City Withdrawing Request To Pay Knoxville PR Firm $150,000 For 6-Month Contract

Mayor Ron Littlefield said Tuesday afternoon he had requested that the public works department withdraw a resolution for a Knoxville public relations firm to get a $150,000 contract for a six-month campaign.

Mayor Littlefield said, "This will allow us to evaluate this matter and determine if the city actually needs this service at this time."

The contract was aimed at getting out the word about the city's water quality program, including a much-higher fee passed last week by the City Council.

Steve Leach, public works administrator, earlier said the city needs to educate the public that its water quality program is much broader than just handling stormwater runoff effectively.

He also said the city "is under the gun" from state and federal regulators on the water quality program and the educational component is a key part. He said having an education outlet is a requirement of one of the city's water quality permits.

Mr. Leach said a main aim is to get out the word to citizens "about the new, much-better way" of computing charges for the water quality fee.

Lee Norris, deputy administrator of public works, said the city sent out a request for proposals and there were only two respondents - Derryberry Public Relations, of Chattanooga, and Jordan, Jones and Goulding, a large engineering firm that has a Chattanooga office.

He said the JJ&G bid was not considered responsive since he said it is mainly an engineering firm.

Mr. Norris said a group of five individuals that review all such RFPs decided to go out for another request for proposals since that left only the Derryberry entry. Members of the group include Al Chapman of the mayor's office and representatives from the mayor's chief of staff, purchasing, public works and general services.

He said Ackermann PR submitted a proposal on the second go-around.

Mr. Norris said JJ&G submitted an additional letter to purchasing. He said he does not believe there was anything additional from Derryberry.

The Derryberry proposal for the six-month campaign was $31,475 or $65,625 for a more extensive media campaign.

Mr. Norris said it was not felt that the Derryberry firm had much experience with the water quality issue except for some work for the Hamilton County Water and Wastewater Treatment Authority.

He said Ackermann PR had handled a number of similar campaigns, including work on the Chattanooga Creek cleanup.

Mr. Leach said the budget for the campaign was at $150,000.

Mr. Norris said it might not be necessary to use the entire $150,000 in the six months. On the other hand, he said Ackermann PR might be called on for some additional work if necessary later.

Robin Derryberry of Derryberry Public relations said her firm sent its proposal on July 28 and was advised it had the only complete responsive proposal. She said she was later told the city was sending the RFP out to regional firms in order to have more than one proposal to consider.

She said she was advised that her firm could keep its original proposal with the city or submit a new one.

Ms. Derryberry said she was told by Dennis Malone of public works on Sept. 16 that Ackermann had been chosen.

Ms. Derryberry said she then asked the city for copies of all proposals submitted and for the evaluations.

She said she was advised by Artie Prichard of the purchasing department by email on Sept. 21, “Once a decision is made, I can let you look at all copies and if you desire copies there is a charge of .15 per page thru the open records act.”

Ms. Derryberry said, “We were disappointed to learn that the evaluation process as detailed in the RFP was not followed. According to city officials, ours was the only complete bid submitted in the initial time period, so we had hoped to make a presentation to the selection committee as outlined in the RFP.”

The award of the contract to Ackermann had been set to be before the City Council on Tuesday night.