Karno Wants More Cash; Concord City Council About to Award It

CONCORD, NH - The firm hired by the city of Concord to handle all its public relations for the $11 million Main Street construction project says it needs more money for the last leg of the project, according to a communication issued by the company to Carlos P. Baia, the deputy city manager-development.

In a Jan. 22, 2016, memo to the city, Louis Karno & Company, the strategic communications firm that won the $190,400 contract to provide marketing and communications support of the construction project for the city, has requested an additional $25,000 from the city for the last leg of the project.

The firm stated after reviewing the initial budget for the project, it anticipated that it would be 20 months worth of work, with the project being completed in March of last year. Since there were “multiple unanticipated contractor selection delays,” which doubled the project length, the firm needs more money.

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“In a March 2014 memo from Karno to the City, we recognized the challenge of the contract term but re-affirmed our commitment to the City to follow this project through to conclusion,” wrote Brett St. Clair, a partner at the firm. “To accomplish this, we made changes to our billing process for this contract and re-arranged our internal company practices with a hope of maintaining as much continuity as possible for the City in terms of our staff focus.”

St. Clair added, “Unfortunately, we are now at a point where the project time commitment, staff resources required and contract revenue fail to align. Given this, we are respectfully requesting a $25,000 contract extension. This amount would allow us to continue to work at the level and quality that we have to date through the end of the project later this year.”

St. Clair said that the project had benefited from a highly professional, full-service multi-channel communication campaign and it took great pride in supporting the city and the project.

In a Jan. 29, 2016, brief to the council, which was including in the packet under “consent communications” for Feb. 8, meaning it will be approved by an acceptance of the report with no public hearing or discussion, Baia agreed with St. Clair’s assertions that the firm should receive the extra money due to the bidding process delays. He stated that Karno had “hit the ground running hiring staff for the project, staff for the project, creating a project work plan and began meeting regularly with City staff, stakeholders, subcontractors, and advertising outlets.” Baia added that Karno had also lowered its billing charge by 50 percent in order to extend the project timeframe.

The increase, he noted, was about a 13 percent overage from the original contract. To cover overage, Baia proposed using a portion of money set aside for uplighting that hasn’t been spent.

“City Administration would use a portion of those dollars for the expenditure related to Karno’s contract amendment,” Baia said. “Should Council wish to act upon the uplighting at a later date, our goal would be to fund that expenditure from the remaining funds. If that were not possible, then a supplemental appropriation may be necessary at that time.”