O.C. Pays PR Firm $25,000 to Boost Image

Anticipating a spate of unflattering publicity as the first anniversary of its bankruptcy nears, Orange County has hired a public relations firm for $25,000 to help polish the county’s image.

“The anniversary is going to generate a huge amount of media inquiries,” said Donna Lucas of Nelson Communications Group. Lucas manages the firm’s Sacramento office, which specializes in politics and government relations.

Lucas said she will help the county spread the message that nearly a year after the county filed for bankruptcy, “things aren’t business as usual” and that “Orange County is doing well.”

County Chief Executive Officer Jan Mittermeier originally hired the firm in August to help win legislative approval of the county’s bankruptcy recovery plan, said Lynne Fishel, the county’s spokeswoman.

Lucas’ firm was paid $15,000 for that work. The original contract recently was extended until March 1, and increased by $25,000 to help the county handle media inquiries for the Dec. 6 anniversary, Fishel said.

“There was almost a million media inquiries on the bankruptcy,” said Lucas, who said she advised the county to emphasize what it has accomplished in the past year.

“I find this humorous,” said Bruce Whitaker of the Committees of Correspondence, a reform group that came into being in the wake of the county bankruptcy. “Their recipe must be: If you’re not going to be open and forthcoming, then you must hire a PR firm to tell people why you’re not.”

Whitaker sits on the county’s Government Practices Oversight Committee, and has closely monitored all of the county’s reform efforts since the bankruptcy.

“I’m at a loss to think of anything they’ve accomplished,” Whitaker said.

Mittermeier hired the Nelson firm on her own authority, and did not get the approval of the Board of Supervisors. In addition to helping the county deal with increased media attention surrounding the bankruptcy’s anniversary, the firm will assist with other legislative work if required.

“We met last week with them in anticipation of the anniversary,” Fishel said. “They provided advice on how to deal with the media proactively to get the county’s information out.”

The services of the public relations firm also should come in handy when the Orange County Grand Jury and the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission get around to filing formal charges against current and former county officials for their roles in the financial disaster.

The staff of the SEC already has served notice on several current and former county supervisors that they will be accused of financial misdeeds, and the county Hall of Administration regularly buzzes with reports of charges soon to be issued by the grand jury.

Immediately after the bankruptcy, the county relied heavily on a Los Angeles-based public relations firm to handle the media.

But the firm, Sitrick & Co., created a controversy when it billed the newly bankrupt county $450,000. Critics called the charges excessive; the bill was later settled for $370,000.

Supervisor William G. Steiner said it’s important for the county to share its story.

“I’m not as concerned about the county’s image as much as I am about effectively communicating the substantial progress that has been made to set the county on the right course,” Steiner said.

“Jan Mittermeier has been empowered to make these types of decisions. She apparently feels she needs the additional resources,” Steiner added. “I don’t want to second-guess her.”

Lucas served as a spokeswoman for former Gov. George Deukmejian and former state Treasurer Thomas W. Hayes, who helped the county get its financial affairs in order after the bankruptcy was filed.

At a salary the county is keeping secret, Hayes has been rehired as a sort of litigation czar and member of the county’s recovery oversight committee. He also sits on the board of Nelson Communications.

The PR firm was recommended to Mittermeier by county lobbyist Dennis Carpenter.

“They had asked me back during the legislative war . . . for the names of various firms,” Carpenter said. “They were trying to do some op-ed [page] stuff relative to the pending legislation.”

Carpenter said Nelson Communications “is very good at developing strategies and what-have-you.”

“They were extremely helpful during the legislative effort in Sacramento in getting the message out, the spin, to get support,” said Supervisor Marian Bergeson, who also didn’t want to second-guess Mittermeier’s action. “It’s a critical time in the county now to get an understanding of what the bankruptcy is all about to the public and to engender confidence in the board’s ability to deal with the crisis.”

Bergeson said the use of media consultants is “an effective communication tool.” She said the Nelson contract is “an expenditure that is understandable,” because it will “convey a better understanding of the bankruptcy to the public.”

To help marshal support in the Legislature for the county’s recovery package, Lucas said her job was getting the county’s message “to key opinion leaders, and getting people mobilized and talking to the Legislature to get that legislation moving.”

It ultimately passed, allowing the county, among other things, to use transit funds to help pay for the bankruptcy.

“What we’re doing now is continuing to work in that capacity, but more so on the public information front,” Lucas said.

Fishel said the county expects a growing number of reporters from across the United States and abroad to request information as the bankruptcy anniversary approaches.

She said Mittermeier wants “to make sure that reporters who haven’t been covering this closely have all the pieces . . . how the county has changed, what has taken place, and what to expect in the months to come.”