Spending $70K on consultant is absurd

Instead of going through all the mess of hiring some outside consultant to tell us how to create jobs and industry, why don’t we have some real fun and just get together on Court Square, build a big bonfire, and torch $70,000 in cash just to watch it burn.
Since when has McMinnville become sucker of the week for these traveling consulting/image/advisory companies who want to charge us tens of thousands of dollars to tell us why we aren’t Murfreesboro? It’s fine to hear them out, but after they’ve said their piece, kindly show them the door and ask security to walk them to their car. Why do I suddenly feel like we are Springfield and some guy is trying to sell us a monorail?
Folks, anytime you hear the word consultant, go ahead and start the bonfire because money is about to be burned since you are paying for advice which has no guarantees. The last time I looked, we have folks on the payroll who are supposed to be answering the questions being posed by this latest group, Buxton Identifying Customers, which wants the city of McMinnville to pay $70,000 for a study.
We pay and elect leaders to make these decisions and pro-active moves. What is being proposed would be like the newspaper contracting a consultant to do crime and court coverage while still paying me a full salary to be the crime and court reporter. This wouldn’t make good financial sense and I’d be expecting a pink slip in the mail.
Hey, here’s an idea. Pay me 75 cents and I’ll answer the same questions these ‘consultants’ want tens of thousands of dollars for, plus I’ll spend the money in McMinnville and not take it to another state and blow it. That’s $70,000 folks. Not too many people around here make that in two years. We are talking about blowing that much money on a group that will provide answers we already know.
Matter of fact, I’m going to answer those questions in next week’s column where I’m going to give you $70,000 worth of advice for the 75 cents you pay for the paper. Talk about a sweet deal. You aren’t going to get a consultant for cheaper than that.
Of course, you won’t like the answers to some of the questions since there are reasons we don’t want to discuss for why industry isn’t coming here and why we have been pretty well economically stagnant for the past two decades.
On top of the 75-cent advice I’m offering, the newsprint this is printed on is recycled so I’m not only saving you $70,000, I’m also saving the Earth. Somebody call Al Gore.
While I’m making light of this $70,000 proposal, since I think it is totally ludicrous our leaders are even entertaining the thought of doing this, what really gets me seething about this proposed waste of money is there are plans to pull city funding from certain non-profit groups we have helped fund for a long time and are dependent on city support.
These are folks who are helped right here in McMinnville and Warren County, folks we know, folks whose groups are going to suffer from the loss of funds. While some see those as unessential funds, these same folks are saying, with a straight face mind you, that it’s OK to blow $70,000 on a consultant.
It’s one thing to tighten belts. It’s another to tighten the belt around the necks of non-profits and then insult them by wasting that much money on nothing.
Duane Sherrill is a reporter for the Standard. He can be reached at 473-2191 or by e-mail at [email protected].