PR executive addresses crisis communications for FEMA

By Rick Laney

of The Daily Times Staff

In response to some high-profile missteps by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), public relations professionals, including Mary Beth West of Maryville, recently presented an ethics and crisis communications workshop to FEMA public affairs officials.

Two months ago, during the height of the California wildfires, FEMA employees pretended to be reporters during a poorly attended press conference and asked FEMA official Harvey Johnson “planted” questions. Combined with the agency’s public relations disaster during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, it was widely believed by public relations practitioners that the federal agency could use some help.

National leaders of the 32,000-member Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) conducted the communications workshop for FEMA public affairs and management staff at its Washington, D.C.-based headquarters. The presentation, which included an ethics workshop by West, was broadcast to FEMA’s 10 regions across the country.

West, who is the national chair of the PRSA advocacy advisory board, said, “FEMA is a vital agency to our national security, and we wanted to reach out to them in regard to dealing effectively with communications issues.

“The whole faux press conference they had was uncharacteristic of them. FEMA is managed by both political appointees and career public relations staff — the decision-making process between those two groups can be very different.

“The political appointees are accustomed to doing things differently, and the whole incident unfolded very quickly in front of a live feed. People were sitting there horrified at what was going on — even though people had been instructed by their superiors to do what was being done. It was an unfortunate situation.”

FEMA accepted PRSA’s invitation to conduct the workshop within weeks of the agency’s widely criticized news conference incident during the California wildfires in October and following PRSA’s public response, in which PRSA encouraged FEMA to “engage the PRSA Code of Ethics as a guide to review the current incident, prevent future errors in judgment and restore public confidence.”

The workshop represented the first time in PRSA’s 60-year history that a federal government agency formally engaged and consulted the society in a manner involving staff on the topics of crisis communications, ethics and reputation management.

“My part was about meeting societal expectations,” West said. “I tried to review with FEMA what the expectations are in a crisis situation, what drives societal judgment calls and what people expect of government agencies and any organization.

“Saying you’re doing something but not having operational proof is suicide — I told them they need to make sure that FEMA’s messages are aligned with its operations.

“We had a very positive response from FEMA. We came away thinking there may be an open door for an ongoing relationship between FEMA and PRSA.”

The public relations society’s interaction with FEMA is one of many national and international opportunities presented to PRSA in 2007, resulting from PRSA’s efforts to advance the public relations profession, its professionals and ethical communications practices. Other PRSA events in 2007 included co-sponsoring with the U.S. State Department a program on public diplomacy for congressional members and their staff, as well as responding to many national news-making issues involving public relations crisis response and ethical best practices.

“PRSA is privileged to provide to FEMA this assistance and to address the critical topic of communications ethics,” said PRSA Chair and CEO Rhoda Weiss.

“For PRSA, the opportunity to extend professional development to FEMA staff also represented an opportunity for public service, in the hope that FEMA’s communications will continue to serve the public good.”

According to Weiss, PRSA’s workshop content included analysis and discussion of the PRSA Code of Ethics, societal expectations for ethical communications, trust and reputation in the age of new media, response strategies for hostile stakeholder groups, crisis communications management, relationship-building with partners in government, addressing the specific needs of multicultural and multigenerational groups and case-study analysis for applying the PRSA Code of Ethics day-to-day at multiple levels of decision-making.

“PRSA hopes this workshop will be the beginning of an ongoing interaction with FEMA — as well as an open door to relationships with other government agencies interested in addressing ethical considerations for their own communications policies and operations — in order to instill decision-making processes that foster public confidence and serve the best interests of the people,” Weiss said.

According to West, who has operated Mary Beth West Consulting in Maryville for nearly five years, ethics and public relations do mix.

“People sometimes have a narrow view of public relations and completely associate it with ‘spin’ — which we in PRSA wash our hands of because it’s completely opposed to our code of ethics,” she said.

“We want to be truthful and honest with the information we put out to the public. Our outreach to FEMA is reflective of what we’re trying to do with the business community — public relations is about communicating things ethically.”

The Public Relations Society of America, based in New York City, is the world’s largest organization for public relations professionals and has more than 32,000 professional and student members. PRSA is organized into over 100 chapters nationwide. Its 20 professional sections and groups represent business and industry, counseling firms, academic institutions, military, government, associations, hospitals, schools, professional services firms and nonprofit organizations.

Guidelines from the Public Relations Society of America

From Public Relations Society of America

Free flow of information

PRSA Member Obligations:

• To preserve the integrity of the process of communication

• To be honest and accurate in all communications

• To act promptly to correct erroneous communications for which the practitioner is responsible

• To preserve the free flow of unprejudiced information when giving or receiving gifts by ensuring that gifts are nominal, legal and infrequent

Competition

PRSA Member Obligations:

• To promote respect and fair competition among public relations professionals

• To serve the public interest by providing the widest choice of practitioner options

Disclosure of information

PRSA Member Obligations:

• To be honest and accurate in all communications

• To act promptly to correct erroneous communications for which the member is responsible

• To investigate the truthfulness and accuracy of information released on behalf of those represented

• To reveal the sponsors for causes and interests represented

• To disclose financial interest (such as stock ownership) in a client’s organization

• To avoid deceptive practices

Safeguarding confidences

PRSA Member Obligations:

• To safeguard the confidences and privacy rights of present, former and prospective clients and employees

• To protect privileged, confidential or insider information gained from a client or organization

• To immediately advise an appropriate authority if a member discovers that confidential information is being divulged by an employee of a client company or organization

Conflicts of interest

PRSA Member Obligations:

• To act in the best interests of the client or employer, even subordinating the member’s personal interests

• To avoid actions and circumstances that may appear to compromise good business judgment or create a conflict between personal and professional interests

• To disclose promptly any existing or potential conflict of interest to affected clients or

organizations

• To encourage clients and customers to determine if a conflict exists after notifying all affected parties

Enhancing the profession

PRSA Member Obligations:

• To build respect and credibility with the public for the profession of public relations.