"JAA hire aims to boost public relations"

Wednesday, May 29, 2002 

JAA hire aims to boost public relations
By Christopher Calnan 
The Florida Times-Union


The Jacksonville Airport Authority said yesterday it's hiring a new
public relations person who will deal with the media and produce a
30-minute public access television program for the authority.

Michele Brahan, a former press secretary for U.S. Sen. Max Cleland,
D-Georgia, is expected to take over public relations duties in three
weeks, authority executive director John Clark said.

Clark said Brahan's initial focus will be external communications and
designing an "image-building program" for the authority. She also will
produce a monthly cable TV program as "a way of getting our message
out," Clark said.

Brahan, a three-year Jacksonville resident, will be paid $56,000 or
$57,000 a year, Clark said. She was chosen from six or seven applicants.

The authority already has three public relations people who are paid by
the authority. Brahan will be the fourth.

Her hiring also comes six months after the JAA effectively disbanded its
public relations department.

In January, Clark dismissed spokeswoman Laurene Carson and reassigned
two other department staff members. Carson was a 12-year employee of the
authority and its predecessor organization, the aviation division of the
Jacksonville Port Authority. She's on the JAA payroll through the end of
June.

At a Nov. 26 meeting, Clark told board members that public relations
could be improved and the authority could save $75,000 a year by
"outsourcing" those duties, which means paying a private contractor to
do them. 

He said JAA news releases and public relations strategies could be
developed by two private consultants, working four hours a day, two days
a week.

"It's not strictly just saving money," Clark said in November, "but how
do you get the best bang for the money."

The authority has since privatized those duties and already has budgeted
more this year than the cost of Carson's $75,000 salary on public
relations. It's midway through the year, and the authority has reached
$87,000 for public relations, including half of Brahan's salary.

The Airport Authority contracted with The McCormick Agency Inc. for
$50,000 to handle public relations for five months. Also, it recently
hired Wiles Consulting Inc. for a contract that could reach $10,000. The
owner, Susan Summerall Wiles, is a former spokeswoman for Mayor John
Delaney. Wiles said yesterday that the majority of her work with the
authority isn't in public relations. 

Clark said yesterday he plans to "phase out" the McCormick Agency from
authority public relations but didn't give a timetable.

Brahan currently works for Elkins Constructors in Jacksonville.


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