Members of Margate's Board of Commissioners are at odds over a contract awarded to promote the city on social media.
Commissioner Maury Blumberg, who oversees the Department of Revenue and Finance, asked during May 16 meeting that a resolution awarding a contract for social media management services be removed from the consent agenda to be discussed in executive session and voted on separately, or table it until after he had time to review proposals received for the contract.
Blumberg said he was not involved in securing quotes for the service and that no formal request for proposal was issued by the city.
“This smells bad to me,” he said.
Awarding the contract could put the city in legal jeopardy if it is challenged by other potential vendors who were not given the opportunity to bid on the work, Blumberg said.
“This consent agenda item caught me by surprise," he said. "I was not aware that we were soliciting requests for this service.”
Blumberg said when the meeting agenda was posted on the city’s website two days before the meeting, he received calls from two other service providers interested in bidding on the job had they known about it.
“Good government is supposed to be open, honest and transparent. As commissioner, I had no idea we were looking to do this and it was done in a very unorthodox fashion,” Blumberg said, questioning who initiated the process.
Former Administrator Ken Mosca initiated the process in January, and that it was discussed in department head meetings, Mayor Michael Collins said.
However, in a social media post on another news site, Mosca said Collins approached him about switching providers, but after discussing it with Blumberg, he rejected the idea. Mosca said he was not in favor of the change due to the increase in costs.
Collins believes the city’s social media marketing campaign needs to be more relevant to a younger audience.
“There’s a lot of misinformation, bad information and negative information out there, and I believe, along with our former administrator when this process started, that it is to our benefit," Collins said. "We live in a great town, we just got top two schools in the county, the lowest tax rate for full service, and I think we need to do a better job advertising how great our town is."
Blumberg said he objected to increasing expenditures for social media marketing to $18,000 from the $8,000 previously paid to Suasion Communications Group of Somers Point, especially since the city already provides $125,000 to the Margate Business Association to market the city.
Blumberg said $18,000 is an “outlandish” amount to spend for social media management, especially since the contract will do away with the city’s monthly newsletter, which he believes people enjoy reading.
Collins said the MBA does events but does not provide social media management services and that the city needs to provide information to the “youth wave of a different generation” who get their news and information on Instagram and Facebook.
A second phase of the contract would include a redo of the city’s website, Collins said, but the newsletter, which provided information about past events, didn’t promote present and future events, he said.
According to a resolution awarding the contract, the city received two quotes – $18,000 from You Can’t IgNorris and $21,780 from Suasion.
Blumberg questioned how long IgNorris has been in operation and if it is a legitimate business.
The owner operator of You Can’t IgNorris is Shannon Ray-Norris, an appointed member of the Margate Board of Education. In December 2023, she was appointed senior vice president of programming at iHeart Radio’s Atlantic City affiliates and previously worked in marketing for Clear Channel.
Ray-Norris also conducted the Friends of Margate social media campaign during the contentious nonpartisan Board of Commissioners election of 2023.
The Friends of Margate, which included Collins, Blumberg and Cathy Horn, were being challenged by the Margate Deserves Better team of Aaron Singer, Calvin Tesler and Tish Calvarese, who contended that the prior commission, which included Blumberg, “used their political office to enrich their family members,” they said during their campaign.
The city’s Qualified Purchasing Agent, Roger McLarnon, recommended the new contract be awarded You Can’t IgNorris and that the process complied with the requirements of state law.
“We are within our legal right, but not our ethical right in my opinion,” Blumberg said. “This looks like a political patronage contract for a friend that helped us with social media.”
According to state law, contracts valued at less than $44,000 can be awarded without competitive bidding, but it is recommended that municipalities solicit three quotes before awarding a contract.
Although the contract amount exceeds the $10,500 available in the General Office Miscellaneous line item in this year’s municipal budget, future budgets should include sufficient funding to cover the contract amount, the resolution states.
Resolution 138 passed 2-1, with Blumberg voting against it.
