Tom Whitehurst

Best answer for the port is a question

Are five words less valuable than 10?
   An advertising professional posed that seven-word question. He was referring to the port's recent discussions about whether contracts for advertising and a lot of other services should undergo competitive bidding.
   In considering that issue, the port's finance committee also has been pondering a definition of professional services, which government entities don't have to submit to competitive bidding. There's a chance that advertising could be excluded from that definition.
   State law governing local government contracts defines professional services as "predominantly mental or intellectual, rather than physical or manual, in nature." The law is specific that these nine services are professional: accounting, architecture, landscape architecture, land surveying, medicine, optometry, professional engineering, real estate appraising and professional nursing.
   The finance committee has investigated the port's contract with advertising firm Morehead Dotts & Associates. The chief concerns have been that the port's hired help approved cumulative advertising expenses in excess of $300,000 last year without going to the full Port Commission for approval, and without seeking bids.
   During one committee meeting, the question arose: Is advertising a professional service? The answer, from port attorney Jimmy Welder: "I don't think it is."
   It was pointed out, with mirth, and accepted in good humor by Welder, that legal services also aren't on the list.
   Finance committee member Robert Gonzalez, a lawyer, was asked last week whether he thought of himself as a professional. In lawyerly fashion, he didn't answer the question right away.
   "Obviously, the people view attorneys as professionals and that's the common description of an attorney. However, in terms of what the Legislature was thinking when forming a statute, one would have to go back to the statute itself and look at the language to determine what they thought was meant by professional services.
   "My understanding is that the statute does not limit the areas that should be considered professional services. That can be expanded upon by the public body itself.
   "So, I don't think we say no to advertising agents or attorneys. We're going to have to talk to our legal counsel and if there are other areas that are added in the area of professional services, we're going to have to be sure we're acting in a legal and prudent manner."
   But regardless of the eventual outcome of this exercise, does he consider himself a professional? He admitted, eventually, that yes, he does.
   Are five words less valuable than 10?
  

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