Taylor Files Complaints Over Arizona Tourism By Kathy Tyre

TUCSON, ARIZ. - Taylor Advertising here, which lost the $3.5-4-million Arizona Office of Tourism account last month, has filed two complaints charging the

So far, the Office of Procurement, to which agency president Jay Taylor has lodged his complaint, has found the protest without merit. But Taylor said in the complaint he plans to sue the Office of Procurement for $1.5 million in damages if the complaints are not resolved by the state agency to his satisfaction. The Office of Procurement oversees all bidding of state contracts.
Under terms of the bidding process, Taylor is obliged to bring his complaint before various appeal boards before taking it to the courts. Taylor is currently undergoing the third, and last, appeal process.
Taylor handled the account for 11 years before it moved to Phoenix agency Moses Anshell last month. Among its complaints, the agency contends that the review evaluation committee, heavy on Phoenicians and including only one representative from Tucson, ‘may not have been fair to Taylor.’
Taylor also claimed in his written protest that State Department of Commerce director Jim Marsh, who serves as the Governor’s staff person overseeing the Office of Tourism, ‘threatened’ to involve himself in the review to upset Taylor, and ‘selected replacements for original committee members.’ Taylor claims that ‘only members of the Procurement Office are allowed to appoint the committee’ and that Marsh ‘unduly influenced the bid.’
In its response to Taylor’s complaints, The Office of Procurement claims the Tucson review committee member actually accorded Taylor’s proposal the fewest number of points awarded to the five agencies competing for the account. It also claims that Marsh did not select any committee members.
Copyright Adweek L.P. (1993)