Putting Money where his Mouth Is
Rather than spend money on cleaning up belated delinquency like Governor Snyder did when he hired not one but two PR agencies, City Manager Richard Giroux spent his money on a solution for the problem at hand. He set good PR in motion by putting $70,000 where his mouth is.
That’s how much money the city spent so far on efforts to handle the high lead levels reported in a barely significant number of the 8,100 homes the city services. Rather than pay PR agency fees for damage control, the money went to purchasing bottled water and residential filters, paying employees, providing temporary phosphate treatments, testing lead levels in the water, and other related costs.
The government also awarded a grant of $404,885 to help the community recover from the water crisis. This illustrates a valuable lesson in not just public relations, but life in general: actions speak louder than words. It also illustrates another important concept that to achieve real success you’ve got to first get the ball rolling.
