Wednesday, September 21, 2016

#MTGov Daily Rundown: In the Wake of Marketing Outsourcing Scandal, Gianforte Calls for Resignation of Commerce Director

At Monday Night's debate, as part of his call for greater accountability in state government, Greg Gianforte called on Governor Steve Bullock to hold his Department of Commerce accountable after a state contract was outsourced to a company in Wisconsin with little marketing experience and an executive who has familial ties to the DOC's marketing bureau chief.

The governor and his commerce department are outsourcing jobs with an apparently rigged contract. Governor- you have a responsibility to explain why you have been unwilling or unable to call for the Director of that Departments immediate resignation. This corrupt contract was the last straw.”  -Greg Gianforte


Many across Montana were surprised by last month's news that the Bullock Administration's Department of Commerce was awarding it's $7 million tourism marketing contract to a firm in Wisconsin, Hoffman York. Several Montana companies were competing for the contract. The contract was previously held by Bozeman-based Mercury CSC, leading to new questions about the evaluation process.

"The department awarded the contract to Milwaukee agency Hoffman York at the beginning of August using a point system it says is objective to evaluate bidders. But several agencies involved in and familiar with the bidding argue that the process is far from scientific and that the state demonstrated strange behavior bordering on favoritism. "-Bozeman Daily Chronicle, 8/22/2016


Interestingly, Jennifer Pelej, bureau chief for the tourism office's marketing department, disclosed a month into the process that she has a cousin who works as an executive for Hoffman York. Pelej also used to work for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

 "More than a month into the selection process, Pelej also disclosed that her cousin, Jaime Hutchings, works for Hoffman as a VP account supervisor." -Bozeman Daily Chronicle, 8/21/2016


State officials admitted that Hoffman-York had little or no experience is destination tourism marketing.

"However, the state itself admitted that the winning agency had little to no experience in destination or tourism marketing. In its scoring, the procurement committee wrote that Hoffman has “no DMO (destination marketing organization) experience.” The company did not return multiple requests from the Chronicle for comment." -Bozeman Daily Chronicle, 8/21/2016


Also, under this Commerce Director, Montana's economy is in decline.

"The Montana economy has shrunk for the second straight quarter as oil and gas, timber, mining, agriculture and transportation all reported losses.

The Billings Gazette reports that according to a Bureau of Economic Analysis report issued this week, drops in industry pulled Montana’s gross domestic product into negative figures for the last three months of 2015 as well as the first quarter of 2016." -Associated Press via the Great Falls Tribune 7/31/2016

"In the final quarter of 2015, the state's gross domestic product shrank 1 percent. It contracted 0.9 percent in the first three months of 2016." -Billings Gazette, 7/29/2016

"Iowa, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Montana, Wyoming, and Alaska had consecutive quarters of negative economic growth in the fourth quarter of 2015 and the first quarter of 2016." -Washington Free Beacon, 7/28/2016


For many other Montana workers, there is a great deal of uncertainty as job losses mount in our natural resource industries under the current Commerce Director's leadership.

  • Under Governor Bullock, Montana has lost nearly 700 jobs in the timber industry in the last year alone– leaving the industry reeling.
  • Weyerhaeuser has closed timber mills in Columbia Falls
  • Colstrip Units 1 and 2 are now slated for shutdown by 2022
  • Montana mines are laying off workers
  • Dozens of Montana rail workers have been laid off or furloughed
  • Overall Montana has experienced a net loss of 2700 logging and mining jobs during Bullock's tenure, from 9,700 in December of 2012 to 7,000 in June of 2016 according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The Main Street Montana program has been called a “boondoggle” for a failure to deliver results after 3 years of meetings.

Last Friday, it was revealed by KGVO radio that Montana taxpayers had not only paid for Gov. Bullock to fly to the Paul McCartney concert in Missoula, they had also paid for the Commerce Director to make the trip. 

"When the state plane flew to Missoula for the Paul McCartney Concert in August of 2014, Governor Bullock was joined by Montana Department of Commerce Director Meg O’Leary. Oddly, Meg O’Leary wasn’t specifically invited, but Montana taxpayers funded the trip anyway." -KGVO, 9/9/2016


KGVO also discovered that O'Leary, as a state official, has been attending functions for the dark money DGA, including while Bullock was chairman.

On May 1, 2015 O’Leary appeared with Bullock at the Kentucky Oaks and Kentucky Derby. Photos of both were snapped by a team of photographers from the Voice-Tribune that includes Max Sharp, Chris Humphreys, Bill Wine, Tim Valentino and Amber Chaflin on May First and published in a photo gallery titled Kentucky Oaks 141." -KGVO, 9/9/2016


 

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