SOME, they say, are born great.
Others achieve greatness.
While the poor misfortunes in Limerick City and County Council (LCCC), hire public relations officers.
I tell you what, though, Fine Gael councillor Adam Teskey is fierce allergic altogether of the very notion of local government publicity campaigns, especially when it eats into the coffers for roads and lighting in West Limerick. The theatrical Adare-Rathkeale representative had a real go at the Council’s Communications Department, and not for the first time, at last week’s full meeting of LCCC.
Cllr Teskey was not a happy camper, and in a foot-stomping exaggerated display, as is his nature, he started counting the shekels and questioning the very need for a media and marketing team at all within the ranks of the Council.
“What is our communications department doing? How many people have we employed in it? Are we going to keep employing the people in the communications department or are we going to scrap it, forget about it and save the taxpayers money?” Teskey asked the council executive.
The thundering blue-shirt is not a fan of the propaganda machine. Maybe he’s from the school of thought that considers public relations “at best promotion or manipulation, at worst evasion and outright deception“.
“What it is never about is a free flow of information,” investigative journalist Heather Brooke once salaciously suggested.
Let’s not forget though, that you are talking about people’s livelihoods, people with families and mortgages, and mouths to feed, when you take potshots at local authority departments and the staff they employ. Unless, there’s a real issue that best serves the people of Limerick in terms of misuse of Council loot, maybe these kind of shouting matches are best had behind closed doors?
Is LCCC really wasting dough on public relations?
The council executive don’t think so.
However, Teskey, was positively “alarmed, perplexed and annoyed” over what he considered a total waste of money at last Monday’s meeting.
He told council members that he had learned that a mayoral order had been signed for international communications company M+C Saatchi to be hired for strategic and creative services at a cost of €163,480 plus vat for the forthcoming year.
Just think of the potholes that could have been filled with this filthy lucre?
Teskey certainly was!
M+C Saatchi’s service, according to a council missive “is used to provide strategic direction, coordination, guidance and creative on the implementation of Limerick branded campaigns and marketing activity for the Office of Marketing and Communications”.
Following a satisfactory working relationships on this contract, the Council in April this year recommended to renew their vows for a continuation of this service for a further 12 months.
Cllr Teskey was bulling, and he wasn’t done yet. He also hit out at the council’s top brass for their spending elsewhere in communications.
“We’ve also decided to spend a further almost €100,000 to Springboard Communications. Now I want to know why we have a communications department within our local authority, when we’re spending such vast amounts of money externally and in outsourcing? Is there a need for this lavish and extraordinary expenditure?” he wanted to know.
Council General Director Dr Pat Daly is a man well-versed in dealing with the huffing and puffing of local councillors, and he wasn’t getting caught up in Teskey’s bewildering flap. Dr Daly, a cool, calm and collected customer, told council members the importance of a strong communications and marketing department in LCCC.
“But we have so many needs across the organisation, not alone with the Directly Elected Mayor, but also the need on the media team to respond to questions, media requests and speech writing,” he explained.
According to Dr Daly, M+C Saatchi are managing the local authority’s brand message and working to up-skill council staff for the last number of years.
“I think it is money well spent and I would be quite comfortable with the spends,” he added.
Cllr Teskey was getting the last word even if it took his last breath.
“We have well educated people in our communications department and they should be well able to carry out this work without having to outsource this degree in funding. This is what I would call a waste of funding,” he concluded.
He has it in for them, I tell you!
Back in February, Teskey wanted the 23 staff members in the Council’s Active Travel Department out on their ears. He called for it to be scrapped after raising concerns about staffing costs.
“What’s the rationale with having a communications officer when we already fund, within the local authority on the top floor, a communications department? What is the story, lads?” Cllr Teskey asked at a Adare-Rathkeale meeting earlier in the year.
“I can’t get over this. It’s a duplication of work. What we’re seeing is, the more staff we have, the more depleted our resources are for all the capital works.”
Oh, well, clearly public relations can’t turn every Cllr Teskey disaster into a misunderstood triumph!
