Councilors’ Hands Tied in Tourism Agency Decision

DULUTH, Minn. – Despite an angry public, councilors will need to certify the city’s decision of tourism marketing firm or possibly face legal repercussions.

At tonight’s committee of the whole meeting, council members heard from representatives of Madden Media, the Tuscon-based firm that is likely to secure the city’s tourism marketing contract. Madden Media came out on top of about 25 different firms that participated in the city’s ‘request for proposals’ (RFP). While the agency was chosen using several criteria, there’s been backlash over the decision, and how it seems to contradict campaign promises made by Mayor Roger Reinert to award tourism marketing contracts only to local agencies. Reinert said he had removed himself from the selection process.

While hearing presentations, Councilors appeared confused as to what role they play in the process, other than to approve the contract for Madden. Councilwoman Lynn Marie Nephew asked City Attorney Terri Lehr, “We received some communication from constituents that, they felt as though the RFP process was flawed. And obviously, there’s the decision tonight at council on how we feel about it. But if they are still feeling that there is a flaw that maybe we didn’t see, is there a way for them to dispute?”

After several pauses, Lehr replied, in part, “I can tell you that a constituent opposition to the council’s vote on this contract is not one of the criteria that the council is to consider in this case because the criteria for the council to consider the process would be the parties are selected by the entity and to follow that process through it to its conclusion.”

Denying Madden the contract, who applied and won the RFP the city established, would open the door to legal backlash, according to Lehr.

The city’s budget earmarks $650,000 for Visit Duluth, which until 2021 was the city’s choice for tourism marketing. Daniele Villa, the President of Sales for Visit Duluth, said they plan to restructure the firm to add more resident involvement to their board. They hope to be granted an additional $200,000 in the budget to allow them to hire a new executive to lead the transition.

Duluth’s Chamber of Commerce weighed in on the selection, posting a statement on their website. You can read the statement here.