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It's been a while since Fleishman-Hillard has made the news, but above the fold on today's front page, the Times says that the politically connected PR giant routinely inflated its billings to the city of Los Angeles. The story is mainly based on seven ex-employees — only one of them, Diana Greenwood, named — who say the agency used its $3 million a year contract to advise the Department of Water and Power as a "cash cow," conjuring up billable hours as needed. The head of Fleishman's L.A. office, Doug Dowie, became a close advisor to Mayor Hahn.
Diana Greenwood, the former employee, told the Times, "There was a monthly billing figure that we needed to hit, so if it meant making up stuff, we made up stuff."
The story by Ralph Frammolino and Ted Rohrlich appears to advance earlier accusations of false billing reported by KNBC's Ana Garcia. It also brings Dowie back into the public eye, months after a flurry of attention — including a story by me in Los Angeles — that prompted his move to a lower profile (but higher title) position. Meanwhile, District Attorney Steve Cooley told the Times he was opening a criminal inquiry into the latest charges. And this morning, the new head of Fleishman's office, Richard Kline, told PR Week, "The firm's leadership has no knowledge of any such activity. A review is in progress and if we discover any wrongdoing we will take swift, appropriate steps." Greenwood, by the way, is the daughter of former LAT Senior Editor Noel Greenwood, who for a time supervised both the reporters on the story. According to one source, she also was hired at Fleishman-Hillard by Carol Stogsdill, who had replaced Noel Greenwood at the Times some years before.
Edited 11:50 p.m.
* Friday update: City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo says he'll sue Fleishman to recover any money the city was overbilled. Daily News, Daily Breeze.
Previously on L.A. Observed:
• Fleishman checking on itself
• Fleishman throws in the towel
• Hahn email a fed target
• Subpeonas for Fleishman
• Dowie kicked upstairs?
A Daily News alum, I take it?
Don't hold back, schraden-however-you-spell-it ... let us know what you really think.
Where is the tab being run, anyway?
Posted by: brad smith at July 16, 2004 04:50 PM
I am a Daily News alum from the mid-1990s and
overall had a great experience there. Dowie
was gone by then but I'd had my run-ins with
him by association because of an old L.A.
Business Journal story a buddy of mine wrote.
Did old Dougie blow his stack. He does
have a sadistic reputation, no doubt, just
as he is considered a pretty smart cookie.
I guess power pickles ones judgment. He
was practically begging for an ethics investigation with the way he glommed
to Hahn and berated anyone raising an eyebrow.
One other thing. DD is a Marine, and proud
of it. Well, nice honor.
Semper Fi my a$$.
I wonder if they serve plain wrap at whatever
club fed he SHOULD be going to.
One last point. Patrick McGreevy who works
out of the LAT's City Hall bureau was the
one who first broke this open.
Schadenfreude, I deleted your comment. You shouldn't personally attack someone here without signing your name to it. If you had some integrity, you wouldn't want to but that's your call. Post again with your name and email on it and it'll be fine.
of LA Observed
None of the usual suspects are willing to weigh in on this?
Wow...interesting.
Not offering my own opinion of the whole FH deal or anything, but as a metric for what DWP COULD have done with the money they spent on the FH contract, the standard grant from the department's Cool Schools program for landscaping improvements (which has a water quality and water conservation benefit, of course) for a LAUSD grade school was/is $20K ... that pays for grass, trees, landscaping, sprinklers, etc.
As an aside, the standard grant from the Douglas Foundation to a grade school is $25K, and that buys new playground equipment; the $25K match from the school (LAUSD, PTA, parents, etc.) pays for the installation and matting.
Schools that can find the money (either from the LAUSD via Prop. BB etc or through fundraising) generally get new paving at the same time.
Both programs vary from school to school, but about $70,000 will get a grade school a new playground, including (more or less) new equipment, new pavement, and new landscaping.
Not a bad investment in a city where the parks to resident ratio is quite low and even the newest schools generally date from the 1960s - and many are decades older than that.
If DWP REALLY needed to spend this money on PR, of course.
It undoubtedly could also have been spent on rebates to ratepayers, whether business, homeowners, or both.
THAT would probably have provided an image boost for the department as well.
Posted by: brad smith at July 16, 2004 02:31 PM