EDC paying others to get message delivered
By Kathryn Reed
El Dorado County has an image problem. And it keeps throwing money at people to try to improve it.
The county spokesperson used to be someone in the chief administrative office. That went by the wayside even before Mike Applegarth went out on leave – and eventually took a job in Utah.
Then CAO Terri Daly hired Stephanie McCorkle on May 13, 2014, to do public relations work. The one-year contract was not to exceed $25,000. McCorkle had operated McCorkle & Driscoll Communications for two months before working for the county. Prior to that she worked in communications for 17 years for California Independent System Operator.
She left before half the year’s term was up, but billed for nearly the entire amount of the contract.
The county doesn’t have one person to be the point person for the media, to send out press releases, to be a spokesperson. That is why consultants are hired to do so. And this is why it can be hard to get information from the county.
Steve Pederrti, head of the Community Development Agency for the county, thought a major upcoming project needed more help than staff could provide.
However, on Sept. 30, the Board of Supervisors removed Flint Strategies as a public relations consultant in what at the time was going to be a bigger, approximately $600,000 contract with another firm to provide more than just email blasts. That was on a 3-2 vote with Supervisors Ron Mikulaco and Shiva Frantzen in the minority.
At that meeting Auditor-Controller Joe Harn told the board the pubic relations aspect of the contract could be done by people on the payroll.
“I certainly think the county staff can send out emails. I don’t think we need a consultant to do it,” Harn told Lake Tahoe News.
But that decision did not last long.
The entire board on Dec. 16 voted for a $516,995 three-year contract with Kittelson and Associates to provide public outreach for a five-year capital improvement program and traffic impact mitigation fee program updates. In the contract is a $44,720 contract with Flint to be a subcontractor of Kittleson’s.
To date Flint has sent out an email about a meeting that affects the West Slope. It was neither better written nor had more details than what has previously come from staff.
These losers are the free market joke thieves at work in EDC-as long as they can keep getting elected by the low info foxbigots- they will continue
A colossal waste of money that should instead be used on repairing roads, maintaining basic infrastructure, and serving essential needs. Pathetic.
The Board has a history of throwing large sums away for out of area consultants and for senseless and huge costs for building rentals, but in this ever growing budget debacle, it is pure insanity. With hundreds of employees, there is certainly a number that can be redirected to do PR. These three who voted for this look like THE problem.
Teatotal, how do you figure they are ‘free market joke thieves’ if they work for the government?? That’s your tax dollars they are throwing around. Free market=voluntary exchange of currency for services, not theft-at-gunpoint (taxation) payment.
Who exactly IS low info here?
Flint Strategies (the PR Firm hired by the County) is from the Bay Area. There are PR professionals that live in El Dorado County. There are small firms that do social media and e-mail in our County. Couldn’t they at least waste our money locally? Why can’t the County shop local? The County asks us to shop local.
Dog, tea total comments are in alignment with your philosophies. You missed his point.
Every article on the County seems to get more and more bizarre. It’s hard to believe- but keep the information coming, Kae. Thank you!
Just like big corporations, and just like TRPA, the County has found it worth investing in Public Relations firms/staff to convince the masses to support what the County wants.
This is why we all need to look deeper to see what’s really going on.
I remember when Mike was with the county. Seems like so long ago. He escaped the county before being dragged into too much drama. How does one county collect so many corrupt people? Cant the feds come in and investigate? Is our county not corrupt enough? The FBI even has a special dept for such a thing. When I called, all i got was crickets chirping.
If THIS county is involved you can count on corruption all the way.