"Cash strapped" dismal district votes $355K for PR consultant

Last night the board voted to let Wendy spend $355,000 for a Virginia "communications consultant". According to the Sentinel's Sarah Janssen, the company will first evaluate the effectiveness of the district's current surveys. Say what? Mark GiaQuinta said the contract related to the importance of board's number 2 goal, "engage the community". He didn't explain how that squared with their other goal "fiscal responsibility', which is apparently much farther down their list. This isn't quite as bad as the $450K of taxpayer money they pissed away on Schmidt & Associates to do a sales job on taxpayers for their failed $500mm bond issue. Although $50K of that did go to a friendly city councilman to benefit the local economy (and him). Make no mistake. This money is being spent to do a better sales job on us "stakeholders" the next time.