Remember the (most) recent deception foisted on the City of Coeur d’Alene by our Mayor and Councilmembers Kennedy, Goodlander, and McEvers and City Administratrix Gabriel? According to them, the City desperately needs a Propagandist-in-Chief. One of their justifications for the P-i-C position in Coeur d’Alene was that Spokane has one, Marlene Feist.
Apparently Spokane’s very own P-i-C isn’t quite as effective as Spokane Mayor Condon would like. According to the occasionally accurate regional skewspaper, The Spokesman-Review, Spokane will spend $50,000 to hire a communications firm “to see if the city can improve how it speaks to citizens.”
Yeah, Corrupt d’Alene isn’t the only place with deja poo all over.
Bill,
I think the most profound statement made by the Spokesman was, “The difference between public relations and open government is substantial; the former involves manipulation, craft and the goals of the advertiser, while the latter is devoted to citizen participation and the goals of the audience.”
So while Spokane has had for years city employees specifically charged with the enhancement of open and accountable government to the benefit of the citizens (the audience), and now added an internal Spinner—the City of CDA chose to hire only the information Spinner to serve the needs of the whomever controls her work product (the advertiser).
As I have posted before, there is no clear chain of command contained in the contract signed with this new PR person; the closest you can get to understanding who she works for is in Minutes of meetings at which time the City Clerk stated that the Spinner would work “with” the Clerk, not “for” the Clerk.
I still agree that the City needs help in communications, but hiring an outside private consultant with a squishy contract, but complete with strict non-disclosure provisions, was a mistake that will backfire with expensive consequences.
Comment by old dog — November 2, 2012 @ 11:20 am
old dog,
I believe the Spinner will work with the City Administrator, not the City Clerk. This would be the same City Administrator who decided she had the authority to make decisions authorized to the City Council. (Anyone who believes Bloem didn’t give Gabriel the go-ahead to do that needs to be subjected to mandatory drug testing.)
Comment by Bill — November 2, 2012 @ 11:29 am
Oops,
That’s who I meant Bill–but considering that both were hired by a simple majority (?) of the Council, and dare say would probably take an act of divine powers (or overt criminal acts) to justify firing either, does it matter that much?
Hmm, sounds like the form of heirarchy that the County is proposing, with the exception that the County only has three Commissioners versus the five on City Council.
Comment by old dog — November 2, 2012 @ 1:22 pm
old dog,
You hit it squarely: The City Administrator is to the City Council what the County Administrator would be to the County Commissioners. In the City, the City Administrator intentionally withheld time-sensitive information from at least some and maybe all the Council members, information they needed to deliberate and arrive at a timely decision. We don’t need that kind of nonsense going on at the County as well.
Comment by Bill — November 2, 2012 @ 5:11 pm
Is it true that lcdc has hired Range (Eden Irgins and Adam Graves) to create some pr film for them?
Comment by Susie Snedaker — November 4, 2012 @ 12:53 pm
Susie,
From the September 2012 meeting minutes of the LCDC:
I thought Elder’s comments at the bottom of page 3 were pretty revealing.
Comment by Bill — November 4, 2012 @ 1:13 pm
The fact that lcdc has to constantly pay for publicity is rather absurd considering it is a governmental urban renewal agency. The tax dollars they have spent to puff themselves up is ridiculous. Not only have they added Keith Erickson to write for them but also they have now hired Eden Irgins to create a video for the new folks – complete with animation?
Comment by Susie Snedaker — November 4, 2012 @ 9:44 pm