Price tag on mayor’s speech tops $13,600
Bureau’s charges $10,446 for production
The cost to produce Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott Jr.’s 2021 State of the City virtual broadcast was at least $10,000 more than the original sum reflected in records the city provided to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.
The quasi-independent Little Rock Advertising and Promotion Commission, which oversees the city’s Convention and Visitors Bureau and downtown venues, billed the mayor’s office roughly $10,446 for the production, records show.
An invoice from the Advertising and Promotion Commission was omitted from the records provided to the newspaper this spring pursuant to a FOIA request.
The invoice and related documents were initially obtained from the Advertising and Promotion Commission via a separate FOIA request.
Scott’s prerecorded speech unveiling his proposed 2021 sales-tax package, and an accompanying video package featuring segments with residents and a retrospective on covid-19 aired March 25.
His speech was filmed at the Robinson Center’s performance hall. Scott addressed the camera alone as a large
a large screen positioned behind him flashed text and images to accompany his remarks.
He used the occasion to propose a sales-tax increase intended to fund quality-of-life improvements. That proposal is now the issue of a Sept. 14 special election.
When accounting for the $10,446 bill from the city’s tourism bureau, the cost to produce the 2021 event exceeded Scott’s two previous State of the City speeches based on expense records for those events provided to the Democrat-Gazette.
Expenses associated with the 2021 State of the City added up to approximately $13,671 in light of the newly obtained records.
Gretchen Hall, president and chief executive officer of the Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau, said “the only reason we were involved in this one is because they wanted to utilize our facility for the filming and the production of the virtual show.”
When reached by phone Thursday,
Hall said the mayor’s event was treated the same way officials would treat anyone who contacted them and needed to use their space.
The use of a 12-foot-by-48foot LED video wall provided by a third-party firm — RedBea Productions LLC., which worked with the visitors bureau — resulted in a $7,000 charge to the mayor’s office. Use of the performance hall cost $1,000, and an hour of stage labor cost $1,745.70, according to the invoice.
Taxes raised the overall bill for the mayor’s office to $10,445.70.
Expense records provided to the Democrat-Gazette this spring were detailed in an April 25 story about the 2021 State of the City broadcast. Those records showed that the city paid at least $3,225 for the virtual event.
Layout, editing and design services for the speech were carried out by a contractor. The city also paid for audio-recording services related to a performance of the national anthem from the Rodney Block Collective, records revealed.
According to records the city had provided at the time, the Democrat-Gazette reported in April that 2020’s event was the most expensive State of the City during Scott’s term as mayor so far, with a price tag of at least $3,945.
Expenses for his first State of the City in 2019 added up to at least $3,320.95, records showed.
It’s unclear why the Advertising and Promotion Commission invoice, which was addressed to the mayor’s office and spokeswoman Stephanie Jackson, was not included in records the city originally provided to the newspaper.
In July, Little Rock’s FOIA coordinator provided the Advertising and Promotion Commission invoice and related records in response to a follow-up FOIA request that specifically asked for the commission’s records.
By that time, the visitors bureau had already released the same records to the Democrat-Gazette, a fact the city’s FOIA coordinator acknowledged in the city’s response.
Jackson, a part-time city employee who serves as the mayor’s chief spokeswoman, is also employed at a local public relations and marketing firm called the Design Group in the role of director of public and media relations. Her husband, Myron, is the firm’s chief executive officer.
The Design Group was credited with “art direction and design” in the credits at the conclusion of the March 25 virtual broadcast. Jackson was credited individually as the program’s executive producer.
Jackson previously told the Democrat-Gazette that the Design Group was not compensated for its work on the event.
In a phone interview Friday, Scott said it was his understanding that when the Democrat-Gazette made the initial FOIA request for expense records, the city provided all of the readily available information, referring to “what was billed to us at that time.”
Asked if there was any concern about the expense associated with the event compared with the past two speeches, Scott said, “Well, it’s hard to compare the [2021] virtual State of the City compared to the past two because we were in the middle of a pandemic; we’re still in a pandemic.”
He added, “And we made the decision to ensure that the State of the City went on in a very safe fashion and utilize local vendors — of course, the Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau — to put on that broadcast for the entire city and the residents, and were able to have a wider range of sharing the State of the City with the residents of Little Rock.”
“The only reason we were involved in this one is because they wanted to utilize our facility for the filming and the production of the virtual show.”
— Gretchen Hall, president and chief executive officer of the Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau