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Lincoln constituent asks City Council to re-evaluate DCC Marketing
Discussions move from marketing firm to Logan County Alliance and Tourism

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[April 08, 2015] LINCOLN - On Monday evening, all eight members of the Lincoln City Council were on hand for the first voting session in the month of April. During public participation, Tracy Welch asked to address the council. He was there to voice concerns regarding hiring DCC Marketing to develop a branding program for the city.

Welch said he appeared before the council as a concerned citizen of Lincoln, asking them to delay the vote to hire the marketing firm.

He said DCC Marketing was the firm hired by the Logan County Tourism Bureau to put together its branding initiative. The firm had provided research on Logan County and had prepared a marketing playbook for the tourism bureau. As part of their work, DCC Marketing had designed a new website for the Bureau.

Welch said the website was a problem that brought to question just how well DCC Marketing was doing its job. He said the website was missing information that should have been included. There are also items to click on for more information that are empty. Therefore when visitors to the website click on those items, error messages are displayed saying nothing is available. He added that it was not a secure website; it can be breached by hackers.

Welch said the website was developed by DCC Marketing. He said ‘I should point out, that a high-quality tourism website was replaced by this initiative. That website is Explore Logan County.com.” Welch explained that Explore Logan County had been developed by a Logan County citizen, David Doolin, who had a clear understanding and a strong passion for promoting Logan County.

He said that he didn’t hold DCC Marketing completely responsible for the lack of quality information on the new tourism website. He said the Tourism Bureau was also responsible. But, he said it was DCC Marketing’s responsibility to follow through and make sure the site was functional.

He noted the website had been online more than 70 days, and problems and voids still exist.

He then turned to the money involved and questioned how the figures came to be. He noted that soon after being established, the Logan County Alliance had come to the city with a proposal to help them with their branding initiative. In that proposal, the LCA had asked for $30,000, with plans for hiring DCC Marketing to do the work. The city declined that offer.

Later, the city brought DCC Marketing in on its own, and the firm quoted a fee of just over $17,000, for what appeared to be the same services LCA had proposed. Welch said he didn’t know the details, but would like to know. What happened with the $13,000? Did DCC Marketing scale back on what work they would do for the city? Or, was that extra $13,000 for the LCA to perform tasks on behalf of the city?

He said if the $13K was for the LCA to perform tasks for the city,
it raised the question how much of the $60,000 paid by Lincoln to the LCA for economic development was being used for legitimate economic development activities.

Welch also mentioned that the LCA was required to deliver a report to the city about its activities by April 1st. He said he didn’t know if that happened.

He ended his comments saying, “I politely ask that you consider my request to remove the vote for the branding initiative from this evening’s agenda. Take some time to look into their quality and the concerns which have been raised. I also encourage other members of the community to reach out to their aldermen with their concerns, whether that is by phone call, email or city council meeting. We cannot expect our elected officials to make wise choices on our behalf if they are not aware of our concerns.”

During the discussion, Jeff Hoinacki asked Welch if he is or has been involved with the LCA. Welch explained that he was the former president of the Main Street Lincoln organization that was disbanded at the end of the year. He became a member of the LCA board but has resigned that position. He said he was currently an active member of the City of Lincoln Planning Commission.

Welch said there were a number of circumstances that prompted his resignation from the LCA, but that he still believes in the mission of the new organization. He added, “I want to be clear, I did not point out and bring up the Logan County Alliance to point fingers at them. I brought this up because, in this community, we spent $200,000 on tourism initiatives. That is the number of tax dollars that go to that organization. We expect that organization to spend money wisely on our behalf.”

Welch said that yes, the money for the branding came from a State of Illinois tourism grant. He said, “But I would say this, we all in this room are residents of the state of Illinois, and it is our responsibility to ensure those dollars are spent wisely regardless of where they came from.”

Todd Mourning asked if Welch was on the Alliance board when the tourism initiative came up. Welch said he was not. He explained that the tourism bureau began this initiative before the LCA was formed. Mourning then wondered what the agreement between the tourism bureau and DCC Marketing was. Was DCC Marketing responsible for the website? Welch said it was his understanding that the agreement was a 50-50 with the bureau being responsible for half of the website content and DCC Marketing the other half.

Mourning asked who the webmaster is for the site. Welch said it was his belief that the tourism bureau should be the webmaster. He added that the bureau had staff that could have been working on the site.

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City Administrator Clay Johnson asked again if Welch thought the maintenance of the website was the responsibility of DCC Marketing. Welch said they were responsible for half the content. He went on to say that the Explore Logan County website was a much better representation of Logan County. He said that Doolin was a valuable asset that had been overlooked in the community. He expressed that Doolin was a Logan County native. DCC Marketing was not local, and possibly did not care about the things that Logan County residents see as important.

Michelle Bauer said she thought that was an improper statement. She said that the council couldn’t know what DCC Marketing does and does not care about. Jonie Tibbs added that she wouldn’t say they don’t care, but she might say they don’t know.

Tibbs went on to comment on the billboards along Interstate 55, “These billboards along the highway, is a darn poor excuse for advertising and a real slap in the face to us.” She concluded that she would be in favor of looking at Doolin.

Johnson said he wouldn’t speculate on what tourism considered in making their decisions. He said that as far as the agreement between the city of Lincoln and DCC Marketing was concerned, there was no website included. He wondered how Welch was relating the tourism website to a concern for the city. Welch said he felt that the poor quality of the website was a reflection of the work done by DCC Marketing and that it showed a lack of commitment on the part of that firm.

Tibbs shifted gears to the tourism bureau specifically wondering why the city didn’t know about their activities. She said the city was financing the tourism bureau, and the city should have known what the bureau was doing.

Bauer said that the city did know to a certain degree. She said that the tourism branding initiative was started last year, before the merger under the LCA. She also reminded the council that Sarah Wallick had appeared before the Council almost immediately after starting her job with the Logan County Tourism Bureau. She added that Wallick had inherited this marketing plan; she had not been involved in its development.

Temporary Chairperson Marty Neitzel asked who then was the plan developed under, what director. No one had an answer to that question.

The talk moved on to the LCA. Steve Parrott asked about the report that was due to the city council. Bauer said that quarterly reports had been suggested, but she didn’t know it was a requirement. Welch said that it was a requirement stated in the funding agreement that the LCA would provide a report on April 1st.

Tibbs said that the report then needed to be brought before the council of the whole, not just something written and filed or sent to one person.

Hoinacki commented on the tourism website, saying that the city did need to find out if it was DCC Marketing that dropped the ball or the Alliance. Mourning agreed, saying the city needed to ask the right questions about the site -- who owns it, who maintains it and so on.

Scott Cooper said he would like to table the vote on DCC Marketing until some of these questions are answered, and all seemed to agree.

Bauer did offer a comment on the LCA saying that the LCA has been present at all the city council meetings except for the current one. She noted that someone was on vacation, and everyone is entitled to a vacation. However, Parrott contradicted that saying that vacation or no, if the LCA had a responsibility to deliver a report on April 1, they should have done so.

When the item came up on the voting agenda later in the evening, the motion to table was made by Tibbs and seconded by Kathy Horn. The motion passed by unanimous vote.

[Nila Smith]

Post script: The Logan County Tourism Bureau has hired a new Executive Director, Maggie McMurtrey. The Bureau will hold its first meeting of 2015 on April 14th.

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