You knew the city had a PR nightmare when it was revealed that more than $450,000 was spent on...umm...PR for the still-to-be-built Music City Center.
Evidently, the creative minds at McNeely Pigott & Fox couldn't figure a way out of this one, so now the mayor is working his own way out of it. His idea - appoint a new nine-member Convention Center Authority to oversee the project.
That would take it out of the hands of the Metro Development and Housing Agency, whose members evidently didn't think $75,000 was enough to pay for writing some speeches, monitoring the interwebs and local bloggers, and lobbying Council members to think favorably of the convention center project and vote accordingly.
The PR firm has since been suspended from the project while expenses are being reviewed, at the mayor's order.
And it now appears that the billing from the PR firm was out of control very early on - even before Metro Housing tried to lift the $75,000 cap. The Tennessean is reporting that McNelly Pigott & Fox had submitted a $160,000 bill in September 2008. Metro Housing didn't vote to lift the cap until October. It just gets better.
Above, the details from Newschannel 5, which broke this story in the first place.
Our offer still stands. We'll do it for the original $75,000. We would also like preferred parking at the Farmers' Market on weekends too.