What did Gov. Mike Pence get from RFRA PR contract? Blacked-out pages make it hard to tell
A photo essay in a gay pride magazine. A crisis monitoring service called the “Radar.” References to Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act scrubbed from press releases.
These are among the topics discussed in 1,100 pages of records released this week by Gov. Mike Pence's economic development agency in response to a request from IndyStar. The request — made nearly eight months ago — sought records related to Pence’s decision to hire and then abruptly terminate global public relations firm Porter Novelli in the wake of last year’s RFRA firestorm.
Despite their breadth, the heavily redacted documents reveal little about what the state received in exchange for the $365,000 it paid the firm — or why Pence ended the contract prematurely.
But they do reveal the Pence administration’s depth of concern about the damage RFRA caused to the state’s reputation on Pence's watch — even as the governor publicly dismissed the controversy.
The documents were released to IndyStar after it filed a formal complaint with Indiana Public Access Counselor Luke Britt. He found Tuesday that the Indiana Economic Development Corp. had violated the state’s public records law in taking so long to fulfill the request.
Here’s what the documents show:
The state interviewed a who’s who of crisis PR firms
The state quickly lined up interviews with some of the world’s largest public relations firms shortly after the RFRA controversy erupted. A schedule shows back-to-back interviews with nine firms on a single day and provides a brief description of each firm’s experience in crisis management. Some examples:
Levick: Gulf Oil Spill, Vatican.
Sitrick: Ground Zero Mosque, Orange County CA bankruptcy, Hostess Brands.
Edelman: Penn State University.
Ultimately, the state chose Porter Novelli on April 10 — about two weeks after Pence signed RFRA into law.
The state — at the last minute — scrubbed all references to RFRA when announcing it hired Porter Novelli
When the IEDC announced April 13 it was hiring the New York-based PR giant, there was not a single mention of RFRA in the press release. In fact, the IEDC’s Chris Cotterill publicly downplayed RFRA’s role in the decision to hire Porter Novelli.
“The reason was there before,” he told a South Bend television station. “It's not to make up for something.”
State drops $750K to rehab image after RFRA, with more expected
But that’s not what the IEDC’s press release draft said just 24 hours earlier.
A “final press release” distributed internally referred to RFRA and to restoring the state’s reputation several times. There was even a quote from Indiana Secretary of Commerce Victor Smith that said, “we must acknowledge the recent political controversy surrounding the Religious Freedom Restoration Act has damaged our reputation.”
But in the hours before the release was sent out, IEDC officials and Porter Novelli executives eliminated any references to RFRA or efforts to “restore” Indiana’s image. The portion of Smith’s quote that referred to the controversy was cut. So too was a sentence about assessing “the impact of the RFRA controversy.” And the word “restore” was replaced with “continue to strengthen” and “enhance.”
When asked about the changes, IEDC Spokeswoman Abby Gras said Tuesday that “various word choices were considered in the development of this particular release. All of our press releases at the IEDC go through several rounds of edits; this is pretty standard.”
She declined to say who suggested the changes.
The national furor over RFRA erupted last year when concerns rose that the law would allow discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Hoosiers. After several large companies and conventions threatened to boycott the state, Pence and lawmakers approved a RFRA "fix" that was intended to prevent the law from nullifying local protections against discrimination.
9 CEOs call on Pence, legislature to modify 'religious freedom' law
State officials considered paying $50,000 for an Indianapolis-themed photo essay in a gay pride magazine
One idea discussed in emails between IEDC officials and Porter Novelli: Sponsoring content in Pride Magazine, a publication distributed to about a million attendees at gay pride festivals across the nation.
The photo essay would have featured “committed LGBT couples at famous landmarks around Indianapolis” and “a welcome message from the Governor or whoever we wished prior to the essay,” according to an April email from IEDC Communications Director Katelyn Prentice.
The state also considered sponsoring the 2015 Silicon Valley Pride Festival.
“On the face of it, could be a good step forward but also warrants a conversion (sic) ahead of reaching back to them for an email back or call,” Porter Novelli Senior Vice President Ryan Kuresman said in an April 17 email. “This is not a large event during pride celebration season. I suspect that several similar requests may come in…Should we convene on this Monday?”
Ultimately, the state decided against both sponsorship opportunities, Gras said Tuesday.
But the state did sponsor a 60-person National Society of Newspaper Columnists conference in Indianapolis, Gras said.
In an April 16 email pitch, one of the conference’s organizers said it had been “a difficult April for us. Several of our members have decided to boycott our festivities due to the initial passage of the RFRA.”
Porter Novelli deployed a crisis monitoring “Radar” on behalf of the state
The PR agency provided the state with a daily “IEDC Radar” report that tracked print, broadcast and social media.
Marked “confidential,” the reports provided a comprehensive summary of news stories and highlighted top social media “influencers,” including Republican pollster Christine Matthews, political strategist Donna Brazile and Huffington Post senior political reporter Amanda Terkel.
The reports also included brief analysis.
“Traditional media remains neutral to negative in tone as attention has shifted to the price tag of the PR campaign,” an April 15 report said. “A number of opinion writers and LGBT community leaders believe spending $2 million in taxpayer money is unnecessary, and that the state should instead pass nondiscrimination laws.”
A week later: “Social media conversation continues to remain decidedly negative as users continue to bash Indiana and Gov. Pence over the controversy and $2 million PR campaign.”
Twenty minutes after receiving that assessment, the IEDC’s Cotterill emailed the company seeking a change to the radar report.
“All of this is very focused on RFRA,” he wrote. “Is the radar broad enough to capture other sentiments about Indiana?”
Soon after, Porter Novelli sent an email to state officials: “Note: We have expanded our search terms to pick up more coverage and conversation related to economic development and Indiana business. In addition, we are tracking for mentions of the Honest-to-Goodness summer campaign but as yet have not identified pick-ups on that topic.”
The documents are rife with redactions and 285 pages were withheld
The IEDC provided the records the day before Britt, the Public Access Counselor, found that the agency had violated the state’s public records law, which requires them to provide records in a “reasonable” amount of time.
Britt noted that the IEDC had failed to provide the requested records for well over six months.
“Simply put, a reasonable period of time has long since elapsed,” he wrote in an advisory opinion Tuesday.
What the IEDC did provide includes hundreds of partially or completely redacted pages. It completely withheld another 50 documents, which included 285 pages.
As a result, it remains unclear what the state got in exchange for the $365,000 it paid to Porter Novelli.
Why did Pence abort RFRA-related PR contract?
There are references to focus groups, surveys, benchmark studies and research findings — but the IEDC withheld any documents describing the results of those efforts. Some were marked “deliberative,” others as “trade secret.”
Cotterill, the agency’s general counsel, said in a letter to IndyStar: “If, for example, the IEDC had to reveal all its marketing plans, then other states that are competing with Indiana for jobs would have Indiana’s playbook — more than that, they would have the underlying opinions and analyses that lead to the development of our ‘plays.’”
The documents also shed little light on why Pence suddenly terminated the state’s relationship with the company in July, only about halfway through the term of the contract.
On June 30, Porter Novelli executives and IEDC officials held a conference call to discuss “messaging,” but there are no records indicating what was discussed.
Among the final documents are a copy of the previously released July 1 termination agreement and a single, one-page invoice from Porter Novelli dated July 28.
Description: Public Relations Services.
Total due: $365,000.
Call IndyStar reporter Chelsea Schneider at (317) 444-6077. Follow her on Twitter: @IndyStarChelsea.
Call IndyStar reporter Tony Cook at (317) 444-6081. Follow him on Twitter: @indystartony.