21 Aug Mary and Goliath
Local Designer and friend, Mary Fisher Design, publicly takes on the Jacksonville Electric Authority (JEA). In today’s Times-Union article brilliantly written by Alison Trinidad, Mary claims that the JEA made little to no effort to publicize a $7,000,000.00 contract (numerical for emphasis) that came up for renewal this June.
And why should they? Just because it’s the Jacksonville Electric Authority doesn’t mean they should use a Jacksonville agency. And just because they have absolutely no competition, doesn’t mean they should make an effort to at least alert the top 4 agencies so they may compete for the business. After all, what’s the fun of working with a podunk local agency for local advertising, when you can work with an Agency that has Worldwide in the title.
With a contract with this many zeros behind it, one would hope that the person in charge would be well-versed in arithmatic. Read below:
“JEA imposed the revenue floor to ensure that the utility represented only 10 to 15 percent of the agency’s business, McCarthy said. Fisher argues that the floor was too high, because the contract is worth $1.4 million per year ($7 million over five years), which equates to 2 percent of business at an agency with $70 million in annual capitalized billings”
So you do the math. With property tax cuts causing budget shortfalls all over the city, would you rather see those dollars stay in Jacksonville and flow into the local tax revenue stream or go to Boston?
Could there be something fishy here? (Sorry for the reference Mary). I’d also like to know why JTA uses a PR Firm out of Tampa and our very own Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce uses a New York PR Firm (that one really hurts).
Props to Jan Korb for the heads up.