COOK & SCHMID IN THE NEWS
Inland Counties Spend Millions For Public Relations Services
By: David Danelski
The Press-Enterprise
July 6, 2009
Riverside and San Bernardino counties collectively spent more than $3.2 million in the past three years for the services of three public relations firms that, among many other tasks, educated people about household waste, provided voter information and coached bureaucrats facing news media interviews.
Public officials say they need the help to handle work that county staff doesn't have the time or training to perform. The two counties now spend more than $2 million a year on salaries for in-house public information staff.
The outside firms provide staff, expertise and resources that supplement the work of county employees, said David Wert, a San Bernardino County spokesman.
"They bring to the table perspective and experience (gained) by working for other agencies," Wert said.
The largest chunk of spending for outside public relations work went to O'Reilly Public Relations, based in downtown Riverside.
Riverside and San Bernardino counties together have paid the firm about $1.6 million since 2006, according to purchasing records. Most of that, about $1.2 million, was in Riverside County, where the firm has done a wide range of work, such as helping public agencies with crisis management, employee contract negotiations and speech writing.
One of the other top three firms was San Diego-based Cook & Schmid, which earned about $1.1 million, mostly in San Bernardino County, where it developed a fire prevention campaign and voter outreach campaigns and guides to county services.
The other firm, Long Beach-based S. Groner Associates, worked in both counties, educating people about how to properly use and dispose of paint, solvents, pesticides and common hazardous material and also promoting recycling and composting. The counties paid the firm about $600,000 in total.
Patrick O'Reilly said his firm helps officials meet an obligation to the public.
"It would be irresponsible for policymakers and top-level managers to ignore their responsibility to effectively communicate with the public," O'Reilly said. "While they may be very good at tax collection, good at finance, or good at real estate or economic development, that doesn't necessarily make them expert communicators."
Unlike the other firms, O'Reilly Public Relations earned roughly a third of the revenue in the two counties through no-bid contracts, records show. Public officials said the company has unique expertise in local issues that justified those noncompetitive contracts.
Reaching Out
When public agencies need public relations help, they can go about it two ways.
They can send "requests for proposals" to a list of qualified firms. Proposals generally are evaluated by a committee that considers cost, qualifications and other factors in making a selection. Or, if a firm has unique expertise, they can bypass the competitive process.
Most of the large contracts involve proposals from competing firms.
For example, Cook & Schmid had the biggest single contract, which cost San Bernardino County $543,443, to educate residents in mountain communities about fire prevention and protecting their homes.
Peter Brierty, the county fire marshal and an assistant fire chief, said the money was well spent. He characterized the cost as less than the value of two homes that otherwise could be lost to fire.
The firm went to work in 2006, about three years after the Old Fire burned 91,000 acres from Crestline to Running Springs to San Bernardino's Del Rosa neighborhood. The fire destroyed 1,003 structures and claimed six lives.
In a forest damaged by drought and insects, the public education campaign kept mountain residents focused on fire danger long after the blaze was extinguished, Brierty said in an interview.
Cook & Schmid staff members created fire-prevention posters, calendars, brochures, presentations and Web sites. They used property records to find out-of-town owners and mailed them fire-prevention information, firm partner Jon Schmid said.
The 2003 fire and the public education campaign transformed residents' attitude about fire prevention and safety, Brierty said.
Sabro Foster, a 20-year Arrowbear resident, said he has one of the photo calendars with fire-prevention tips hanging in his bathroom. Most year-round residents have cleared flammable debris from their properties, but more work needs to be done, he said.
"Most of the property owners don't live here full time, and many of their properties are still a mess," Foster said.
Array Of Messages
This year, Cook & Schmid developed a directory of San Bernardino County services to be posted on the Internet and printed. The effort included making 175,000 refrigerator magnets promoting the county Web site and a telephone help line, said Wert, the county spokesman.
The firm also developed signs, posters, news releases and other materials last year to promote homeless awareness and a 211 telephone help line for homeless services in Riverside County.
S. Groner Associates has specialized in environmental outreach focused on reducing waste.
In both counties, the company has worked with flood control agencies to educate the public not to dump hazardous liquids, such as waste paint and oil.
Stephen Groner, the firm's president, said the company has worked with home improvement stores to provide information to consumers about how to properly dispose of such materials.
The firm's staff members contact schools, apartment complexes and businesses to promoting recycling. They help people identify recyclables and develop strategies and habits, such as backyard composting, to reduce the volume of waste going to landfills, Groner said.
In a telephone interview, he said his company's focus is on teaching people to be better stewards of the environment.
"We are trying to educate people," Groner said.
Educating the public
The O'Reilly firm also does public education work.
Several representatives of the agencies that use O'Reilly's services said he provided the expertise and staff to do needed public outreach that the agencies don't have the resources to do in-house.
Last year, for instance, the Riverside County registrar of voters agreed to pay O'Reilly's firm up to $93,050 for help in the lead-up to the June and November elections, according to county records.
State concerns had forced the county to abandon its electronic voting machines, and O'Reilly's firm helped develop materials to educate voters about the proper way to mark their paper ballots, said Barbara Dunmore, the county registrar.
"We're a small staff of 35," she said. "I don't have someone on staff who has this outreach and PR experience when we need to do real educational campaigns."
Wide Latitude
Interviews and public records show that the Long Beach and San Diego firms worked only on narrowly focused public education campaigns.
In contrast, O'Reilly Public Relations has had public contracts that are less defined, allowing for unspecified, on-demand services.
The firm has billed public agencies for prepping officials for interviews with reporters and editorial boards; drafting and editing biographies, including one that appeared in purchased space in a local lifestyle magazine; and preparing a letter to the editor signed by a private citizen defending a public agency.
Also, the O'Reilly firm has done work beyond the dollar limits of a contract and been paid retroactively.
In 2006 and 2007, while working for Riverside County on a desert habitat conservation plan, the firm did $228,000 worth of work under a $120,000 contract. The difference was paid retroactively under a contract amendment the Board of Supervisors approved after the work was done, according to county records.
Riverside County Supervisor Roy Wilson said that the O'Reilly firm helped the county rebuff Desert Hot Springs' attempt to annex land for development. The county and other desert cities wanted to preserve the land as habitat for imperiled wildlife, as outlined in a Coachella Valley conservation plan that had been in the works for years.
"The annexation would have killed the plan," Wilson said. "We would have lost millions of dollars."
Carolyn Syms Luna, director of Riverside County's Environmental Programs Department, said in an e-mail that the county and other conservation plan supporters faced "extreme deadlines" to set aside wildlife habitat so that an Interstate 10 interchange project could go forward.
O'Reilly's firm was given verbal authority to do additional work while a contract amendment was worked out and took a financial risk by proceeding without an approved contract, Syms Luna said.
In another instance, O'Reilly's firm billed San Bernardino County more than $60,000 for work related to the formation of a non-profit corporation set up to acquire, improve and resell foreclosed properties in both counties.
Tasks included calls and meetings with elected officials and business leaders, including Jeff Burum, a prominent Rancho Cucamonga developer and a leading backer of the corporation.
The work by O'Reilly's firm was done at the request of San Bernardino County Supervisor Paul Biane's office under an existing contract with the county administrative office. The contract covers crisis management and other services considered necessary by the administrative office, said Wert, the county spokesman.
Beyond Public Education
Some of the O'Reilly firm's work, such as preparing biographies, appears to have questionable value to the taxpayers who foot the bill or could be done without the help of professional consultants, said Jack Pitney, a political science professor at Claremont McKenna College.
Elected and high-ranking appointed public officials should be able to talk to reporters and other members of the public about what they are doing without first seeking advice from consultants at taxpayers' expense, he said.
"It should be part of their skill set," Pitney said.
O'Reilly's company, under a $150,000 contract with the Riverside County Economic Development Agency, gathered biographical information about Robin Zimpfer, then head of the agency. The firm prepared a profile of her and pitched it to media outlets, invoices show.
A 275-word piece on Zimpfer appeared with a color portrait in the June 2007 issue of Inland Empire Magazine, a monthly that emphasizes fashion, Hollywood, lifestyle and society content. The profile discussed Zimpfer's civic contributions as well as her professional accomplishments. It appeared on a full page under the heading "Women to Watch."
County records show Zimpfer's department paid the magazine $1,995 for "ad placement" in the issue.
The same profile layout appeared in the next issue, along with a longer article about Zimpfer's leadership of the Economic Development Agency and its history and successes. For that July 2007 issue, the advertising bill to the county was $3,895, according to an invoice from the magazine.
O'Reilly invoices show the firm was paid more than $6,000 to gather her biographical information, write and edit profiles, review them with her, and deal with the magazine.
"It is a wonderful and inspiring story, and I'm glad to hear her story," said, Pitney, the political science professor. "But why should the public pay for this story? I just don't see the return."
O'Reilly said he didn't recall the Zimpfer profile. But such work helps agencies in their competition for funds and projects, he said
 .
"A person's background/charity work is part of the composite of who they are, and speaks to those who may be interested in participating or learning more about their agency and its programs," O'Reilly wrote in an e-mail.
O'Reilly's firm also was paid to edit and submit a YWCA award entry for Zimpfer in May 2007.
Zimpfer, who retired this year, declined through her husband to be interviewed.
O'Reilly said focusing on the profile distorts the body of work his firm does for the public agencies.
Tom Karako, director of the Golden State Center for State and Local Government at the Claremont Institute, said the test of whether a public relations expense is appropriate is who benefits from the work: "Is this serving the basic purpose of local government, or is this propaganda serving the government as its own interest?"
John Standiford, the Riverside County Transportation Commission's deputy director, said commission members -- who are elected city and county officials -- use O'Reilly's firm to prepare for media interviews only in special circumstances, such as when the commission embarks on a major road project.
"The idea is to make sure that they are ready and at their best in that situation," Standiford said.
O'Reilly said the firm not only advances the missions of public agencies but also saves taxpayers money. Examples he cited included publicizing Riverside County sales of tax-delinquent properties and producing a mailer that, during contract negotiations, helped persuade Riverside Transit Agency employees to accept less costly retirement benefits. Resolving the benefits issue averted a strike, he said.
Past Political Ties
Several officials who have used the services of O'Reilly's company at public expense have past political ties to him. Company officials at Groner and Cook & Schmid said they have not done political campaign work in the Inland region and have little contact with the area's elected officials.
In 2005, the O'Reilly firm received a $192,000 contract with the Riverside County treasurer's office, then headed by Paul McDonnell. O'Reilly was a political consultant for McDonnell during his 1998 campaign for treasurer.
That office considered a proposal from another firm but chose O'Reilly's company.
"I know what kind of work he did," McDonnell said. "They were familiar with Riverside County and what went on in Riverside County."
Among other tasks, the county tax collector's office paid the firm to develop and promote media coverage of the state treasurers' association conference at the Mission Inn in Riverside. McDonnell, then the elected Riverside County treasurer and tax collector, was installed as the organization's president at the time.
McDonnell said the association's conference had several panel discussions on public finance and pension funds that he felt would make interesting news stories, though the meeting received little mention in news outlets. The O'Reilly firm also pitched stories about plans to raise jail construction funds.
"We felt it is good to have the good news we do get out there," McDonnell said.
The O'Reilly company was paid $133,762 over the course of the contract.
Also in 2005, O'Reilly's firm was chosen for a contract of up to $85,000 a year with the Western Riverside County Regional Conservation Authority, shortly after former county Supervisor Tom Mullen became the agency's executive director.
Mullen had used O'Reilly for his supervisorial campaigns in the 1990s.
The contract was awarded without a competitive process, public records show.
Mullen said the firm was the best qualified because it already had done public outreach for the Riverside County Integrated Plan, a sweeping land-use blueprint that called for the creation of a wildlife preserve network. The conservation authority was formed to build and manage that network.
Touted past work
In 2006, when the O'Reilly firm sought a $150,000 contract with Riverside County's Economic Development Agency, it touted O'Reilly's work with elected leaders, public records show.
"He (O'Reilly) serves as a trusted and respected adviser to numerous elected officials throughout the region and guided scores of successful public information and public affairs campaigns," said a letter included in the firm's proposal for the contract.
The proposal also included copies of thank-you letters from McDonnell and Mullen to O'Reilly, dated 1998 and 1997, respectively, that both commended O'Reilly for his work on their successful campaigns for county offices.
Mark Seiler, an assistant director of Riverside County purchasing and fleet services, said such testimonials are immaterial and would have had no bearing on the decision to select the O'Reilly firm over six other bidders.
Each firm was scored on its experience, proposal, resources and qualifications, and O'Reilly's company came out on top, he said.
"We want to get to the meat of a proposal," Seiler said.
Invoices show the O'Reilly firm developed public communication strategies for the agency; drafted fact sheets, text for an annual report and speeches for agencies officials; and promoted a news story when the agency obtained a federal grant to help turn dead trees in the local national forest into pallets.
O'Reilly said his firm gets work because of his track record and local roots, not because of his political connections.
"Somebody local who knows the issues is important to communicating effectively and using resources wisely," he said.
Douglas Quan contributed to this report.
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