Nashville Mayor Karl Dean says he’s unhappy with the level of oversight given to a $75,000 public relations contract for a new downtown convention center. An investigation by News Channel 5 discovered the agreement with the firm McNeeley Piggott & Fox has ballooned to more than $450,000.
Mayor Dean called for the contract to be suspended Wednesday in a letter sent to the head of the Metro Development and Housing Agency. Earlier this year the MDHA board removed the $75,000 cap on the contract, which covers the coordination of public meetings, speech writing and even twittering about the proposed convention center.
Dean says an open-ended contract is not his idea of sound fiscal management. But he says MDHA has been transparent about expenses.
“We are putting on the web, making public every invoice, every bill that is part of this process. There probably has never been a project like this that has already gone down the road and been so open.”
The online reports list payments to McNeeley Piggot & Fox starting last July from $14,000-to-$57,000. The statements say payment is for “communications and marketing” with no further details.
The temporary suspension of the contract will allow the Metro Finance department to review all invoices to date and from now on.
Find the link to the convention center’s expense reports through the end of June here.
This story has been updated from a previous version with a response from Mayor Dean.
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