In 2005, the City of Houston's Office of Air Quality Control (BAQC) terminated its contract with an air quality control agency State to ensure enforcement of state rules and regulations (Williams & James , 2009). Consistently ranked among the worst cities in the United States for air quality and pollution control, previous collaboration with the state was ineffective with applications and processes difficult to manage for both employees, entities than citizens (Williams & James, 2009). The City of Houston BAQC implemented a new strategic plan, aimed at internalizing functions previously carried out by the state, and providing for policy changes, better use of technology and, most importantly, strategies for involve the community (Williams and James, 2009). The analysis of this case study will focus on the technical communication aspects of the City's plan to improve air quality. Plain language means fewer customer calls, less time for users to resolve a problem, higher compliance rates and fewer customer errors (“PlainLanguage.gov”). The previous reporting system was cumbersome, reports were difficult to understand, and did not encourage more communication or collaboration (Williams & James, 2009). The inclusion of citizens and other public stakeholders, who were unfamiliar with scientific and technical terminology, resulted in reports that included the use of first-person narratives, detailed descriptions, language descriptive and in an active voice (Williams and James, 2009). . The BACQ also revised its reports to include a mix of graphics and text explaining technical information (Williams and James, 2009). If necessary, the public can call City representatives to find out the results and details of the investigations ...... middle of document ...... stakeholders. Works Cited Kim, S. and Lee, J. (2012). Citizen participation and transparency in local government: an empirical analysis [PDF]. 2nd Global Conference on Transparency. Retrieved from http://www.transparencyconference.nl/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Kim-Lee.pdf Piotrowski, S.J. (2008). Freedom of information: a duty of public bodies. InMr. Lee (Ed.), Government Public Relations (pp. 309-314). Boca Raton, FL: Auerbach Publications.PlainLanguage.gov. (nd). Retrieved March 8, 2014 from http://www.plainlingual.gov/ Williams, MF and James, DD (2009). Adopting New Policies, Technologies, and Community Partnerships: A Case Study from the City of Houston Bureau of Air Quality Control [PDF]. Technical Communication Quarterly, 8(1), 82-98.http://dx.doi.org/10.10.1080/10572250802437515