Title
Authorizing City Council's Committee on Legislative Oversight to hold public hearings to investigate how the City of Philadelphia could initiate a strategic sourcing initiative to combine the public relations, marketing, and advertising contracts of the various City departments and City-related agencies into one competitively bid contract, in order to save taxpayer money while encouraging local business opportunities.
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WHEREAS, Various Philadelphia departments and City-related agencies have retained consultants and firms to assist with their respective public relations, marketing, media buying, and advertising needs; and
WHEREAS, Such public relations contracts in the aggregate cost the City of Philadelphia several million dollars a year, at a time when the City faces a severe financial crisis that has resulted in layoffs and service reductions; and
WHEREAS, Under Governor Rendell, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has recently initiated a program entitled the "Strategic Sourcing Initative," which maximizes the state's buying power by aggregating the purchasing power of all state agencies to drive down prices competitively on all of the state government's contracts; and
WHEREAS, This innovative Rendell Administration initiative is saving money for the taxpayers of Pennsylvania by utilizing the best practices from the private sector without impacting government operations or services, and this new strategy of smart buying has already generated more than $121 million in annual savings; and
WHEREAS, Such an approach has generated substantial savings for the taxpayers of a number of other states including Illinois, Virginia and Florida, as well as such large cities as New York, Chicago, and Phoenix; and
WHEREAS, Pennsylvania last month announced the consolidation of dozens of departmental contracts for public relations, marketing, and advertising into two contracts, one for media buying and one for public relations, saving taxpayers $2.6 m...
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