By Kevin McCauley
Nevada lawmakers yesterday approved a $3M contract to Burson-Marsteller that the Silver State’s tourism & cultural affairs unit awarded two months ago. Some legislators had objected that the contract was granted to an out-of-state firm.
Eleven Nevada shops submitted bids for the two-year contract, but failed to measure up to B-M, according to new tourism chief Claudia Vecchio. She held a tourism post in Ohio before taking the Nevada in November.
B-M is contracting a portion of the work to Las Vegas-based Red Rock Strategies, a Republican political consultant.
Vecchio defended the hiring of B-M, saying the state needs to work with the “best in the business,” according to a report in the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
R&R Partners, the prominent Nevada firm that created the “What happens here, stays here” campaign for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, did not pitch the statewide contract. |