Around Chicago City Hall, PR needs its own PR rep.
The Chicago Sun-Times reports today that the city “abruptly canceled” 11 public relations contracts worth $55 million.
“We get it. We absolutely get it. We understand that it would seem absurd at a time like this to be using taxpayer funds for this kind of non-essential service,” mayoral press secretary Jacquelyn Heard told the Sun-Times.
The city already has, as the Sun-Times puts it, “an army of [in-house] media handlers” and after taking flak from reporters last fall for Chicago’s PR price tag Heard pledged not to spend another penny on public relations contracts until the city’s budget crisis ended.
And then the city did. Chicago’s Department of Environment signed a $5 million contract with firm Cultural Communications on Feb. 17, the Sun-Times reported.
What was it for? “Translation services,” Heard said.
At least one of the 11 firms claims the city stiffed them on their bill. And one Chicago Alderman—my alderman—Scott Waguespack, has crusaded against these PR contracts.
Calling the contracts “wrong-headed,” he said, “I don't think they provide any more service than the dozens of other PR people we have already in the city.”
Maybe that's true, and while PR contracts are an easy political target, Waguespack should be careful. He's an above average (rookie) city councilman known for his "independent streak" among Chicago's status quo in city hall.
In Chicago, an independent streak might hurt his chances for re-election. So let's hope Waguespack hasn't burned any bridges with the local PR community. He may need to enlist some heavy hitters to get re-elected.
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Comments (1)
Alderman Waguespack should look at the Spanish section of his own website. It is outdated and full of grammatical mistakes. That is the case for many materials the city produces. Many times, in the interest of saving money, they get well intentioned people who think they know Spanish and translate materials that result in real abominations and a waste of materials.
Our firm, Cultural Communications, LLC, has helped some city departments produce high quality materials in Spanish. We have also helped them deliver the materials and spread the word about the services the city provides to low-income residents. Because of certain socio-economic conditions, sometimes they are hard to reach. The city does not always have the capabilities to do that. If the Sun Times or the Chicago Tribune called this "being a spin doctor" I am proud of it. If helping the city deliver the message about preventing teen violence means working for the "highly controlled message of the Daley machine," I'm proud of it.
Cancelling the contracts means more people will be unemployed. In our case, we employ people from disadvantaged neighborhoods and try to mentor young people to get better jobs. They, together with the people from low-income neighborhoods in Chicago, are the ones who lose the most.
Posted by Queta Bauer | March 4, 2009 3:06 PM
Posted on March 4, 2009 15:06