Is City Hall’s crisis consultant essential or a waste of $78,000 a year?

It wasn’t exactly a crisis. But Amy Jordan Wooden, City Manager Troy Schulte’s crisis communications consultant, was on the phone with her client last October.

Schulte, angered by a city councilman’s proposal to cut back his spending authority, had invited the council to fire him. He tried to walk that back a day later by saying he “should have gone home and kicked the dog” instead of venting publicly.

Wooden, he said, “immediately saw it in the paper and she said, ‘What did I tell you?’”

Wooden is what might be called City Hall’s “bureaucrat-whisperer,” who preaches urgency, transparency and knowing when to shut up. Schulte considers her an asset.

But some on the City Council wonder if Wooden, a veteran Democratic political and PR operative, is an overpaid freelancer whose work could be done by city staff.

Her contract, examined by The Star, pays $6,500 a month — $78,000 a year — but with no provision to account for her hours. It specifies that she be paid the full amount each month “regardless of how much time, effort and expense” she incurs.

“We can’t hire police officers, and we’re paying consultants like this? I have a real problem with that,” said Councilwoman Teresa Loar.

While consultants in Wooden’s field often encourage clients to avoid the “no comment” response, she nevertheless declined to talk about her work for the city.

“I don’t believe I have anything to add to your story,” she said in a recent email.

Wooden’s counsel aside, the city already pays $1.5 million a year on a communications operation run from the city manager’s office. It’s designed to keep residents informed but also to promote and protect the city government “brand,” much as a private company would do.

The staff of 11 is headed by Chris Hernandez, a former television reporter who serves as Schulte’s chief spokesman. He responds to press inquiries and hosts a weekly half-hour newscast on the municipal cable channel, which carries all City Council and Police Board meetings. Some of the video footage is used by The Star.

His team responds to Sunshine Law requests, oversees the city’s presence on social media and produces about 200 promotional videos a year, along with fliers and magazines. Two graphic designers serve as brand managers to ensure that city graphics are used properly.

This does not include at least eight public information officers who work for other city departments.

Wooden’s $78,000-a-year contract, which Schulte can approve without council authorization, calls for “message development,” “identifying various communications tactics” and conducting mock interviews to prepare senior city staff for encounters with reporters.

Some council members, preparing to deliberate over a proposed 2019 operating budget filled with unmet needs, expressed puzzlement about Wooden’s role.

“How many media people do we have?” asked Councilwoman Katheryn Shields. “It kind of calls into question do we have the right people in the communications department.”

She also expressed a broader concern about the number of consultants under contract, calling them “phantom people who we don’t know what they do.”

Councilman Quinton Lucas authored the ordinance that triggered Schulte’s displeasure — it requires council approval of consultant contracts over $50,000. He said all such arrangements need to be scrutinized.

“I think it’s important for the council to look at all personal service expenses, particularly when they may be duplicating other city activities,” he said.

Schulte said Wooden is no extravagance. If she wasn’t on contract, he said, he’d need someone like her on staff because Hernandez and his deputies have their hands full with the daily run of announcements, public events and reporters’ queries.

In a media world where a few poorly chosen words can become a viral nightmare, incinerating credibility and reputation in a heartbeat, he regards Wooden’s skill set as a must-have.

Officials said Wooden helps simplify governmental jargon and frame responses to make them more accessible to residents. This was helpful during the last year’s KCI campaign, when she worked to scrub statements of aviation and financial bureaucratese.

“I call it clearing out the underbrush,” said Hernandez. “She comes in with that outsider eye.”

“Amy’s terrific,” said political consultant Mark Nevins, who managed the KCI campaign and Mayor Sly James’ two election victories. “One of the best in the business... She doesn’t ruffle, doesn’t get angry, she’s a steady hand.”

Her career began in 1992 with Mel Carnahan’s gubernatorial campaign. She’s been lead spokeswoman for the University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas Gov. Mark Parkinson and Mayor James’ 2011 transition team.

Her firm, AJW Consulting, works in the public, private and non-profit sectors; other clients include the Kauffman Foundation and Douglas County, Kansas.

Schulte deploys her to departments where press attention can be heaviest, like Aviation, Fire, Water Services, Parks and Recreation. All new agency heads get a mandatory session with Wooden.

“What you’ll find is that a lot of my directors or assistant directors are very technically proficient,” he said, but unaccustomed to “how you handle somebody putting a microphone in your face as you’re getting off the elevator.”

Interviews and records requests by The Star show Wooden’s imprint on a range of City Hall communications. She drafts statements, workshops politically sticky announcements with Hernandez and the mayor’s office, and offers advice on how officials can put the best face on their work.

Paul Berardi had been fire chief for just a month when a natural gas explosion leveled JJ’s restaurant on the Plaza in February 2013, killing one person and injuring 15.

Wooden worked with him in the aftermath, when there were questions about the adequacy of the department’s response prior to the explosion. Firefighters answered a call about gas odor, but stayed at the scene for less than 15 minutes and did not order an evacuation before turning the incident over to Missouri Gas and Electric workers. The building blew up about 40 minutes later.

Within a month, new protocols were in place requiring that any response to a potential gas leak include a battalion chief and a firetruck equipped to monitor gas levels in the air.

What was billed as Berardi’s “final statement” on the incident was carefully polished:

“Injuries to the public and the loss of property weigh heavily on firefighters, whether in major events such as this or in the fires and accidents we address every day. KCFD accordingly reviews all major operations, especially those involving injury or a fatality, for the purpose of improving firefighters’ ability to better protect human life and property.”

“She was very valuable,” said Berardi, who retired late last year. “I would draft a statement and look at it from one point of view and she would look at it from another. You learn in a crisis that sometimes you’re so close you need another set of eyes.”

Wooden also parachutes into stories that are smaller but could still leave smudges on the city’s brand, according to emails reviewed by The Star.

When the American Jazz Museum was called to explain to the City Council last July why it owed vendors $150,000 from its May jazz festival, Schulte asked Wooden to work with museum executive director Cheptoo Kositany-Buckner on a prepared statement.

Buckner’s remarks to the council’s finance and governance committee on July 19 tracked closely with Wooden’s guidance, which stressed ownership of the problem, a plan to fix it and steps to prevent a recurrence: “We have a plan in place to eliminate the fiscal deficit from the festival. This includes raising funds from sponsors as well as reducing expenses....” Buckner said from Wooden’s script.

Last summer, when hometown company Burns & McDonnell lost out to Edgemoor Infrastructure & Real Estate as the choice of the city’s selection committee to develop the new KCI single terminal, she helped Hernandez and mayoral chief of staff Joni Wickham with the wording of what would be a controversial announcement.

“Need more detail from Joni’s notes on Edgemoor positive proof points,” Wooden wrote.

She can also be acerbic in trying to frame the message: “We will likely have to get legal counsel to review these prior to use. I am sure that will ruin any clarity we may be trying to provide to this process.”

Some of Wooden’s strategic advice is unsolicited and, it seems, ignored. Shields recalls her coming to her office in 2016 during the campaign to renew the city earnings tax.

“She said she knew we were having trouble answering questions so she prepared some answers,” said Shields. She didn’t use them.

She also reached out to new police chief Rick Smith on his first day in the post last August.

“I know you are just one day into your tenure, but The Star is already reporting on recent police shooting,” she wrote, referring to a story on a spate of fatal police shootings

“I would hazard to guess you will be on the receiving end of a negative editorial from The Star as well given this news story,” she said. No such editorial appeared.

Wooden also encouraged Smith to invite the editorial board to go through the department’s “citizens academy” training to give them a more realistic view of the difficulty police face in deciding to use their weapons. The invitation has yet to arrive.

Wooden’s current contract expires in May. And despite council concerns Schulte is likely to keep her. If only as a reminder about when to stop talking.

This story was originally published February 18, 2018 at 5:30 AM with the headline "Is City Hall’s crisis consultant essential or a waste of $78,000 a year?."