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State P.R. Contracts

Dan Turner’s article “Firms With Sacramento Ties Often Win State Contracts” (Aug. 25) made some excellent points about the challenges facing public relations firms bidding on state government contracts.

Though state agencies and departments do have some unorthodox policies with respect to outside contractors, most are intended to ensure that taxpayers get the biggest bang for their buck and are consistent with private-sector practices.

In response to sources for the article that “cried foul after Greenbaum won the job, saying the requirements under the RFP were tailored so narrowly that only Greenbaum had a chance,” the Request for Proposal clause they refer to actually states: ” the Proposer must demonstrate the ability to respond to the Department’s request for meetings and/or discussions with the account manager and/or account supervisor within 24 hours. Maintenance of a Sacramento office is required.”

As proposal guidelines go, this is very reasonable, even prudent. And Greenbaum Public Relations hardly has the local office advantage. There are at least 25 public relations firms with offices in Los Angeles and Sacramento that also meet these requirements, including Edelman, Burson-Marsteller, Ketchum and Fleishman-Hillard, of which the latter did bid on the contract.

I agree that responding to state government contract proposals is incredibly time-consuming, and we dismiss many requests for that reason. We too have not responded to proposals when we knew the government agency was satisfied with the incumbent’s work. Unless a firm believes it has something better to offer, that’s just common sense.

It is ironic some firms complain that an incumbent has an advantage because the client is satisfied. Well-deserved client satisfaction is what keeps us all in business.

And finally, in 22 years of public relations work, I have never complained that a government contract competition as quoted in the article was a “dirty fix” or “wired.” Win or lose, we simply give it our best shot and move on.

STUART GREENBAUM

President

Greenbaum Public Relations

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