CH2MHill Yielded to Pressure From Watts’ Campaign Manager

CH2MHill Yielded to Pressure From Watts’ Campaign Manager

By Woody Jenkins, Editor

CENTRAL — Central Mayor Mac Watts has repeatedly told the news media and the general public that he knew nothing about a political flyer helpful to his March 2010 reelection campaign issued in the name of the City of Central one day before the election. But public records and interviews with witnesses indicate that it was in fact Watts’ campaign manager who initiated the flyer and his political consultant who told the Marketing Department of corporate giant CH2MHill what to do.
Contract in Danger. At the time, CH2MHill held a $4 million-a-year contract to administer the City of Central.  Its contract was up for renewal and seemed to be in jeopardy when Watts was challenged by Jr. Shelton, whose major issue was high permit fees charged by CH2MHill in the name of the City of Central.  The company received 90 percent of the fees, which tripled in Central after incorporation.
Panic Set in. About 10 days before the March 27, 2010, election, Watts’ campaign manager, Russell Starns, was in a panic.  He was concerned that Shelton’s message on permit fees was getting traction, endangering the Mayor’s reelection campaign, which had been considered a cinch.
An Experiment. Central, which was incorporated in 2005, is Louisiana’s first and only totally privatized municipality.  From 2007 to 2011, CH2MHill, which is based in Denver, Colorado, provided all of the services normally provided by city government employees.  The company charged a fee for its services and also received 90 percent of all permit fees.  Employees of the company, rather than government employees, issued city permits.
Company Answered to Starns. Besides being campaign manager for Mac Watts’ reelection campaign, Starns was also serving as the City of Central’s official liaison to CH2MHill.
That placed Starns in a powerful position with respect to Tommy Higgs, CH2MHill’s manager for the City of Central.  In essence, Starns spoke for the mayor, and Higgs had to listen if he wanted CH2MHill to keep the city contract.
Permit Fee Issue. On Thursday, March 18, mayoral candidate Jr. Shelton ran an ad in the Central City News entitled, “Setting the Record Straight.”  The ad compared the cost of permit fees for building a $287,000 house in Central ($1,937) to the cost of permit fees for building the same house in Baton Rouge ($684).
It was an effective ad that demanded an answer from Mayor Mac Watts. But, instead, Watts’ campaign manager Russell Starns decided that CH2MHill should answer Shelton’s ad.
Higgs Got Marching Orders. In a meeting with Tommy Higgs, director of CH2MHill’s operations in the City of Central, Starns told Higgs to answer Shelton’s ad.  According to a person who was present in the meeting, Starns told Higgs that Mac was in danger of losing the election and that CH2MHill had to put out an ad to respond to Shelton.
CH2MHill Gears Up. By late afternoon on Thursday, March 18, 2010, the Marketing Department of CH2MHill in Denver was working furiously to follow up on Starns’ instructions.
In emails back and forth with Advocate ad representative Tiffani Debetaz, Carolyn Alden of the CH2MHill Marketing Department desperately tried to get quotes for a flyer that would be almost impossible to produce in time.
Carolyn wanted to know if the Advocate could print the yet-to-be written flyer.  What would be the cost of printing?  How many copies?  What’s the difference in price between color and black and white? What would be the cost of insertion?
The pressure was on CH2MHill. At 6:05 a.m. on Friday, March 19, Carolyn Alden of CH2MHill was again emailing back and forth to the Advocate.  Then the shocker: The Advocate sales person said the copy for the flyer would have to be ready for 12 noon that very day in order to be printed in time to be inserted in the Advocate a week later, one day before the March 27 election.
“Well, that’s not going to happen!” Carolyn emailed from CH2MHill headquarters.
Advocate Says Flyer Political. Then another shocker for Carolyn Alden: The Advocate had decided that the flyer was a “political” piece and would be subject to scrutiny by the Advocate’s management.
Since the flyer would have to be printed elsewhere and shipped to the Advocate, the newspaper’s management would have to approve the copy prior to printing.  Tiffani Debetaz of the Advocate wrote Carolyn, “If you do go with this, I will need the artwork emailed to me for approval prior to inserting since it is political.  Everything has to be approved if it has anything to do with politics.”
Now CH2MHill Vice President for Marketing Susan Mays, a major player in the corporation, got involved.  But she didn’t really understand the extreme deadline she was under.  In an email to her colleague Carolyn Alden, she said the corporation may need to run an ad on Friday of the next week and do the insert the following week.  But that would have meant the flyer would have arrived nearly a week after the election.
Still on Friday morning, VP Susan Mays tried to assure Carolyn Alden that the flyer wasn’t political. “While it’s been made a campaign issue, it’s not a political ad,” she said.  But she resigned herself to the fact that, “This will require additional time,” she wrote.
Mays decided the now-political flyer would have to be printed in Denver and shipped to the Advocate in Baton Rouge — no small feat, considering the short timetable involved.
Looking at the zip codes to be covered in Central, Mays and Alden decided that 7,500 copies would have to be printed.
Not Enough Time. As far as content was concerned, there were serious problems.  “There’s no time to hire a photographer,” CH2MHill VP Susan Mays said.
She thought about using photos from Sandy Springs, GA, where CH2MHill also had a privatization contract.  “I’m thinking some of the Centennial/Sandy Springs images” such as “plan intake and review, payments, code enforcement officer, traffic light repair,” and so on.  But, shortly thereafter, in another email, she worried that people in Central would realize the people in the photos weren’t from Central.  “If we’re using ‘generic,’ we can use stock but we can’t include people in those,” she wrote to Carolyn Alden.
‘A Scary Prospect.’ Alden expressed her frustration to her boss, VP Mays. “There is no room for error here….which is a scary prospect in my opinion,” she said.  “I would need the art completely done and approved by the end of the day Monday to hand off to printer…for them to run Tuesday morning and get to Fedex for Wed morning (before 12 delivery)”
Mayor’s Political Consultant. On Thursday, March 18, the political consultant handling Mayor Mac Watts’ reelection campaign told CH2MHill what she expected.  Delia Taylor of Taylor Media Services was handling media for Watts’ campaign and working closely with Russell Starns.
CH2MHill Vice President Susan Mays wrote on Friday, March 19, 2010: “Based on my/Tommy’s conversations with Delia Taylor, we’re looking at a four-page color insert — essentially a four-page brochure.”
Higgs Backs Away. Just a few minutes later, CH2MHill’s director in Central, Tommy Higgs, began backing away from the project.  He made it clear he was just doing what he had been ordered to do, apparently by Russell Starns.
“I was simply ‘charged’ with getting our [CH2MHill] Marketing Dept. and Ms. [Delia] Taylor [the Mayor’s political consultant] in contact with each other,” Higgs wrote to a group of CH2MHill’s top officials.
“Aside from that, I am simply trying to do my best to get Ms. [Susan] Mays [CH2MHill Vice President for Marketing] the things she is requesting.”
Moving still farther away from the project, Higgs wrote, “So there is no misunderstanding here, I have no opinion regarding the right or wrong, good or bad of Ms. [Delia] Taylor’s ideas.”
Content of the Flyer. The back-and-forth staff emails turned to the content of the flyer.  Since some CH2MHill staff members’ photos would be included, Marketing decided to include quotes from those employees.  Susan Mayes wrote that they should include quotes from employees about working in Central “that capture the idea of local employees but also support the partnership model.  For example: ‘Working for CH2MHill in Central, I get the best of both worlds.  I have the resources and expertise of a major company at my fingertips while I serve the citizens of my hometown.’ and ‘I’ve lived in Central all my life, and there’s nothing I enjoy more than being able to deliver great service to my fellow citizens.’”
It is unclear whether the CH2MHill employees who appeared in the flyer actually said what they are quoted as saying, or whether the language was created by the Marketing Department.
No Email Record of Permit Fee Comparison. The controversial part of the flyer was the back page, which was titled, “Setting the Record Straight on Fees.”  It was a direct answer to Jr. Shelton’s campaign ad of Thursday, March 18, which had been entitled, “Setting the Record Straight.”
In the final version of the flyer, there is a comparison of the costs of permits in Central versus the cost of permits in Baton Rouge.  Yet, nowhere in the emails provided by CH2MHill is there an email showing any such comparison.  It seems to have magically appeared in the final printed version.
At a meeting of the Central City Council, Councilman Louis DeJohn had produced and distributed a very similar comparison.
In the draft of the four-page flyer attached to an email at 11:41 a.m. on Monday, March 22, 2010, there is no comparison of permit fees in Baton Rouge vs. Central.  Furthermore, the proposed flyer says that it is from CH2MHill.  There is no language indicating that it is from the “City of Central.”
At 12:55 p.m. on Monday, March 22, 2010, Roy Hutchinson, Central City Director of Public Works and a CH2MHill employee, wrote to CH2MHill VP Susan Mays that she should, “Stand by for Permit Comparison Breakdown…”  However, based on the emails provided by CH2MHill, that comparison never arrived, or at least not from a CH2MHill employee.
At 1:19 p.m. on Monday, Susan Mays wrote to Carolyn Alden that “Brent’s working on the new copy, which can either go on the back or near the community development/fee copy.”  However, no email from Brent or any identification of him was provided in their emails.
At 2:29 p.m. on Monday, March 22, 2010, Susan Mays sent out a copy of the proposed Central flyer.  However, it was not attached to the emails which the Central City News was provided.
Additions to Flyer Copy. Somewhere along the way, the flyer was changed.  “City of Central” was added to the flyer, making it appear the piece was from the city government itself.  The permit fee comparison was added.  But there is no record of where any of those changes came from.
Arrival of Political Flyers. The 7,500 printed flyers for insertion in the Advocate were shipped from Denver on Wednesday, March 24, and arrived at the Advocate on Thursday morning, just in time to be inserted in the Friday, March 26, 2010, edition of the Advocates headed for zip codes in and around Central.  For all their trouble, the Advocate was paid $374.
The invoice for the printing of the flyer was $5,020.12, which included $1,403 for shipping.
After the inserts arrived at the Advocate printing facility in Baton Rouge, CH2MHill’s Central director Tommy Higgs was in good spirits.  He sent a message to top CH2MHill officials, thanking them for their hard work on the insert and inviting them to come to Central and vote in Saturday’s election.
Repeated References to Candidates Who Are ‘Our Supporters.’ In an email to top CH2MHill officials, Higgs quipped, “Don’t forget to come down here and vote Saturday.  If you are voting for our ‘supporters’ it is appreciated.  If you are voting against them, please only vote once!!! LOL.”
He sent another email to the same officials, saying “Thanks again and wish our supporters the best of luck in tomorrow’s election. Tommy”
In still another email to Susan Mays and Carolyn Alden on Thursday, March 25, Higgs urged them to go to the Central City News website to read “some very good endorsements from Contractor and the Elected Officials (who support us).”  While the emails were couched in a humorous vein, they nevertheless sent a strong message that CH2MHill had identified some candidates for Mayor and Council as the company’s “supporters” and oth-
ers whom they determined were not.
Missing Emails. CH2MHill provided 54 emails to the Central City News, in compliance with the judgment signed by District Judge Kay Bates.  But a number of emails covered by the judgment have not been turned over to the Central City News, including the following:
•    Nine email strings that were withheld, because the company claims they were subject to the “attorney/client privilege.”  The Central City News disputes that claim. See story entitled “CH2MHill Withholds Nine Email Strings Despite Judgment Ordering Their Release“.
•    Emails from the source of the permit comparison, which appeared on the right of the “Setting the Record Straight on Fees” flyer.
•    Emails from “Brent” who was rewriting the copy.
•    The draft of the flyer sent by Susan Mays at 2:20 p.m. on Monday, March 22.
Without these emails, it is impossible to get a true picture of everything that happened in the preparation of this political flyer distributed in the name of the City of Central one day before the municipal elections on March 27, 2010.

Photos: Central Mayor Mac Watts (left) and Russell Starns (right)

In 2011, the City of Central named a new city contractor, IBTS, which now administers the City of Central.

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