City still has money for PR
This is an article that I had come across on the internet. I still do not understand the reasoning behind all of this. What Mayor would need more than three publicist, or even a whole public relations firm.
Mayor Daley’s administration has signed another contract of five million dollars for public relations. This is a total of eleven public relation firms worth fifty-five million. People argued that three new contracts awarded in early October had been finalized before making the decision to issue these types of contracts. The budget crisis has only gotten worse since the signing of these contracts, “the Department of Environment signed yet another $5 million contract on Feb. 17 with Cultural Communications LLC.”
"A lot of pamphlets and brochures we do are in English. Often, the information needs to be communicated [to neighborhoods] where English isn't the first language," said Jacquelyn Heard (Mayoral press secretary)
No funds have been expended, and it's highly unlikely any will in this economic climate. Every department is aware of our financial constraints, and these types of services are not considered essential. Ald. Scott Waguespack called the latest contract "wrongheaded" at a time when declining revenues have poked a fifty point five million hole in Daley's 2009 budget, setting the stage for more layoffs and union concessions.
Waguespack questioned the need for outside spin doctors, even during the best of times, adding, "I don't think they provide any more service than the dozens of other PR people we have already in the city."
One of the eleven public relation firms has not received a payment from the city since a November edict. The blizzard of public relations contracts prompted an outcry during City Council budget hearings.
You would think with that many public relation firms that this Mayor would not have any issues in the public or in the news about public relations, but I guess having a few extra firms could conflict with one another.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I have to agree with you. What is the purpose of having so many public relations firms? Maybe the city has a few events coming up and each firm is responsible for the pr of an event. This doesn't really make sense either.
ReplyDeleteI think having one firm, especially with their budget issues, would be sufficient. Having one firm being knowledgable of what's going on with the organization would be a better choice than having a bunch of firms only having partial information.
I wonder why the City Council would even approve of this? They would never run their households like this, why would they run a city like this?
To me this just reiterates what I have always believed about government--it will never make sense! As hard as everyone tries to make government transparent and efficient, it still gets bogged down in red tape, bureaucracy, and plenty of little backdoors and hidden agendas. And no matter how much people believe that they have control over what goes on since this is a government by the people and for the people, it will never be totally logical. Better than living in Iraq? Yes. But still much to work on.
ReplyDeleteHaving 11 PR firms is one of the most ridiculous things I have ever heard! There are companies and entities that operate just fine without having even one firm to back them up. Having 11 is plain and simple a misuse of the public’s tax dollars. I understand that “no money has been spent with these companies so far” but do not expect that to remain the case for long. Large companies would hardly sign a contract with an entity and not expect to receive some work for their troubles. That would just be bad business sense!
ReplyDeletePeople are losing jobs everyday and saving and scrimping to get by on little money and there is a mayor using the towns tax money to use 11 PR firms. This is insane to me. The mayor of the city should be setting the example for the people and showing them how the town's government is trying to save money.
ReplyDeleteUsing this moeny to help families who are struggling to get by in search of jobs is a much better use. If you need 11 PR firms to represent you there seems to be something fishy going on their in my opinion. Lose a few firms put a little more money into the ones you keep and help the people you are representing that would be good PR for the city right there.