Association to help develop $25K video
RED OAK — By a 5-2 vote, Red Oak’s Chamber and Industry Association voted Tuesday to help the City develop a promotional video while tabling a decision on whether to pay half of the $25,000 cost.
Citing a recent article in the Red Oak Express that revealed Paul Scott, owner of the company producing the video, is under investigation for consumer fraud in Florida, Chamber and Industry Association President Kristie Konz recommended the delay.
“Due to the facts that have been brought up in the paper [and] through people who have spoken and from (board member) Larry (Brandstetter) going online … I think we need to table this today and we need to investigate this and vote on it next month,” she said.Red Oak City Administrator Brad Wright spoke at the board’s meeting, discussing the project’s particulars, which includes a five-minute video that will air one time on a national Fox news business channel and 34 times regionally.
Wright defended U.S. Media Group’s integrity, calling a 2007 lawsuit a “misunderstanding” between sponsors. In an out-of-court settlement with the Florida Attorney General, Scott and his production company (then Platinum TV Group/New Line Media) agreed to revise numerous business practices while paying a $175,000 fine. They were sued two years later by the original host of the show, Greg Gumbel, reaching an out-of-court settlement with him in 2010.
The Florida Attorney General’s office is currently investigating Scott for allegedly violating that 2007 agreement.
Despite these records, Wright assured the board “everything that I have seen at this point is still extremely positive.“
He cited three communities he had contacted just that morning that had worked with Scott, including the city manager in Pekin, Ill.
“His quote was this was the best $19,000 we have ever spent,” Wright said. “He mentioned the number of calls from people who have seen the video who were been impressed by it and are impressed by the community. They have also had interest in their business park from business leads that saw the video and contacted the community. All the things you are supposed to hope to have happen with that marketing money has happened.”
Brandstetter painted a different picture of the company, citing additional anecdotal evidence of customers who were equally displeased with the product. He said most communities seemed to receive a video of an acceptable quality level.
“I think there is a certain quality. They are formularic so they all seem to be the same,” Brandstetter said. “They use a lot of still photographs and move the camera over those still photographs and then interview some city officials and show some real good photos of the area. Like I said, they are formularic, but I thought the quality was fine.”
Brandstetter worried about the company’s integrity.
“My concern is we are dealing with a gentlemen who has a past who has some difficulties in that past and we are being asked to spend local option sales tax dollars, tax payer dollars on his product,” he said. “There is a pattern of having a company and changing the name of the company and starting another company. But all the companies have the same link and that link is (owner) Paul Douglas Scott.”
The Council approved a contract with the company at its Jan. 16 meeting, the same night it was first brought to their attention. At that time, Wright told the Council they couldn’t delay on a decision as the production company had to have an answer by the end of the week.
Brandstetter said that kind of “hard sell” was specifically mentioned in the 2007 agreement with the Florida Attorney General.
Board Member Chad Johnson agreed with Brandstetter that this type of marketing approach should not be acceptable.
“The fly by the seat of your pants, you sign now or no deal, that’s bad business from word one,” he said. “Is there any businessman here would offer you an offer and say that you have to take in a night, a day or a week? No business is going to do that that is on the up and up.”
Board Member Kara Sherman shared Johnson’s disdain for the project, citing an inability to find much information on the company, even on its own website and Facebook page.
Sherman chairs the Association’s Marketing and Tourism committee and said they decided at their previous meeting to not support the project. She also noted the $12,400 the City has requested from the Association to pay for half of the costs would come out of her committee’s limited budget, which she said is invaluable in promoting Red Oak regionally.
However, despite these concerns, the board did agreed to help facilitate production of the video after Wright confirmed it is going to happen regardless of the Association’s decision to help finance it.
Sherman and Johnson voted against the motion. Board members Shirley Billings, Connie Mellott, Fred Pilecki, Dave Jennings and Bruce Streicher voted in favor of the motion while Konz and Brandstetter did not vote.
“If this thing is going to go forward, we as an association need to back it 100 percent, whether we do share the financial obligation,” Board Member David Jennings said. “If this thing is going ahead, we need to be involved in it.”
The board will further discuss providing $12,400 for the project at its March 12 meeting at the Montgomery County Memorial Hospital.