How much do you get paid to cruise the Internet and check out the local blogs and websites?
Do you get money to write speeches?
Know what we get paid to write this stuff? Don't ask. We don't like to be laughed at.
So, imagine our indignation over this story about the PR firm the city hired to push the notion of the Music City Convention Center.
Newschannel 5 pretty much had this story to itself and bless them for pursuing it here and here.
The City Paper has weighed in with reaction from Council members and an owner of the PR firm.
Make no mistake, we kinda like the notion of a convention center. But when a $75,000 contract turns into an ever-running spigot of money (just shy of half a million dollars to date) so a bunch of flacks can monitor blogs, cruise the Internet, draft speeches and lobby the guys who hired them in the first place (Metro Council), what we have here is a WTF moment.
In a letter we hope he wrote himself, Mayor Dean ordered that the city's contract with McNeeley Pigott & Fox be suspended.
Thanks Mayor.
Note to city: If you are planning to continue paying people to read local blogs and cruise the Internet, contact us right away. Just leave a note in the comment space below and we'll get right back to you.
Above, Newschannel 5 has what we HOPE is the happy ending to this.