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Mayor's office seeks digital communications specialist and $50,000 PR reserve; council presses for local bidding
Summary
The mayor's office requested a new digital communications specialist ($109,530) and $50,000 for as-needed public-relations services; council members urged the administration to solicit local vendors and questioned why a $16,910 public-input subscription remains housed in the mayor's office.
Amber Ash, the mayor's chief of staff, told the council the mayor's FY2027 request includes a $109,530 salary-and-benefits package to add a digital communications specialist to expand short-form video, social-media and web engagement.
"This position will focus on managing social media, creating video content, and assisting with the city's website overhaul," Ash said, explaining the new hire would free the communications manager for longer-term strategy and improve emergency backup capacity.
Ash also requested $50,000 in professional services to retain a public-relations firm for crisis communications on an as-needed basis, plus $5,000 for promoted posts on Meta platforms and $3,000 for graphic-design support.
Council members pressed for local competition. Dr. Aldridge said outsourcing recruitment or other work can be cost-effective in some cases and encouraged consideration of local vendors when professional services are sought. "I would highly encourage you ... to make sure that, you know, we get that information out to local vendors as well," Aldridge said.
Councilman Laborn urged the administration to give local businesses a chance to bid on communications work rather than defaulting to outside firms. Ash said the administration had solicited a proposal from a firm called 3 Elephants (used by WAM) but intends to seek other local providers before finalizing a contract.
Members also questioned why the Public Input subscription (budgeted at $16,910), a platform used across multiple departments, is paid from the mayor's office rather than apportioned to the departments that rely on it. Ash replied the tool is housed centrally to serve multiple departments and that it was initially funded with ARPA dollars as a pilot; she said central management improves consistency and reduces duplicate project websites.
On procurement and transparency, Ash and council members agreed to pursue outreach to local firms before making a vendor selection. No contract was approved at the session.
Other requests in the mayor's division included a $13,500 renewal for Oona grant-management software and a $109,529 request (plus $2,500 for a laptop) to staff a paralegal/legal assistant for the public defender's office; council members questioned how the public defender's caseload would be tracked and monitored over time.
The council did not vote on any of the communications or professional-services requests during the work session and asked staff to return with additional procurement details and alternatives.
