Los Angeles County used federal relief funds meant for struggling Californians on contracts to public relations companies that recruited celebrity influences for coronavirus messaging.

The PR firms were hired to help with LA County's COVID-19 messaging through celebrity influencers.

According to a local news report from FOX 11 Los Angeles, the LA County specifically sought these celebrity influencers to help "spread coronavirus messaging on social media."

Federal CARES Act funds were said to have been used to offset these contracts' costs, which now amount to almost $3 million.

The contracts were said to be no-bid and the agreements were made back in early 2020 as the pandemic began to gain footing in the U.S.

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Image by Arek Socha from Pixabay

FOX 11 reported on these contracts in April, stating that both Mercury Public Affairs and Fraser Communications were hired for communications assistance at a rate of $200,000 each.

That makes a total of $400,000 for the communications effort alone.

Since then, the contracts have been extended and taxpayers had to pay the significant cost, reported Daily Wire.

That is millions worth of taxpayer money down to PR firms when the county itself has a fully staffed communications team.

LA County Spokesperson Defends PR Expense

The communications department for the county could still be likely capable of handling the workload of the coronavirus messaging.

But they might not be ready to hire celebrities to help in convincing the public about the importance of public health measures linked to the pandemic.

A spokesperson for the county also defended the hefty expense, saying the county really did need assistance.

The communications office was packed with "expanded activities," they told Fox Business.

People had to respond to hundreds of requests each week from media partners, create and disseminate new culturally and linguistically appropriate educational materials daily, and hold dozens of briefings in a single week to inform all of the county's residents and address concerns.

This is not the only time California government has been questioned for financial issues amid the pandemic.

Several entities in California's governance had been under scrutiny recently due to financial issues related to COVID-19.

According to Daily Wire, it is possible that the state as a whole may have wasted a large sum of money that was supposed to support Californians during the pandemic.

In a previous report from the news outlet, it was said the errors and scams led the state to send out unemployment benefits to thousands of prison inmates, even those on death row.

Several lawyers are already looking into the misappropriation of jobless benefits, said a report from Los Angeles Times.

PR Firms in Celebrity Influencers Deal Have Ties to Former Legislators

Fox Business said in a report that the firms involved in the contracts are liked to former California lawmakers.

So it may be possible that the firms had an easier track to win the contracts paid for by CARES Act.

The campaign's finance reports revealed that former legislator Fabian Nunez, who is now a consultant at Mercury Public Affairs, donated in February the maximum of $1,500 allowed to L.A. County Supervisor Board Chair Kathryn Barger's campaign.

This donation was given the month before the no-bid contract was first approved.

But Barger argued that the donation had nothing to do with the contract's approval.

"It's public information, it's reported, it's legal, it bared no relevance to this contract being awarded," she said.