GLADSTONE — The Gladstone City Commission heard a report Monday on city efforts to promote social media engagement, which has increased in the past year.

“I think one of the things that has changed is the public perception of the city,” said Patricia West, director of both Gladstone Community Development and the city’s Downtown Development Authority, who delivered the report at the meeting.

In July 2024, the city entered into a contract with Orange Cat Media, a marketing and photography company operated by Jason and Kailee Hamre of Gladstone. Orange Cat attends events in the city, such as the farmers market and downtown festivities, capturing moments that can later be shared with the city, residents and followers.

Though the City of Gladstone is active on Facebook, the platform remains just one tool to reach residents. Posts on its page often direct people back to the city website, which is truly the prime source of information, West explained.

In the year after hiring Orange Cat Media, the number of followers on the city’s Facebook page increased by 17%, she noted; however, the posts that were most popular were a little surprising.

“You would have thought that some of the content that would have been our most engaged would have been the ones that were the professional photographs with Orange Cat,” West said.

However, the most-popular post was the announcement that resident Ernie Talbert had been presented with the “This is Gladstone” Residential Award, accompanied by simple photos taken on a cell phone.

“One thing that I learned from this is: people are more interested in seeing things that are familiar, even if it’s an amateur photo — or celebrating things, too,” West said.

“I think that by investing in both our website and our social media page, it is an opportunity for us to tell our story and create the narrative, instead of the community creating that narrative for us,” she continued. “… People are starting to speak more positively about Gladstone, and we’re hearing that, and I’m really optimistic that our social media page is part of that.”

The city in general is only active on Facebook, though the Public Safety Department manages an Instagram account.

West added that the Gladstone’s activity online will likely be less busy than during the summer, and there was no need to flood people’s feeds with posts that aren’t important.

One change West hopes to incorporate in the near future is ADA accommodations to posts. Such adaptations would include alternate text when an image is posted of a flyer, for example.

Other business at Monday’s meeting included:

— The commission scheduled Anderson-Tackman’s audit presentation on the city’s 2024-25 fiscal year for 5 p.m. Monday, Oct. 27. A copy of the audit will be available on the city website before the meeting.

– The commission approved the accessibility policy drafted by the city assessor’s office to meet Michigan legal requirements set by Public Act 660 of 2018. The policy included language stating that the response time for inquiries to the Gladstone assessor’s office would be “less than seven business days.” The policy will be reviewed during the 2026 assessment audit.

– In accordance with the same public act and to be evaluated during the 2026 audit, the assessor’s office also drafted a personal property canvass and roll maintenance policy. Assessor Janice Frizzell said while most people for whom the topic is relevant already know the law, it’s nice to have the policy summarizing the procedures for property canvassing: Site visits are completed between October and December; forms listing assessable property must be returned by Feb. 20; notices of assessment will be mailed at least 14 days before the March Board of Review.

– Rudolph Kaminen was reappointed to the Gladstone Housing Commission for a term that expires Oct. 1, 2030.

– The commission entered closed session for City Assessor Janice Frizzell’s annual evaluation.