18990_Authority_Feb_2026

municipalauthorities.org │ 9 F rom S ilent S ervice to T rusted S ervice : A C ommunications P laybook for P ennsylvania M unicipal A uthorities By Lindsay Hughes, founder and chief strategist of Tapped In Public Relations “I only drink bottled water.” “I don’t want to live near a wastewater treatment plant.” As municipal authority leaders, you often hear versions of these phrases from the very customers who rely on your services for public health and environmental protection. The issue usually isn’t chemistry or operations, but rather confidence. Today’s media environment leaves no room for silence. Silence doesn’t read as professionalism; it reads as uncertainty. The gap of uncertainty gets quickly filled with rumors and worst- case assumptions. Clear, consistent communication is part of operations and not a distraction from them. You follow the rules and regulations that make your services safe for customers and the environment. But what are you doing to ensure the customers who pay for these services understand that? Research across the sector underscores the importance of building trust through consistent, transparent communication. Regular communication from a utility improves customers’ perceptions of the service they receive, yet many authorities still take pride in being a silent service. I understand the priority is keeping your utility running properly and meeting regulatory requirements, but today’s world demands communication that earns trust. Communication is not just a “PR” issue; the impact is measurable. Don’t just take my word for it. AWWA reports that customers who recall a recent communication from their water utility are more than three times as likely to say water safety has improved 1 . J.D. Power’s 2024 findings show that 41% of customers say they don’t feel their utility’s water is safe to drink, and J.D. Power calls proactive communication the single most important step utilities can take to increase satisfaction 2 . J.D. Power’s 2025 release adds that some utilities overcome price frustration by communicating “frequently and proactively” about safety and reliability 3 . A practical example comes from the Water Utility–Community Guide for Communications, developed by The Water Hub in collaboration with The Junction Coalition and Rogue Water Lab 4 . The guide’s core warning is blunt: “Silence fuels misinformation.” When customers don’t hear from you, the void fills with rumors and worst-case assumptions, further eroding trust in the critical service you provide. This impacts operations. Opposition to infrastructure improvements drags out project timelines through public pushback, and misinformation becomes harder and more expensive to correct. In a 2024 Stanford Impact Labs conversation about tap water trust, Stanford engineer Khalid Osman puts it plainly: if people aren’t drinking the water you provide, “we’re doing a disservice.” He also says that utilities often interact with communities only when something goes wrong and argues that communities need chances to engage when things are going right. UCLA’s Greg Pierce reinforces the point: utilities should be “there consistently,” and listening is as important as technical fixes. This means the technical work matters, but trust determines whether customers believe the service is safe 5 . When communication is treated as a side task, it always loses to operations. The fix is to treat communication like any other management function: assign ownership, build repeatable processes, and measure performance. That approach matches what AWWA has advocated for decades: integrating communication and public involvement as core elements of utility management, grounded in open and ongoing communication and two-way dialogue with customers and stakeholders 6 . Below are three practical steps to move from “we should communicate more” to a communications operating system you can keep up with. Step 1: Take inventory—do an audit, assign an owner, and choose a primary channel You are already communicating, but it may feel fragmented. Your