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City council questions mayor's office advertising contracts and travel as mayoral budget is reviewed
Summary
Councilors pressed the mayor's advisors over hefty advertising invoices, an expired three-year vendor contract and rising out-of-state travel, while the administration defended advertising as public information and said many costs were paid from prior ARPA set-asides. Council requested procurement tallies and vendor evaluation sheets before the next RFP.
Senior adviser Spanner presented the mayor's office budget and defended spending on personnel, purchase-of-service contracts and advertising as tools to reach residents and recognize community events. He said the mayoral salary proposal for FY2027 is $150,000 and that one administrative data-entry position will be transferred to the Department of Public Works.
Councilors focused much of their time on the mayor's advertising line. Councilor Vivian Marmal cited vendor invoices she called "disgusting," including editing charges she described as $600 an hour and individual videos she said cost $10,000 to $18,000. Marmal said those funds could have assisted struggling local businesses instead. Senior adviser Spanner replied that advertising funds pay for outreach, recognitions and placement in neighborhood stores and that some expenses were covered by prior purchase orders or ARPA-derived marketing set-asides the administration identified when the ARPA plan was approved.
Several councilors also questioned an expensive vendor that had held a three-year contract that has since expired. The administration said selection was done via a committee and that procurement rules were recently tightened so pricing must be included earlier in RFP packages. Spanner said the contract had required insurance and liability protections that some smaller vendors could not meet.
Council President Jovanni Rodriguez and other members said they wanted to see procurement evaluation sheets, scoring tallies and vendor insurance certificates for the prior contract. Councilors also asked whether travel—particularly out-of-state travel for promotional and trade visits—was overused; Spanner said much travel is paid personally by the mayor and that grant and business relationships sometimes require travel for economic outreach.
Next steps: administration officials agreed to provide RFP evaluation documents, vendor tallies and insurance information to the committee and to reissue a new procurement notice for communications vendors. The committee pressed for clearer reporting on how ARPA allocations were used to fund multi-year outreach efforts.
