A water district has a recycled-water fill station. Somewhere nearby, a resident could use it. Between those two facts sits a surprisingly large job: explaining what the station does, how to use it, and why anyone should bother. The infrastructure is already there. The instructions still need an audience.
In June 2026, North Coast County Water District described work with Voler Strategic Advisors that included precisely this sort of task: instructional videos for its fill station and water audits, alongside website content and public-awareness films. Staff then requested another year of communications support, with a ceiling of $72,000. It is an unusually useful introduction to a public relations firm. Start with the water, and the business becomes easier to understand.
Voler sells the work that connects institutions to people. Its customers include school districts, public agencies, nonprofits, and businesses. The deliverable might be a press conference, a film, a social campaign, or advice to an executive facing an uncomfortable question. The common problem is that having something to say does not guarantee that the intended audience will hear it.
01 / Seven proposals. One revealing decision.
For a glimpse of why buyers choose Voler, consider a June 2025 community college procurement. San Mateo County Community College District evaluated seven proposals and ranked its incumbent, Voler, first. Its offer was $5,000 a month, or $120,000 over two years. Staff highlighted regional experience and in-house Spanish and Vietnamese capabilities. The recommendation was to authorize a contract, a distinction that matters when reading a proposed price.
That combination puts Voler in a recognizable part of the market: an outside communications team with knowledge of public institutions. Its competitors include other public-affairs and education specialists. A buyer can also staff the work internally. The choice turns on the mix of judgment, production capacity, language skills, and availability the institution needs.
02 / The grocery-store education
CEO Perla A. Rodriguez’s earlier career offers a clue to how this combination developed. At Mi Pueblo Foods, she built the grocery company’s first public affairs department. Her biography describes work securing political and grassroots support during an expansion from 10 to 21 stores over two years. A grocery opening involves customers, neighbors, employees, and officials. They do not all arrive with the same concerns.
Rodriguez also worked in community affairs at Univision 14, where she received an Emmy nomination as executive producer of an education program. Her academic background combines international relations at Stanford with public administration at the University of San Francisco. Television, public institutions, and community relationships appear throughout that history. They appear together again in Voler’s service offering.
PERLA A. RODRIGUEZ / CEO
ROLANDO A. BONILLA / CSOChief Strategy Officer Rolando A. Bonilla came through San Francisco government and later served as communications director for San Jose councilmember Nora Campos. His work at Voler includes crisis strategy. Together, these biographies explain the firm’s emphasis on both the message and the circumstances around it. A sentence delivered at a board meeting has a different life from the same sentence printed in a brochure.
03 / A jobs program needs an audience
San Pablo Economic Development Corporation offers another view of the work. Its May 2025 board packet described a relationship that had evolved to include a bilingual video production team, traditional and social media, and English- and Spanish-language television coverage. One recent example was a Telemundo news feature promoting workforce services and a hiring fair.
The proposed renewal held the price at $4,000 a month for two years, subject to annual budgets. Staff said the rate had remained unchanged since fiscal 2022-23 and emphasized the workload the firm relieved. The attraction was practical: access to people who could take responsibility for communications while employees attended to their other jobs.
A hiring fair gives outreach a concrete destination. The audience can attend, ask about work, and take a next step. That makes the assignment easier to describe than the vague ambition to improve awareness. It also suggests a useful way to commission similar work: decide what a person should be able to do after seeing the message.
04 / The unglamorous video is the point
Video production at Voler covers the whole sequence: planning, storyboarding, scripting, shooting, and editing. Its menu includes commercials, testimonials, tutorials, public service announcements, and event coverage. A client can bring a communication problem that requires both a strategy and someone capable of operating a camera.
The water district’s assignment illustrates the range. Alongside its instructional films, staff described meetings with government officials about local issues and potential grant funding. The same relationship spanned a resident learning to use a service and an institution discussing infrastructure needs. Those tasks demand different audiences, formats, and kinds of preparation.
In June 2026, Voler announced a Bronze Telly Award for Early Heart Screenings Save Lives, produced for the Kyle J. Taylor Foundation. The film presented the foundation’s story and its work around screenings, emergency preparedness, AED donations, and CPR training. It is a clear example of a nonprofit using production to explain its purpose.
An award recognizes the creative work. To assess the campaign’s practical value, a client would also want to examine participation, inquiries, or another relevant response. Keeping those two questions separate makes for a more useful conversation about communications than simply counting trophies.
05 / A district can buy a plan, too
Voler’s work can begin before there is a message to publish. In 2017, Milpitas Unified School District sought help developing a strategic plan. Its staff described an institution with a mission, vision, and core values that still needed a shared route to its goals. After meeting three firms, staff recommended Voler, which offered a discounted $7,500 price against proposals ranging from $12,000 to $24,000.
The proposed process included conversations with stakeholders to inform decisions by the board and superintendent. It captures another part of the business model: defined consulting projects alongside recurring communications support. In this case, the institution needed help turning aspirations into a plan people could discuss and use.
Voler’s current team includes José L. Manzo as Superintendent-in-Residence, bringing experience leading Oak Grove School District. That is a revealing job title for a communications firm. School leaders have operational problems as well as presentation problems, and advice becomes more useful when someone understands the institution behind the announcement.
“As a first-generation college student, internships were vital to my growth”
Perla A. Rodriguez
On Voler’s 2025 summer internship program
The firm’s student internships offer a small window into its stated culture. Its 2025 announcement invited high school seniors and college students to gain experience through workshops, video shoots, and networking. Rodriguez connected the program to her own early opportunities. The format puts students near the production work and professional relationships that make up the business.
06 / Start with the person at the other end
The lesson to borrow from these projects is a discipline of specificity. Name the audience. Identify the language and channel. Give the message a useful destination. For a public agency, that might mean a resident completing a water audit. For a workforce organization, it might mean someone learning about a hiring fair.
This approach asks something of the client, too. The institution must have a service people can actually access and be willing to answer their questions. More polished communication cannot make an unavailable appointment available or substitute for a decision that has yet to be made. Those are operating responsibilities.
Voler’s place in the market is at that busy boundary between operations and explanation. Its work makes the most sense when the brief names a real person with a real need. Somewhere, someone is standing beside a recycled-water fill station, wondering what to do next. A good instructional video has its answer ready.