Thursday, August 6, 2009
40 Jealous Whores / Hannan / Politics Manufactured Support: How McNeely Pigott & Fox Delivered a Convention Center Consensus
Posted by Caleb Hannan on Thu, Aug 6, 2009 at 2:24 PM
McNeely Pigott & Fox founding partner Mike Pigott plainly said the firm did not help write Dean's speeches.Here's an entry from Mike Pigott's invoice dated October 14, 2008:
Updates to Mayor's speech regarding MCC project; e-mails to J Lacy, $142.50And again seven days later:
Speech practice, $285From Peter Woolfolk with Communications Strategies, another PR firm hired by MP&F to do more work for the city, on October 13th:
MCCC (sic) speech rehearsal; Q&A rehearsal, $207.81From partner David Fox on March 24, 2009:
Develop Mayor's talking points for Council, $285And again on April 3rd:
Final edits on Mayor's Council presentation, $712.50And these are just the examples where MP&F got specific. There are dozens of entries for a half or full hour just labeled "speech." Who's speech? Hell if we know. That's part of the problem. It's one thing to say a PR firm is gouging the city. It's another to know exactly how we're getting gouged. Unfortunately, without good record-keeping, that will have to remain unknown. Along with Kerr's column, MP&F also provided help to two other local heavyweights who managed to get their opinions heard in the city's only daily. On April 26th of this year, Fox billed the city $285 for one hour of "work with Ron Samuels re: Tennessean column." On May 3rd, the paper printed Samuels "column" as a letter to the editor. Instead of saying he was CEO of Avenue Bank and current chairman of the Chamber of Commerce, the paper just provided his zip code, giving it the appearance of having been written by an average citizen, rather than a bank president being coached by the head of a PR firm. On April 27th, Pigott billed a half hour for the following entry: "Finish and send Marty Dickens column, $142.50." In the next two days, he'd bill a further three hours (at a total of $855) editing the column "written" by the former president of At&T-Tennessee. News Channel 5 has already made good mention of the fact that, despite MDHA and MP&F's insistence that the work they're doing doesn't qualify as lobbying, the PR firm sent e-mails encouraging support for those Council members in favor of the project.
The day after a critical council meeting in which the council approved buying land for the project, the public relations firm sent out an e-mail that encourages people to thank the members who supported the project. Two of the firm's partners attended that meeting and charged Metro more than $1,200.Referred to as "e-mail blasts," the messages might have been easier to organize given the fact that MP&F invoiced work "editing the supporters list." They also billed a half hour for doing "research on opposition." (But seriously, they weren't lobbying. Trust them.) E-mails to Mike Pigott and David Fox have yet to yield any new information. We'll certainly let you know what they say in response. It's hard to sum up what still feels like a developing story. But, at the moment, there are a couple things that seem clear: 1) No matter what they say to the contrary, MP&F were lobbying the council. In their own invoices they draw a line between support and opposition. They also make it clear who, out of the two, they chose to reward. 2) Including the words "Twitter" in a headline about hog-wild government spending is always going to make news. What might be worse, however, than a couple hours spent on social networking are all the hours billed for nothing in particular. There are hundreds of pages of invoices with thousands of lines of inventoried charges and roughly 80% of those are grouped under ambiguous titles like "meeting" or "e-mails." What kind of meetings? E-mails to who? We'll never know. 3) Maybe they didn't pen them themselves, but if we're to believe what's on the bill it'd be downright misleading to say MP&F didn't have a hand in shaping speeches given by Mayor Dean and MDHA head Phil Ryan. 4) This "this is only 3% of the money" excuse is utter bullshit. You're saying you can't control costs on a miniscule portion of the budget...and that's an argument in your favor? So MDHA is building us a billion dollar house and they just got overcharged 500% on the nails. This is supposed to inspire confidence? 5) Last but not least, the Mayor. Dean probably made the right move by suspending MP&F's "communications." But are we really to believe he only just realized their spending was out of control? All he had to do was look around the room, during one of his many meetings or speech pow-wows, and start counting heads: There's $285 an hour, there's $285 an hour, there's $285 an hour...At some point, it's not just enough to say "I didn't know." It's your responsibility to know. We wouldn't accept that kind of excuse from any manager. We shouldn't accept it from you either.
Comments (14)
Showing 1-14 of 14
As a tax-payer, I shudder to think how much Nashville would have been charged for someone to have to read a post this long had MP&F not been suspended. Ha.
But great analysis of where we stand now and what the implications are.
like
dislike
Glad to see our tax dollars at work for something truly "great". Didn't they just cut hours at the public library? Funding for education? I wonder what real leaders could do with $500,000.00? Half a million dollars for nothing and yet we keep cutting services and asking for more tax money from citizens who already pay enough. I wonder when the citizens will decide that enough is enough? I wonder if Mayor Dean could get some help from the hero Reagan Farr and the boys down at the revenue office? They seem to be able to squeeze undeserved money out of Tennessee Citizens for their friends and pet projects. Close down a few more farms or another 100 year old family business and you should be able to get another $500,000.00 for what ever you see fit. Don't worry boys, plenty of more money to waste, all you have to do is take advantage of your voters to get it. And if you're lucky, maybe they will forget about your actions come election time.
Great! Since I have been a repeated critic of this trashy project on NCP and the Tennessean (Jefff or Moost take your choice on names) I have made some sort of enemies list at MPF. I guess singling them out some months ago probably made the situation even worse for me. Wonder if it took the whole 30 minutes to discover me?
I expect to see some of their hot young interns poking around the Tin Roof looking for some guy named Jeff.
Really strong article. Nicely researched and presented.
So I hate to be the Negative Nancy, but... please proof-read your blog posts.
"except" is not "accept"
"MP&A" is not "MP&F"
Thank you.
Thanks for the catches, Joe. I'd rather think of you as a Helpful Harold than a Negative Nancy.
I'm totally outraged by this post. Did it have to be so long? Some MP&F intern had to read this whole thing, send a memo to the executive floor, where someone glanced at it then fired off a $500 bill to the city. Way to go, Hannan. Because of you, the Music City Center is now more expensive.
E-mails to Mike Pigott and David Fox have yet to yield any new information. We'll certainly let you know what they say in response.
3:1 that they lawyer up & refer you to general counsel for MP&F.
And while we're at it, should we have a peek at how Ellen Leifeld's house organ is reporting this?
TOP STORY: Titans to wear a #9 decal to honor Steve McNair!
(Snark aside, I note that the scant coverage given to the MCC controversy makes no mention of the Tennessean publisher being the chair of the Convention & Visitor's Bureau. Of course, there would be no conflict of interest, and all of the Tennessean's editorial independence on this matter is beyond question. Sure.
Oh, wait. Snark was not aside there.)
I have always had a perpetual problem with the abstract ability of how to monetize even the most basic skills I possess.
I can build a computer from parts, make an 8 foot bookcase from scratch, plant a 1 acre garden, etc, etc ,etc.
And here are these fucks charging 200+ bux for talking points?
I bet the standard rate for taking a crap while playing solitare on their ifonez is close to 150+.
Outsource em'
From the Mayor to McNeely, CROOKS and CROOKS!!!
DEMAND the tax dollars back!!!
David
Oh for crying in a bucket.
Those clown shoes over at MP&F are going to quadruple their rates, now that The Scene has everyone convinced that they have the magical power to influence coverage with their press releases.
Let's see. During the wine in grocery stores debate, the grocery lobby hired a PR firm. The Scene endorsed wine in grocery stores and devoted countless column inches to long, loving tongue baths to the cause.
The PR firm that orchestrated the pro-wine Red White & Food campaign was...ZOMG! McNeely Pigott & Fox!
J'accuse! The Scene is totally in the tank with MP&F! Why couldn't you resist the awesome power of their press releases? WHY?
Jen:
The grocery lobby was not spending Metro revenues to pay the same PR firm to make their case to elected Metro officials.
You don't see the ethical morass here?
Dude. Did I say it wasn't stupid to spend Metro revenues on outside flackery?
Of course it's stupid and wrong and ruinously expensive to spend Metro revenues on outside flackery!
Metro employs an army of media relations specialists (at no small expense to the taxpayer, I might add.) MDHA's press secretary is perfectly capable of pushing "send" on an email without charging us $200 a pop.
Be as pissed as you want about that. But be pissed for the right reason.
It wasn't just an unnecessary expense, it was a USELESS expense. At least press releases from Metro get read before they're deleted.
