The scrum that never happened...and probably won't

A consultant whose company was hired by the City of Ottawa to help boost its sponsorship program posted this to his blog earlier this month, a couple days after a staff report to the city's finance committee revealed less-than-stellar first year results.

In 2012 the program only raised $773,309, about one quarter of that year's target. When council approved the five-year scheme, staff promised $12.7-million in naming rights, advertisements and other forms of sponsorship. Mayor Jim Watson now says that was "overly optimistic."

Bernie Colterman's firm, the Centre of Excellence for Public Sector Marketing, works on a commission basis, plus an hourly rate for advice. The company can take credit for only part of last year's sponsorhip revenue; city councillors raised the rest themselves. While some senior staff laud this arrangement, at least one councillor -- Allan Hubley -- wondered whether the City might be better off going it alone.

Anyway, Colterman was a bit put out that no one from the media had contacted him to get his side of the story. Fair point, so I called him earlier this week to ask for an interview. He seemed receptive at first, although he told me he'd have to check with his people (I'm not exactly clear whom, however he assured me it wasn't the city's pathologically obstructive media office). But after I hounded him for a few days, he called me back today to decline, saying he'd rather let his blog speak for itself.