PRSA chair Jane Dvorak, who has declared that “truth is the foundation of all effective communications,” should tell the truth about the new multi-million dollar h.q. lease at 120 Wall St.

Tactics

Thus far, the only communication to members is a “We’ve moved” headline at the bottom of the February Tactics giving the new address.

Dvorak made the statement as a criticism of White House press secretary Sean Spicer’s use of the term, “alternative facts.”

Jane DvorakJane Dvorak

Said Dvorak: “PRSA strongly objects to any effort to deliberately misrepresent information. Honest, ethical professionals never spin, mislead or alter facts. We applaud our colleagues and professional journalists who work hard to find and report the truth.”

Seven Society chapters urged the Society to shift most or all of its offices elsewhere in 1985, but these pleas were rejected. The lease at 845 Third Ave. was up in April 1987, and the Assembly demanded to have a voice in where new offices would land. Leading the charge was the Houston chapter, ninth biggest with 450 members. It sent the national board a demand that any office move be made by the Assembly. It withheld its dues in 1985.

The staff answered this by threatening to quit en masse if there was any move from New York.

OOT H.Q. Could Have Saved $50M

The national board strung the chapters along, obtaining full-scale pitches from Houston, Dallas, Denver, Chicago, Indianapolis, Memphis and Atlanta. A tipoff of what was going to happen was the fact that the Washington, D.C., chapter was not allowed to pitch.

National Capital president Paul Forbes said he was “amazed” at the shut-out since the D.C. area was the “only logical choice” for the office.

The board, bowing to the staff, said $200K in recruiter costs would be needed to replace staff. The Society moved to 33 Irving place n 1987 and 33 Maiden Lane in 2004.

Dissidents said the board never estimated the cost savings in staff and rent by moving all or most of the operation to another city. Occupancy costs rose from $310,215 in 1989 to $780,544 in 2013. The 22,000 sq. ft. at 33 Maiden Lane cost about $35 per sq. ft.

Twenty-seven years later, a ballpark figure of at least $50 million can be placed on lower payroll and office costs that would have been possible in most of the other cities that vied for h.q.

The American Society of CPAs moved most of its offices from New York to Durham, N.C., in 2005.

PR “Not a Profession” Says Lawyer

Dvorak’s statement said PRSA “sets the standard of ethical behavior for our 22,000 members through our Code of Ethics. Encouraging and perpetuating the use of alternative facts by a high-profile spokesperson reflects poorly on all communications professionals.”
 
The use of the term “professional” in connection with PR people is something that is disputed by Michael Parkinson, retired PR professor at Texas Tech University who practiced law for 13 years including being admitted to the U.S. Court of Appeals, Illinois Supreme Court, and the Oklahoma Supreme Court.

He wrote a 3,320-word treatise in 2001 disputing PRSA’s claims that PR is a “profession.” He called the Code mere window dressing because it lacks an enforcement mechanism and is “more concerned about the perceptions of external publics than about admonishing practitioners.”

He cited “conflicting provisions” of the Code that require members to promote the “free flow of information to serve the public interest” while also saying the member must protect client confidences and private information.

Parkinson is particularly irked by the words “public interest” because he says no one can know what the public interest is. It must be hammered out in a legal court or in the court of public opinion, he wrote.

In the seven years to 2012, PRSA had spent $528,423 on legal advice, or a yearly average of $75,489, mostly with Venable of Washington, D.C. The Society has never retained outside PR counsel to this reporter’s knowledge. A PR firm would have to talk to us.

The Parkinson treatise, including 40 references, is here.