Over objections, Duluth City Council approves marketing contract with Arizona firm

DULUTH — A conflicted City Council voted 8-1 Monday night to approve a $3.2 million two-year contract with Madden Media, an Arizona-based firm selected to market Duluth as a tourist destination.

Council President Roz Randorf described the process of being convinced to support the contract as “extremely frustrating.”

“But tonight, as a council, we have one legally sound decision to make, and that is to vote ‘yes’ on this RFP process,” she said, noting the city attorney’s advice that councilors follow the recommendations of a panel appointed to evaluate and score the applications of 26 firms that responded to the city’s request for proposals.

That evaluation put Madden, a national firm headquartered in Tucson, Arizona, ahead of its local competitors, even though businesses based in Duluth were awarded a 10% scoring advantage over out-of-town applicants.

Randorf said the process, as it was designed, did not afford her “the luxury to say no, even though I want to.”

Randorf advised the city administration that she would expect better outcomes in the future.

“We need a broader conversation about how important local is,” she said.

Randorf suggested that outsourcing the marketing work “undermines local expertise and siphons money and jobs away from this community.”

But Karen Pionk, general manager of the Duluth Sheraton and former president of Visit Duluth’s board of directors, urged the council to approve the proposed contract with Madden, allowing time for the city to reconstitute its own former destination-marketing organization. Visit Duluth once filled that role but saw much of its work outsourced to Bellmont Partners, a Minneapolis firm, three years ago after the city decided to pursue a different marketing strategy.

“The priority right now is Visit Duluth’s stability,” Pionk said, stressing the time needed for the local organization to search out and hire a new executive director to lead its efforts to take over full local tourism marketing responsibilities in two years’ time.

Mayor Roger Reinert has expressed support for seeing that work return to Visit Duluth.

In the interim, however, Pionk called for a smooth transition, saying: “We cannot afford disruption that could jeopardize the hard-earned trust we’ve established with our visitors and our clients.”

But 1st District Councilor Wendy Durrwacht said she could not vote in good conscience to approve a contract with Madden.

“I’m really pleased to see the city moving toward a DMO model, and I support that fully,” she said. Nevertheless, Durrwachter explained that she lacked confidence in the process that led to the selection of Madden.

“It’s not that I’m convinced it was faulty. It’s that I’m not convinced it wasn’t,” she said, noting that the council had received “a ton of email from people with concerns.”

Without greater insight into the evaluation process or sufficient time to request a redo with the current Bellmont Partners contract set to expire at the end of the month, Durrwachter said she felt compelled to vote against the resolution to award the work to Madden.

While she, too, expressed reservations, at large Councilor Lynn Marie Nephew noted that the city had set forth and faithfully followed an objective public process to select an organization that would lead Duluth’s tourism-marketing efforts for the next two years.

“I feel it’s our job as a governing body — as the City Council — to complete this part of the process,” Nephew said. “So, I do feel a bit like our hands are tied.”

Nephew, too, said she would have preferred to see the marketing dollars spent locally but also noted Madden appears to be a capable partner. Nephew said she also takes some solace in knowing that the firm has agreed to contract with local talent — including writers, photographers and videographers — as it puts together its promotional campaigns.