Providence Council president questions ‘strange arrangement’ with website GoLocalProv
Providence City Council President David Salvatore is calling on news website GoLocalProv.com to return $67,500 that it received from the city over nearly two years as part of a no-bid contract to publish meeting notices.
Salvatore looked into the city’s “strange arrangement” with GoLocalProv through an audit of past city contracts, according to a statement sent by City Council Chief of Staff Emily Martineau.
The month-to-month contract entered into by then-Council President Luis Aponte in February 2016 states that the city will pay GoLocalProv $3,000 monthly to publish 100 notices and meeting agendas per month on its website. It also contains language suggesting a level of cooperation between Aponte and the website, Salvatore said.
Aponte said the contract was part of an effort to increase the City Council’s outreach and denied there was any cooperation between him and the website beyond the sharing of public meeting information and audience metrics. And GoLocalProv published a story Tuesday accusing Salvatore of seeking retaliation for recent unflattering coverage of him.
Paying GoLocalProv to publish the city’s meeting notices was unnecessary given the fact that in 2013, Providence launched an open meeting portal to provide easy online access to public meeting information, Salvatore said.
“I find this contract not to be useful in terms of providing more transparency and information to the public,” he said.
But Aponte said it was part of the City Council’s effort to reach a wider audience.
“It was part of a broader strategy to publicize the City Council’s affairs, meetings, ordinances, resolutions and what individual council people were proposing as projects,” he said.
The contract also includes a provision that suggests information sharing between Aponte and GoLocalProv, which was founded in 2010 by former City Councilman Josh Fenton.
“In order to effectively advocate the (Clerk’s Office of the City of Providence’s) interests, you have an affirmative obligation to cooperate with GoLocalProv during the course of this engagement,” the contract says. “In return, GoLocalProv agrees to keep (Clerk’s Office of the City of Providence) informed of relevant information and to consult with (Clerk’s Office of the City of Providence) regularly. Copies of significant correspondence, media coverage and relevant documents will be sent to (Clerk’s Office of the City of Providence).”
Salvatore asked whether this section of the contract could mean that Aponte was getting tipped off to stories related to City Hall or if there was an understanding that he would receive positive coverage from GoLocalProv, according to the City Council’s statement.
“I’m looking for a full accounting of what was exchanged between the two parties,” Salvatore said.
Aponte said this section of the agreement means that the city had to fulfill its duty to provide GoLocalProv with the necessary information to publish the meeting notices in a timely manner. The information GoLocalProv agreed to share with the city was metrics, including the number of views on the stories about public meetings as well as reader comments and responses.
“That feedback is critical,” Aponte said, in order for the City Council to decide whether it is reaching a wide enough audience to justify paying the monthly fee.
Whether or not the language is unusual, it is not exclusive to GoLocal’s relationship with the Providence City Council.
The quasi-state Rhode Island Airport Corporation, which runs T.F. Green Airport, signed a “digital advertising, sponsored content and promotion” contract with GoLocal eariler this year.
The contract, which RIAC provided the Journal, would pay GoLocal $57,000 this year and includes the same two paragraphs about cooperation that Salvatore described as unusual.
Another quasi-state agency, the Rhode Island Commerce Corp., also advertises with GoLocal, but spokesman Matt Sheaff said Tuesday the agency has no contract and is billed per ad.
The City Council statement also says the contract circumvents the city’s competitive bidding process. Under the city’s code of ordinances, contracts between $500 and $5,000 shall be entered into on the basis of three or more informal competitive bids.
That did not happen in this case, Salvatore said. Aponte brokered the contract and instructed the city clerk to sign off on it, he said.
“They exist,” he said, referring to the city’s competitive bidding ordinances, “so that there can be a fair playing field amongst the vendors who do business with the city.”
The contract with GoLocalProv is not currently active, Salvatore said. He said he declined to extend the contract in February, shortly after he became council president.
Ward 15 Councilwoman Sabina Matos said she was never approached about renewing the contract during the seven months she served as acting president between Aponte and Salvatore. Aponte stepped down as president after he was indicted in May 2017 on charges of embezzlement and misuse of campaign funds. He continues to serve on the council.
Aponte said that when he entered into the contract, the city clerk, as well as other members of the council leadership team, were aware of it.
“It was not an edict from the council president,” he said. “It was more of a collaborative approach.”
In a story posted on GoLocalProv.com Tuesday, the news site contended that Salvatore was upset about a story Friday that raised questions about his dual roles as a lobbyist for the Rhode Island Association of Realtors and City Council president. The Friday story says that Salvatore has refused to take a stand on the Hope Point Tower project proposed by New York developer Jason Fane.
“We were asked to help increase the awareness about city meetings, the opportunity to bid on matters before the board of contract and supply and all other council related public meetings,” Fenton said of GoLocalProv’s contract with the city, according to the article. “GoLocal posted upwards of 500 meeting notices online and promoted them on social media and in the eblast. It was a lot of work and when they discontinued the agreement in February, we did not complain about the agreement ending.
“We don’t run the City Council or Clerk’s office,” he said, according to the story. “The City contracted with us. If they needed to go through a different process to execute the contract then they should have done so.”
Fenton is noted in the contract as the person who will be “primarily responsible for your account and will serve as the strategic leader and point person on all activities,” the contract says.
Fenton, responding to a request for comment, told a reporter to quote Tuesday’s story in GoLocalProv.
Aponte said the timing of the revelation about the contract was suspicious given the story about Salvatore posted on GoLocalProv on Friday.
“This is the council president swiping back because he was unhappy with the type of coverage that he got,” he said.
But Salvatore pointed out that the story published by GoLocalProv on Friday contained a quote from Aponte.
“It’s interesting for GoLocalProv to blame my action on their negative stories about me, as at least one contained quotes from Aponte,” Salvatore wrote in a text. “Was that part of their deal? Giving Aponte the chance to attack critics at taxpayer expense?”
Salvatore said he called for a citywide audit of purchasing and procurement procedures earlier this year and conducted an independent review of all City Council-related contracts. The results of the citywide audit were published and received by the City Council during a recent meeting.
He said he publicized the information about the GoLocalProv contract Tuesday because he wanted the findings of his review of the City Council contracts to be released during the same time period as the results of the citywide audit.
In his review, Salvatore said he did not find any contracts similar to the one the city had with GoLocalProv.
Emily Crowell, a spokeswoman for Mayor Jorge Elorza, wrote in an email that the city will not be commenting on the matter until the law department reviews it.
The Providence Journal does not have a written agreement with the City of Providence, said Jeffrey Beland, marketing and audience development director for the Journal. Public hearings are advertised in the Journal in accordance with state law, Salvatore said.
The city was under no legal obligation to advertise public meetings in GoLocalProv, Salvatore said.
“I think we could be investing taxpayer dollars in other areas of need,” he said.
