City, county spending millions on public relations

Erin Neff and Adrienne Packer

Sunday, June 4, 2000 | 8:31 a.m.

Local government is fast becoming a multimillion-dollar marketing machine, with television stations, Internet websites and personnel at the ready for any flak attack.

The city of Las Vegas and Clark County are leading the way with combined public information expenses topping $4 million annually. When the public relations expenses of other agencies and cities are added that total climbs over $6 million a year.

In the city, salaries and benefits for 12 video production employees and seven employees with public information duties cost $1.1 million.

Another $539,000 is spent on operational expenses, including supplies.

In Clark County, salaries alone account for $1.03 million for 20 employees associated with media relations for various county divisions, including the airport, courts and sanitation and the health districts.

News spinners are as common in public buildings as the American flag waving outside. But is the public really getting the information it needs, or is the bulging bureaucracy simply tooting its own horn with the added spin doctors?

"I believe that it's the essence of open government," said Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, in defense of his city's information efforts and new television station. "If anyone would suggest that this is being used for self-aggrandizement, they just have to watch the programs to see that it isn't."

Taxpayers largely don't complain about the growing ranks of government press agents provided they get a little of the information that's supposed to be more free flowing.

"We've yelled that there should be public information," said Carole Vilardo, president of the Nevada Taxpayers Association. "There's a definite irony to it, because we also stand for cost-effectiveness.

"Every so often, you just have to bite your tongue," she added.

Swallowing the hefty salaries earned by some public information officials isn't as easy for lower-level government employees who claim more emphasis is needed on other positions.

"I've heard plenty of talk about how much certain PIOs (public information officers) make," said a city employee who asked to remain anonymous. "It's not good for morale when everyone on your level is busting their tails and other people seem to have it much easier with much more money."

For example, David Riggleman, the city's communication manager, makes $90,000. County Public Information Director Doug Bradford makes $87,366. Henderson's chief spokeswoman, Vicki Taylor, makes $100,744 a year.

Gov. Kenny Guinn makes $117,000 a year and starting teachers with a four-year college degree in the Clark County School District earn $26,847.

Competitive salaries

Government public information salaries are viewed as "competitive" by city and county leaders.

While the city's overall communication staff has added six employees since last September, the Las Vegas public information office has one fewer staffer.

City Manager Virginia Valentine said that indicates her efforts to hold the line on public information jobs even amid city and council growth.

"With seven bosses (council members) now and all the interest they generate, I think this is the information age and people have a lot of interest in them," Valentine said.

Just five years ago, the task of educating residents and orchestrating media interviews with Clark County administrators was a one-person show run by Taylor, now Henderson's spokeswoman.

But the task has evolved along with the expectations.

"Public relations used to be put somebody in a cubicle and let them grind out press releases," Taylor said.

"Instead of having someone there to do damage control, we sit in meetings and say maybe we need to go public with this. The government has the responsibility to tell people what's going on and how their money is being spent."

In Clark County, that message is currently spread in a variety of ways.

The county publishes quarterly newsletters for each of the commissioner's districts and has established an award-winning website that outlines each department's duties and upcoming projects.

But most funding has been dedicated to the county's Channel 4, which televises commission and zoning meetings, talk shows featuring elected officials or administrators and provides updates on parks, public works and flooding issues.

The county's television crew makes more than $200,000 a year in salary and will move into a new $500,000 studio later this year.

Bradford, the county spokesman, said a major emphasis was placed on public information about five years ago. Channel 4 consistently airs locally produced programming, he said.

The city's new channel, on the other hand, airs black and white films and book review programs produced far from Nevada.

All local programs

Riggleman, the city's communications manager, said the fledgling station will eventually have 100 percent local programming.

"I think if they give us the chance and tune in and watch us, they'll see how open their city government is," Riggleman said.

The city just couldn't share the county's channel any longer because of conflicts in the scheduling of city and county meetings and events, he said.

"It was going to prohibit us from other programming," Riggleman said.

The funding for the city's Channel 2 primarily comes from fees paid by cable subscribers. One percent of each Las Vegas resident's Cox Communications' bill goes to fund the channel.

A $1.8 million settlement paid to the city when Prime Cable was sold to Cox was used as seed money to start the station. But the employee salaries are currently paid by the city's general fund.

The city is in the process of a $511,000 overhaul of its council chambers to make the room better suited to live televised meetings. Another $280,000 is being spent to make the room compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act and, as a result, to remodel space used by newspaper journalists.

Channel 2 also is getting new offices and studio space, estimated to cost $1.5 million, as part of a $12 million expansion to City Hall.

That project will be funded with bond money, but the television office portion will be repaid with cable fee money, Riggleman said.

Steve Schorr, vice president of Cox Communications, said the recent decision by Henderson and North Las Vegas not to start a shared channel is evidence of the enormous cost of entering the television business.

"It is a very expensive proposition that I think the county and city are starting to find out as they get more deeply involved," Schorr said.

TV dominates

Television continues to dominate the way the city and county get their information to the masses.

"We were getting calls from constituents who were saying, 'I didn't know about this meeting,' or 'I didn't know about that activity,' " Bradford said. "Our role is to provide people with an opportunity to learn more about the county."

Schorr said surveys Cox has commissioned find that government access channels are "always among the lowest of the viewed channels."

"But, those individuals who watch them are very loyal," Schorr added. "Since local government meetings have been on, we have a high propensity for lawyers to get our service in their offices so they can watch how the meeting is proceeding without waiting at the meeting."

With 1.3 million residents in Clark County, the county government alone annually spends about $1 per person in public information costs. That doesn't take into account the additional funds spent by individual cities and other government agencies.

The Clark County Sanitation District, for example, spends $115,000 on public information services.

Taylor has seen the job evolve from a publicist who made appearances just to represent a government body into a public relations analyst who must comprehend the intricacies of decisions and projects.

If government agencies were simply interested in spin doctors, she said, they would hire advertising specialists who can sell glowing stories.

"Translation is half of what I do," Taylor said. "Before I can tell citizens what we're doing I go into the department and talk to people who I don't think speak English; they speak finance-ese or engineer-ese. Human-ese is all I understand, so I can translate it.

"If you don't understand accurately, quickly and thoroughly, you'll pay for it."

Indeed many public information jobs in the city and county are not positions devoted 100 percent to handling media or producing brochures for the public.

Marty Flynn, spokesman for the Clark County Sanitation District, said he spends only about 25 percent of his time on media calls.

"When it comes down to it, I'm technically the public information officer, but I do much more in terms of public outreach than just being a spokesman," Flynn said.

Two new full-time public information positions have been added to the Regional Flood Control District and the Clark County Health District, agencies funded by Henderson, North Las Vegas, Las Vegas and the county.

Betty Hollister was hired by the Regional Flood Control District in January when it became apparent that more emphasis needs to be placed on educating residents on the dangers of flood channels.

During a major storm last July, 150 people had to be plucked from floodwaters.

Aside from safety awareness, Hollister is responsible for updating the public on all flood district capital projects.

"It's become increasingly important that the community understands how taxpayer dollars are spent," Hollister said.

Difficult to follow

Ironically, it's becoming increasingly difficult to follow the money governments spend on that very message.

In addition to having numerous employees designated to spend only 5 percent to 75 percent of their time on public information activities, many regular employees find themselves fielding media calls and talking to residents.

In the city, three main public information officers are supplemented by four department-level publicity specialists. Each council member and the mayor also has at least two staff members who serve as liaisons to the public and often the media.

And both the county and city have Neighborhood Services divisions whose main function is providing information to residents about how to improve the quality of life in their neighborhoods.

"I think it's a huge nationwide trend," said Valentine, the city manager. "Public outreach efforts and public information is increasing across the board."

The city also produces quarterly newsletters and has a popular website that receives about 80,000 hits a month.

"When you start to disseminate information through all these ways, it makes it more convenient for residents," Valentine said. "Government is a business where the consumers have no choice, so I think we should bend over backwards."

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