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.

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 million annually; and

WHEREAS, Such an initiative in Philadelphia, when competitively bid and with the involvement of the Minority Business Enterprise Council, could provide significant opportunities for disadvantaged businesses, minority and women-owned businesses, and utilizing Councilman Nutter's bid preference for Philadelphia-based firms, could promote more business and job creation opportunities for Philadelphia-based firms; and

WHEREAS, A Philadelphia public relations strategic sourcing initiative would best leverage the City’s purchasing power if it included not just those City departments with such needs, but also those City-related agencies that receive appropriations from the City, or whose boards are appointed by city officials, or that operate under legal authority granted by the City; and

WHEREAS, It is critical in these severe financial times that our City government ensure that every last dollar is being put to the best use, and thus innovative approaches such as strategic sourcing should be carefully investigated and planned for in order to implement successfully for maximum savings to the taxpayer; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA THAT the Committee on Legislative Oversight is hereby authorized 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 money while encouraging local business opportunities.

FURTHER RESOLVED, THAT in furtherance of said investigation, the Chair of Council’s Committee on Legislative Oversight is hereby authorized to issue subpoenas to compel the attendance of witnesses and the production of documents to the full extent authorized under Section 2-401 of the Home Rule Charter.

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