Rob Hunden: Independent Expert or Crutch for the Administration? by: Brad Linzy

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Rob Hunden: Independent Expert or Crutch for the Administration?
by: Brad Linzy

Posted by CCO without opinion, bias or editing.

According to documents recently obtained from the Mayor’s Office, Rob Hunden of Hunden Strategic Partners (HSP) has billed the Evansville Redevelopment Commission (ERC) over $200,000 in total for this latest hotel deal with developer HCW.

Initially, according to a pro-forma agreement, HSP agreed to provide a draft report, a final report, and a Powerpoint presentation summarizing its findings. This work was to cost not more than $81,000 in total, including $75,000 to be paid in three installments of $25,000 each, and up to $6,000 in expenses related to travel and research. A Purchase Order was issued and approved on March 12, 2012 for the full $81,000 to cover this entire fee.

On June 6, 2012, the final $25,000 installment was paid upon completion of the Hunden Report and by this time $5881.39 had also been paid for agreed upon expenses, bringing the total for the HSP work to $80,881.39.

After June 6, 2012 several more invoices were issued to the ERC by HSP. Services rendered were billed at a rate of $200/hr. and included everything from consulting with the Mayor, ERC, and the Department of Metropolitan Development (DMD) to consulting and advising City Council members.

HSP’s activities also included sending out requests for quotations (RFQ) to developers. While most have assumed these tasks were performed by someone inside the Administration, according to these invoices it appears they were done by HSP. Furthermore, HSP appears to have handled the request for proposal (RFP) phase of the project as well as negotiating the terms of the deal.

In one invoice dated February 14, 2013 HSP billed the ERC almost $20,000 for phone calls related to consulting on “Hotel Negotiation Process”.

In another invoice dated May 17, 2013 HSP billed $28,651.25 for “hotel advisory” including continued negotiations with developer HCW and a presentation before the City Council. In the addendum pages accompanying this invoice HSP list all correspondence, much of which refers to “strategy” and “press strategy” with “Steve and Phillip”, presumably Steve Schaffer and Phillip Hooper. In three separate correspondences, the issue of 180 rooms vs. 250 room hotels was discussed.
The most recent invoice we’ve obtained is dated July 26, 2013 and includes another $13,500 in billings for phone calls to HCW labeled “negotiations” and correspondences to Administration officials labeled “strategy”.

More recently, we’ve seen Rob Hunden send press releases and give statements to the press. He has also crafted a lengthy memo defending this hotel deal and saying if the City Council doesn’t approve it, the next deal will be 100% public. One can only assume these activities will be invoiced at a future date at the same $200/hr. rate as past activities.

Over the course of this deal, Rob Hunden has personally racked up $2,425.52 in hotel lodgings, most of which was spend at Le Merigot, $10,662.69 in transportation costs, $717.56 in meals on taxpayer dime, $1,256.52 in mileage expenses driving to and from Indianapolis, and $801.92 in miscellaneous “office expenses”. Is this what one might refer to as an “independent” expert?

So who is Rob Hunden? Is he a hotel expert hired to produce a feasibility study? Or is he a deeply vested participant of this project from inception to execution? The invoice trail points to the latter.

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24 COMMENTS

  2. “After June 6, 2012 several more invoices were issued to the ERC by HSP. Services rendered were billed at a rate of $200/hr. and included everything from consulting with the Mayor, ERC, and the Department of Metropolitan Development (DMD) to consulting and advising City Council members.”

    Who at ERC is HSP?

    And what good does it do for Hunden to issue a report to the mayor that the mayor does not understand?

    It is my understanding that Hunden stated in their report would generate 41 FTE jobs. The mayor has been quoted as saying that it would generate about 250 jobs. Does Winnecke not understand what FTE means? It has been explained several times in print that FTE stands for “full time equivalent.” Yes, FTE stands for a 40 hour per week employee. Apparently, the mayor interprets the report as meaning a job is a job. A job is one hour per week or 40 hours per week.

    This is the same type of logic used by Weinzapfel in testimony before the Indiana General Assembly that the arena would create about 550 jobs. Again a job is a job, whether it be one or 40 hours per week. But Weinzapfel did not take into consideration the jobs that would be eliminated when Roberts was destroyed.

    • HSP is “Hunden Strategic Partners”.

      But you’re right. What good did it do for HSP to produce a report for the Administration if HSP was just going to end up doing the RFQ, the RFP, and the negotiations anyway?

  3. I can’t believe this. Steve Schaffer and Phil Hooper seemly could care about wasting our hard tax dollars. They both need to be fired for showing now regard for our tax money.
    Looks like Hunden Consulting group has a lot of explaining to the tax payers about the real role they played in this hotel deal. Paid invoices don’t lie.

  4. “And what good does it do for Hunden to issue a report to the mayor that the mayor does not understand? ” (Pogo)

    * * * * * *

    One would assume that is what he is paying you for.

    __

  5. What the city paid Hunden $20,000 for phone calls. It’s time for City Council to launch a formal investigation against Winnecke, Schaffer and Hooper for financial misconduct of usage of public funds. The original contract with Hunden was for about $37,000 for them to do hotel study and now we find out that the city has paid Hunden over $200,000 for services rendered. I would like to see copies of the amended contracts that city council approved to spend additional money with Hunden. If the city administration didn’t get city council approval to spend additional money with Hunden they have violated state law. It’s time that the city council budget chairmen, John Friend call the above individuals to public task.

    • I’m not sure where the $37,000 figure has come from. I’ve heard it elsewhere as well, but according to the documentation we have here, the original contract was for $75,000 with a $6,000 stipend for additional expenses. That was supposed to be the MAXIMUM spent – $81,000.

      How the ERC, the Mayor, and the DMD racked up an additional $120,000 in expenses to HSP can only be explained by looking over these figures.

  6. Not withstanding the $81K limit Mr. Linzy claims is imposed on Hunden’s billings under this contract, could other provisions of the same contract provide for additional billings for additional services beyond the initially contemplated extent of services?

    Could the extended controversy, spurred by various groups and individuals, and the city council’s extended deliberations of the hotel project have necessitated additional time billed for professional services covered by the contract?

    Has Mr. Linzy read the contract and taken all its provisions into account when writing this critical report?

    By the way, our Indiana Constitution prohibits any requirement for a person to work without compensation, and professional services billed at $200 per hour seems a fairly standard rate.

    • My claim was never that provisions weren’t made for extended services at $200/hr.; my claim is that these extended services were abused to the tune of $120,000 on jobs the DMD and ERC should have been doing in house.

      Seriously, having Ron Hunden do the RFQ, RFP, and the negotiating at $200/hr. while we have bureaucracies full of people standing around drinking coffee? What kind of sense does that make?

      We are also asking whether these latest services of creating a lengthy memo and press releases invoiced at a later date.

      • ERC is a commission comprised of part time board members. Which of the jobs that Hunden performed should’ve been done by ERC exactly?

        That leaves DMD staff. Who exactly in DMD is just standing around drinking coffee? And when you get elected next year, what exactly are you going to do about the coffee sluffers?

        What’s next?

        • If ERC or DMD don’t do this sort of thing, then what exactly do they do?

          As a libertarian Republican, I am for the elimination of as many bureaucracies as we can afford to eliminate and run efficiently. You can extrapolate from there.

          • You ask what DMD does? According to you there are those at DMD that stand around drinking coffee. I asked who you have seen or have proof of who stand around drinking coffee rather than performing their jobs. Why do I have to do the extrapolating with regard to your accusations?

          • It was a turn of phrase designed elicit an image of an Administration level bureaucracy not performing the kinds of tasks it should be performing. You knew that. Don’t play word games with me, trust me I’ll win.

            I reiterate my question to you: what kind of sense does it make to hire an outside firm at $200/hr. to send out RFQs and RFPs?

          • Also, if you have an alternative point of view or you believe I’ve overstepped in my critique, you should submit your rebuttal to the Editor for publication.

            I will gladly read it. There is always a chance I’m wrong. I acknowledge that. I’ll listen with open ears.

          • “Don’t play word games with me, trust me I’ll win.”
            You really have quite a high opinion of yourself, don’t you?

            “I reiterate my question to you: what kind of sense does it make to hire an outside firm at $200/hr. to send out RFQs and RFPs?”
            You or I might be able to answer that question if we knew whether DMD has someone on staff qualified and capable of writing complicated RFQs and RFPs sufficient to cover all bases for a project that includes all the elements that the hotel project includes.

          • Nah, its just an irrational exuberance. It’s contagious, it seems.

            Tell you what, why don’t you reveal which of these useless bureaucracies you work for that way we can have a candid discussion without you hiding in the bushes and struggling to phrase yourself in a way you THINK is covert. Enlighten me. Tell me what you do all day if it ain’t drink coffee. Sniff glue?

          • What if I told you I just hang around outside the front door of a guitar shop smoking cigarettes all day in between furious spells of enlightened keyboarding?

          • *stretches deductive reasoning powers*

            That would tell me you work in the keyboard section at Guitar Center most likely since no other music store in town has much of a keyboard selection. It also tells me you are at high risk to develop lung cancer or emphasema and you’re likely at work right now, even though it’s Saturday.

            *stretches inductive reasoning powers*

            It also tells me your interest in the hotel debate comes because you falsely believe a hotel downtown will mean more gigs for you. It also means you are close to someone close to the project development; how else would you have known of the pro-forma with Hunden? You probably know Phil Hooper since he is a guitarist who I know has recently sought advice on a problem with his 100 watt 1970s Musicman 212 combo amp.

            I this case, if you’re not in DMD, you’re in no position to rebut my assertion that the DMD staff might just be slurping coffee all day.

            What did I miss?

        • What-Next

          “ERC is a commission comprised of part time board members. Which of the jobs that Hunden performed should’ve been done by ERC exactly?”

          * * * * * * * * *

          Exactly. That is why we would be better off abolishing the ERC and charging the DMD with this type of work.

          As it stands now, whatever entity that stands to make a pot full sends their hired gun to appear before the ERC and dazzle them with shiny objects and adjectives, ERC has already been told how to vote and it gets passed on to the council without ever being properly studied.

          I would like to abolish the ERC and put the responsibility on the DMD and the Administration so we can either fire people or boot them out of office at election time.

          ___

    • The City Council was injected into the process until the signing of the development agreement. They were totally omitted from the process. So,that should have been the latter part of July. Then why is Hunden spending so many of our money prior to the execution of the development agreement. Read the tea leaves…

  7. If HSP took care of sending the RFP, I’m guessing they probably reviewed the proposals and recommended to the Mayor which proposal should be selected. This could explain why none of the other proposals were made public. I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if the selection of HCW was made because it provided the most benefit to HSP. Could this also explain why Hunden is so adamant about this deal going through? Could HSP be working both sides of the fence?

  8. Thanks Brad, a wonderful expose of the inadequacies of ERC DMD and others. You article ignites a spark of mis-trust of both Hunden and HCW, and asks: Is there a conspiracy?

    • zen,

      Conspiracy ? With ERC, DMD, HSP and HCW in the mix, I am AOK with an allegation of conspiracy. Maybe we can bring charges PDQ !

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