ST. LOUIS 鈥 The board overseeing the city鈥檚 economic development arm on Thursday approved an additional $884,000 for two marketing and consulting companies that the agency鈥檚 executive director has credited for improving community outreach and operations.
The board for the St. Louis Development Corp., which manages development and tax incentives citywide, approved $680,000 to hire Candid marketing firm and $204,000 to hire Levy Consulting. SLDC Executive Director Neal Richardson said Levy has helped his agency restructure and streamline policies and procedures over the past year.
鈥淎s the public engages SLDC, it will not just see us as a governmental agency, or supportive governmental agency, (but) that we are top, engaged, innovative around how we鈥檙e thinking through incentives, how we鈥檙e thinking through operations, how we鈥檙e thinking throughout products and programs,鈥 Richardson said.
People are also reading…
The contracts approved Thursday bring Candid鈥檚 total to $1.8 million and Levy鈥檚 to $354,000.
SLDC has faced pushback related to the number of consultants the agency has hired in recent years, including from Alderwoman Cara Spencer, a new SLDC board member, who questioned the amount of money Candid has been receiving. Spencer was not in attendance on Thursday, and the meeting proceeded with no opposition and few questions.
Of Candid鈥檚 contract, $288,000 will go to the Kansas City-based marketing firm鈥檚 fee and public relations, social media work and internal communications duties. Co-owner Sara Freetly said that total is a reduction from the $300,000 fee the firm previously charged SLDC.
The rest of the $680,000 contract is allocated for media campaigns, at $250,000, including billboards and television ads, as well as website enhancements, the annual mayor鈥檚 business luncheon and other .
鈥淭his is a great step in starting to shift the narrative around St. Louis into a much more positive story,鈥 Freetly said.
The $204,000 for Levy Consulting, which was hired last year for $150,000, increases the St. Louis firm鈥檚 contract from 10 months to 12 months and allows for two full-time consultants to serve SLDC compared to one in a previous contract. Levy Consulting also is tasked with developing SLDC鈥檚 policies and procedures and upgrading its technology. The firm鈥檚 work is expected to wrap up next year.
鈥淥ne of the things that I want to continue to reinforce is that there needs to be consistency across all departments around how we address procurement, compliance and other matters as we are managing public dollars,鈥 Richardson said. 鈥淚t provides an opportunity for transparency and also holds each one of us accountable.鈥