item B: Joan Bell appointed to the position.
- Introduce other major items from the meeting in one paragraph. Norseville gala plans
(C), Sister City adoption (D), parking zone (E), building permit violations (F), and the
disposal rate request (G). You could include the bowling team (H) here if you wanted, but
I wouldn't.
You should have about six paragraphs of your story here. In it's loosest sense, this
constitutes the lead. In any case, it represents a bare-bones story and gives you an
outline for the rest of your story. The reader knows what to expect below.
Next comes a transition to let the reader know you are switching back to an item that you
have introduced above. That next topic, according to the outline lead above, would be the
budget. Use up to 5-7 paragraphs to dicuss the budget, how the pay raises will work, how
the budget managed to be lower than last year, and about all the controversial cuts.
Include a quote or two. Some key items to introduce include the pay raises, the new staff
position, the lower budget, the most significant budget cuts -- including the walking
patrols, the safe boating classes, new user fees for recreation activities, the city
attorney position, the ambulance service, etc.
Don't worry about giving EVERY detail. You can come back to this item at the end of the
story if you want. The point is to give a fuller summary.
Next is a transition back to the City Administrator position. The fact that it is part of
the budget issue probably gives you the segue you need. Again, include no more than 5-7
paragraphs to develop this part of the story. Include quotes. Cover the cost, the role of
the city administrator, how people feel about the position and why Bell was selected for
the position.
If you've got more than 5-7 paragraphs of material you can come back to the item at the
end of the story.
Next is a series of short summaries of items C-H. Each will be given one to three
paragraphs of development. Include quotes, but remember that this will probably be all you
will write on each of these items. Include some kind of transition between each item.
Don't just jump from one item to the next.
Here is how a lead for this story might develop. Look for your own lead, but if necessary,
this one works. Note the transitions from one topic to the next.
The Norseville City Council Monday night adopted a new budget and changed its form of
government with the creation of a City Administator position.
The council adopted a $2.1 million budget, down from last year's $2.4 million. While the
budget included some pay raises for public employees, it also slashed a number of
programs, especially in the area of parks and recreation.
The new City Administrator position will oversee city departments and in the long run is
expected to save the city money by creating a more efficient form of government.
Acting City Administrator Joan Bell was appointed to the new permanent position.
In other business, the council also changed plans for this year's Norseville gala;
introduced activities to promote awareness of the Sister City program with Malsch,
Germany; and dealt with a couple of situations where citizens were building structures
without city permits.
But it was the budget and related items that took up most of the council's time.
Police got a 5 percent raise, other employees got a 4 percent raise and the new City
Administrator position added $90,000 to the budget.
To do this and also adopt a lower budget than last year, the council had to approve a lot
of budget cuts, including some emotional ones in the Parks and Recreation Department.
. . . .
|
