Wasteful spending wrecks Philly Councilman’s rep
Philidelphia Councilman Jim Kenney doesn’t know how to Tweet. Not only that, but his PR guy, Martin O’Rourke, who collects $30,000 of taxpayer money every year to handle communications for Kenney, doesn’t either. Logic should direct these two towards taking a few of those bucks and hustling to the nearest social media seminar, right? Think again. Instead, Kenney dropped another $28,800 in tax money on hiring ChatterBlast, a social media management firm.
Check out a few of the choice quotes in this case, from a Philly.com article by Holly Otterbein and William Bender:
No other Council member pays a contractor to help with Twitter. Just Kenney, who has the third-priciest staff on Council. He has 10 staff members with a payroll of $654,034, including his salary – plus another outside communications consultant.
Why does he need ChatterBlast on top of that?
“I, at 53 years old, do not have that facility,” he said. “So I need consultant advice to communicate with a group of folks who are not necessarily in my age group.”
Martin O’Rourke, the politically connected PR man whom Kenney’s office already is paying $30,000 this fiscal year for a communications contract, doesn’t have that facility, either.
“I have no clue how to tweet; I still don’t understand the mechanics of it. It’s a thing of the future,” said O’Rourke, who has earned big bucks through contracts with City Controller Alan Butkovitz’s office and the Philadelphia Parking Authority.
If you’re anything like us, your jaw smacked the floor after reading that last comment. A major PR professional not only admitting that he doesn’t understand the physical mechanics of posting to Twitter (uhm…type, click, done?), but calling it “a thing of the future” is nearly beyond belief at this point.
Recent attention already has Philly taxpayers riled up about the situation. We wonder if Chatterbox can help Kenney keep up with all the negativity?
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[Jonathan Bernstein is president of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc. , an international crisis management consultancy, and author of Manager’s Guide to Crisis Management and Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training. Erik Bernstein is Social Media Manager for the firm, and also editor of its newsletter, Crisis Manager]