El Dorado County spending taxpayer money on PR agency for grand jury damage control
By Kathryn Reed
El Dorado County has hired a public relations firm to primarily focus on getting out a positive message about the latest grand jury report.
The scope of work with Endicott Communications out of Roseville says the primary objectives are:
“1. County more favorably perceived by residents and other key regional stakeholders.
“2. Media coverage and other external communications regarding grand jury reports reflect county key messaging.”
Pamela Knorr, when she was acting CAO, signed the contract on June 15. Lake Tahoe News has been trying to get a copy of it since June 17 when the unfamiliar contact information appeared on a press release. Knorr never responded to the request. Auditor-Controller Joe Harn provided a copy of the public document on July 8, the same day he received it. As of Wednesday he had not received an invoice from the firm.
The $40,000 contract is below the threshold in which the Board of Supervisors would have to approve the expenditure.
The contract goes on to say the flacks are to develop talking points for county staff to use in regards to the grand jury, write and distribute press releases, develop content about the grand jury report for the county’s website and social media, and monitor and report on grand jury related media coverage.
One of the more highly charged grand jury reports was about the Human Resources Department, of which Knorr is head of. She was also acting CAO from December 2014 until June 29.
This isn’t the first time the county has sought outside help instead of relying on staff which it had done up until about three years ago.
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. She left before half the year’s term was up, but billed for nearly the entire amount of the contract.
There was also Kittelson and Associates, which entered a $516,995 three-year contract with the county in December to provide public outreach for a five-year capital improvement program and traffic impact mitigation fee program updates. In the document is a $44,720 contract with Flint Strategies to be a subcontractor of Kittleson’s for PR work.
ummmmm, didn’t the county hire a bunch more people to bring staffing back up to par which lead to a financial crunch which led to the bad report, which lead to hiring this firm? None of the people hired could have put out a press junket that any competent person who took a marketing class back in college could do? Doesn’t the press often regurgitate those press junkets as the latest news?
Here’s a freebie, just release a statement saying something like, we are doing our best and will take to heart the recommendations in the report and thank the jurors for their service. The sheep will accept it and then go back to business as usual. Lets see how much fancier the pr firm says the same thing.
Need I say it ? Your tax dollars at work……..or put another way, you hard earned money pissed away by another useless government agency.
I’m in with tempus. Thank you LT News for continuing to bring this government corruption to our attention. Pamela Knorr should be fired.
What’s the big deal? welcome to your dystopian future!~
Incompetent bureaucrats incapable of doing their jobs apparently need outside assistance to complete their jobs, and cover up the tracks of their misperformance. Simply charge the cost of the outside contracts to their bloated salaries, and taxpayers would find them shaping up real fast.
Hey county supervisor Sue Novasel what have you to say about this abomination of a wasteful cover your butt PR contract by Pam Knorr?
I don’t know, but wouldn’t competent representation be the best form of PR? It seems like a better, and more effective, method of dealing with poor perception of your “work” by the public.
EDCo keeps trying to CYA. How many different ways can it be said, EDCo is corrupt, mismanaged, toxic, & in need of a major overhaul. Why is it that the FBI Corruption Dept hasn’t been brought in? Its absolutely ridiculous that the county officials that be allow all of this to continue. Keep up the good work LTN, maybe they are all starting to circle down the drain. The more pressure, the more mistakes they make.
Let’s recap. Knorr recommended in early June to close Senior Nutrition sites. Knorr couldn’t find enough money in the County Budget to provide low income seniors with low cost lunches, but Knorr found $40,000 for Public Relations.