Lori Turner withdraws from branding campaign: owes a refund as well as a mea culpa

I guess it’s a Turner thing- to exaggerate at  every opportunity how much time and what value your “work” is worth. Mike Turner used to make me sick on the campaign trail with his “I’ve donated over 300 hours” to this or that. Only a lawyer counts his time as closely.

Turner Effect bowed out from their “Get Midwest” campaign today- but I didn’t see any offer of a refund:

Lori Turner withdraws from branding campaign
Coalition officials have said the coalition has paid or committed more than $300,000 to Turner’s firm, the Turner Effect, for its role in developing the campaign with the slogan, “Get Midwest.” The firm was to receive more money in the second half of the campaign.

The campaign is funded with private and state money.

Turner’s letter seems to indicate she has not personally been paid for her firm’s efforts. She did not immediately return a phone call for comment.

Turner said in her letter that she has contributed $80,000 of her professional services to the campaign. “The bottom line: I have not been paid for any of my time spent on this project. Like hundreds of volunteers on this project, I am proud to have served and am dedicated to our community’s future.”

As to Lori’s $80,000 donation of “professional services” on a project that’s taken 18 months- and billed $300,000- let’s see: either her billing rate is astronomical- or, she hasn’t been doing much else.  That would mean she’s doing about 1/4 of the billing on the project, which is hard to believe, seeing that she has a staff of at least 12- and she would have had to spend time soliciting work in Atlanta and DC to do work for the Home Depot PAC.

We also need to know how much money the County contributed to the DDC for this campaign? And of course, the DDC is in a bind now- since the Turner Effect was “the only local firm qualified” to do their work. What will they do now?

If you enjoyed reading true breaking news, instead of broken news from the major media in Dayton, make sure you subscribe to this site for an email every time I post. If you wish to support this blog and independent journalism in Dayton, consider donating. All of the effort that goes into writing posts and creating videos comes directly out of my pocket, so any amount helps! Please also subscribe to the Youtube channel for notifications of every video we launch – including the livestreams.