EL PASO, Texas (KFOX14/CBS4) — The contract between El Paso County and Barracuda Public Relations revealed how much the company could be paid to promote their bond and why they were chosen.
The El Paso County Commissioners Court voted on February 26 to hire Barracuda Public Relations to promote the $500 million November quality of life bond and gather engagement from the community.
However, on February 28, just two days later, Barracuda had already organized a meeting and presentation about the bond.
RELATED:El Paso County seeks public input on $500 million bond amidst low meeting turnout
KFOX14 then went looking for answers.
In an interview with County Commissioner Carlos Leon on Tuesday at one of the county’s community meetings for Phase II of their November Bond PR plan.
KFOX14 asked Leon how Barracuda PR was able to mobilize so quickly after the contract was barely approved on February 28.
“It was able to mobilize that fast because our administration had contacted them. And that if it was approved that they be ready to go,” said Leon.
Leon said the County is familiar with the company and had worked with them in the past before.
“I think Barracuda at one point had already done work for the county during the ARPA funding to secure community involvement. In that, we’re going to be dispersed to the community and they did a good job,” said Leon.
Normally when hiring a company, the County would send out bids for companies who want to be hired to work for them.
However, this time, no bids were sent out.
“We didn’t have enough time by the time that we were considering doing this to be able to go out for those bids they would have taken a long time,” said Leon.
RELATED:El Paso’s $500 million bond may boost County Coliseum with music hall and modern amenities
Barracuda Public Relations shared a statement with KFOX14 on Friday that states:
The County hired Barracuda to reach out to folks to gather their input regarding their bond proposal. There have been over 200k texts sent to voters, direct mail pieces, social media, radio ads and press releases to help inform the public. There’s still time for the public to attend any of the 10 remaining meetings. Come and engage in direct dialogue with the County’s experts by attending and providing their input. We encourage folks to participate online at http://capital.epcounty.com if they can’t make it in person.
On Tuesday’s community, only about two dozen people arrived to put in their suggestions on what to put on this November bond.
The county has posted on its website its county’s multi-year capital plan.
Information given at the meetings surrounds the possible projects that could be on the ballot such as renovations to Ascarate Park, the El Paso County Coliseum, renovations to the Sun Bowl and the building of new county facilities such as the east side Montana Animal Shelter.
El Paso voters will be asked to vote on the bond in the November election.
There are only eight remaining community meetings left and the next will be Wednesday at Ben Narbuth Elementary in the gym from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m.
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