Philly native and rapper Will Smith performing at the One Philly Unity Concert for America. Photo: Courtesy of the City of Philadelphia via Byron Purnell III
Financial records show the city never wrote ESM a check, instead routing payments throughPAID, the redevelopment arm of city nonprofit PIDC.
The payments appeared as "city contributions" to PAID, finance records show. But accompanying payment records told a different story: "ESM Productions for City's 4th of July Event."
The city paid for the concert out of its Class 500 budget category, emails show — which is typically used for contributions to schools, nonprofits, tax payments and legal settlements.
Feder says professional service contracts should come out of Class 200.
The other side: City officials say the work ultimately stemmed from a bidding process that occurred more than 18 months before Parker's July 4 plans and wasn't specific to the concert.
Lessard tells Axios PAID simply acted as a "financial conduit" for the payments and that doing so "doesn't replace or bypass any procurement requirements," which remain the city's responsibility.
City attorney Andrew Richman told Axios that the city used an existing contract with PIDC to administer an "economic stimulus program."
Under that agreement, PIDC "issued an RFP on behalf of the City for various on-call strategic support services," and ESM was selected.
The city declined to make officials available to answer detailed questions about the process. ESM didn't respond.
Yes, but: Feder says having "on-call experts" can be useful in emergencies, but not for signature events like the Fourth of July concert that the city had months to plan.
Using the arrangement this way undermines "the spirit and intent" of the city's procurement requirements, Feder says.
"Why give less well-known contractors an opportunity to bid, when a contract can be handed to a favored, pre-cleared company without any need for transparency or competition?"
