Hype had city salivating
City Hall hired PR firm, dedicated staff to helping local businesses get ink
There was more to the story when the City of Penticton boasted in May about a slate of local food businesses being named finalists in two different awards competitions.
What the city didn’t mention is that its own staff “crafted” all of the nominations, and that it paid a public relations firm to sell the resulting “business news” to local and major media outlets, according to documents obtained by The Herald under freedom of information legislation.
But the city staffer behind the news-creation project defended it as part of a fresh, inwardlooking economic development strategy.
BUSINESS BITES
“Penticton food businesses take a bite out of B.C. market,” blared the headline on the city press release that was subtitled Business News and issued May 24.
It began by paying tribute to Winecrush, People’s Crafthouse and Roche Wines for being named finalists in Western Living Magazine’s 2018 Foodies of the Year awards.
The release went on to explain five local food-related businesses and 13 others had also been nominated for the Grant Thornton Okanagan Business Excellence Awards run by the Thompson-Okanagan Business Examiner magazine.
HAND-CRAFTED AWARDS
The press release began taking shape May 18, when Jennifer Vincent, one of the city’s economic development staffers, heard the news about local firms being short-listed for the Foodie awards from Katya Irwin, part of the team at public relations firm Kozier Consulting.
“Looks like the Penticton Western Standard (sic) beat us to announcing this story,” Irwin wrote in an email to Vincent that morning. “Penticton is definitely punching above its weight here and it’s great to see the recognition.”
Vincent agreed. “Two of the three nominations we crafted were named finalists,” wrote Vincent. “And Roche Wines, too — which is cool because they are a really new winery.”
The city nomination that didn’t make the short list for a Foodie award was Pulse Kitchen. Neither People’s Crafthouse nor Winecrush was one of 10 eventual winners.
MORE FINALISTS
The city also sent in nominations for all 18 local firms that were named as finalists in the Grant Thornton Okanagan Business Excellence Awards.
Nest and Nectar Restaurant, Poplar Grove Winery, Get Bent Yoga and Dance, Redhead Mare Media, Big Bear Software, Glow SUP and Duffy Baker Construction all went on to win their respective categories.
Many of the business owners then travelled to Kelowna on a city-chartered school bus in June to pick up their awards.
City taxpayers will forego $415,000 in property tax revenue to benefit the greater community, thanks to 98 exemptions approved this week by council.
The waivers were granted to a range of non-profits, from the Penticton Minor Hockey Association to the Penticton Kiwanis Housing Society.
The largest are a $57,000 exemption for Good Samaritan Canada’s Village by the Station seniors’ housing complex and $26,000 for the Penticton Seniors’ Drop-In Centre.
They come on top of another $116,000 in exemptions previously granted to local churches.