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June 2025

Borrowing, Better: What We Learned at GGF Office Hours
From meme reuse to award submissions, here’s the good, the bad, and the nope of 'stealing ideas' in local government comms
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Will Hampton
Q: When residents line up to vent, what separates confident leaders from defensive ones?
A: A strategic plan they can point to before things get loud.
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Will Hampton
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From Pushback to Buy-In: How Amarillo Built a Comprehensive Plan People Could Trust
In a community wary of top-down planning, Amarillo won support by going grassroots, with precision, persistence, and plain language
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Will Hampton
No One Fights for a Strategic Pillar. But They’ll Fight Over a Stoplight
A Good Governance Brief on High Performance Communications—building trust through clarity, consistency, and the long game.
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Will Hampton
Saddle Up and Take It Home: Five Voices from TAMIO 2025
From planning tools to accessibility overhauls, here’s what stuck with five local gov communicators, and how they’re turning lessons into action.
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Will Hampton
How Trusted Public Leaders Navigate Complexity with Clarity
Strategic plans aren’t just for guidance. They’re for gutsy, unified communication when it counts
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Will Hampton
Reader Favorites: Two Posts That Still Hit Home
It’s a big week for Good Government Files.
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Will Hampton
Two Years, Two Favorites + One Invitation
This week I’m at the annual TAMIO conference in Fort Worth, reconnecting with some of the best local government communicators in Texas.
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Will Hampton

May 2025

High Five with Fred Presley: The Whistleblower Who Came Back
A city manager’s journey through conflict, burnout, and reinvention—and the lessons he’s carrying forward in Wethersfield, Connecticut
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Will Hampton
What Happens When You Treat Citizens Like Councilmembers
To plan for the next 10 years, Round Rock asked residents to weigh service levels, trade-offs, and the true cost of what they wanted
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Will Hampton
From Lifeless to Liked: How High Performing Governments Tell Better Stories
Trust isn’t built with more content. It’s built with the right content.
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Will Hampton
© 2025 William R. Hampton
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