City of Tustin Moves to Districts with Help of Tripepi Smith
In August 2021, the City of Tustin began the district formation process and hired Tripepi Smith to conduct community outreach efforts. On November 1, 2021, the City of Tustin adopted Ordinance No. 1518 to move to by-district elections during their fifth City Council Public Hearing.
The Tripepi Smith team was led by Tripepi Smith Principal Jennifer Nentwig and accompanied by Junior Business Analyst Melanie Moore. To empower the Tustin community and encourage participation in the City’s districting process, Tripepi Smith utilized a robust outreach plan, including:
- Creating and maintaining DrawTustin.org, a dedicated district formation website with background information, a schedule page, mapping tools, FAQs and more
- Presenting, recording, and monitoring two virtual community district formation workshops to educate the Tustin public about the district formation process
- Producing and publishing weekly information districting social media posts in English, Spanish, Cantonese, Vietnamese and Korean
- Boosting Facebook posts prior to all workshops and meetings, and adopting a map to specifically target Tustin residents
- Producing an animated district formation video to inform residents of the process
- Sending monthly districting Mailchimp emails to 900+ Tustin residents
- Designing and distributing 150 districting lawn signs with language in English, Spanish, Cantonese, Vietnamese and Korean
- Calling over 50 Tustin civic and community-based organizations and sending follow-up emails notifying them of every meeting and related districting news
- Drafting and distributing press releases prior to all workshops, hearings, and final conclusion of the process and coordinating its translation into Spanish, Cantonese, Vietnamese and Korean
Reflecting on the historic experience, Tripepi Smith Principal Jennifer Nentwig said, “Tripepi Smith is proud to have been able to help the Tustin community move to district elections. Our goal was to ensure that the Tustin community was involved, and we were thrilled with the high engagement.”
About the City of Tustin
The City of Tustin is home to over 80,000 residents in the heart of Orange County, between Santa Ana and Irvine. Tustin has one of the oldest downtown areas in the County, and the City was once a location of a large variety of trees, cementing its nickname as the City of Trees.
About Tripepi Smith
Tripepi Smith is a marketing, technology and public affairs firm based in Orange County, CA. Its clients include for-profit, nonprofit and public agencies throughout the state of California. The firm’s unique mix of marketing and technology prowess provides a competitive advantage for organizations seeking to leverage the Internet to achieve their communication goals. Tripepi Smith provides full content creation services, including: ghostwriting, collateral development, photography, video production, search engine optimization, email marketing, crisis communications, social media management and website design and execution. Tripepi Smith clients include: City of Santa Ana, City of Culver City, City of Rolling Hills Estates, City of Tracy, City of Santa Cruz, City of Snoqualmie, City of Cupertino, City of Daly City, City of La Cañada Flintridge, City of Paramount, City of Huntington Beach, City of El Cerrito, City of Indian Wells, City of Yuba City, Santa Clara County Fire Department, Industry Business Council, NHA Advisors, CalChoice, California Joint Powers Insurance Authority, Rowland Water District, California Contract Cities Association, California City Management Foundation, League of California Cities, Institute for Local Government, Renne Public Law Group, Inland Empire Utilities Agency and Climatec Energy Services.