New Spin-Mates To Check In At Graybar Hotel

Fleischman-Hilliard is a public relations firm that the Hahn administration hired, using your tax dollars, ostensibly to provide services to the City -- including $3 million per year in services for the City-owned utilities monopoly, the DWP. People at the PR firm, through a funny coincidence, chose to "donate" much of their time to help various politicians's campaigns.

Prosecutors convinced a jury, beyond a reasonable doubt, that executives at the company were defrauding the City, by billing the DWP for time they did not actually spend working on DWP matters. Today, they were sentenced to prison.

"'I maintain my innocence, your honor,' [Douglas] Dowie said in a three-minute speech before he was sentenced. It was the first time Dowie had spoken about the case in court." Apparently he didn't have a PowerPoint presentation ready, or a jingle, or anything PR-ish. The judge sentenced him to 42 months, which is the legal term for "three-and-a-half years."

To me, this is losing the forest for the trees. The bigger, better issue is: why in the @#$% is a City paying tax dollars to a public relations firm AT ALL, and especially paying the firm in connection with a City MONOPOLY (i.e., the DWP)? Campaigns require public relations; cities do not.

Here's the article.