EXCLUSIVE: Despite having a fully staffed county communications team and a budget crisis, L.A. County has increased the amount it's paying to two PR firms for #COVID19 messaging to $1.9 million, including funding for recruiting "celebrity influencers." bit.ly/2BPWJQl
A consultant for one of the PR firms, Mercury Public Affairs, made a maximum political donation to Supervisor Kathryn Barger the month before the no-bid contract was approved. The CEO of the other firm, Fraser Communications, settled with the SEC for $91,530 for insider trading.
When I last reported these contracts in April, the PR firms were being paid a total of $400,000. The county is now spending nearly 5x that amount for this #coronavirus messaging. I got comments from the county, and its critics, and I'll be live at 10pm on @FOXLA w/ story tonight.
The contracts for the firms have also been extended. Mercury's term goes through October 31st, while Fraser's goes through June 30th.
The irony to all of this? One could argue that the county's messaging has been shaky at best. How many times have they had to walk back comments or made contradicting statements?
A lot of people are tagging @MayorOfLA in this. This is not the city or the mayor, this is LA County. City of LA did not hire any PR firms and instead has been using existing in house resources. LA County took a different approach, despite also having existing resources.
