PR firm quits California high-speed rail project amid tensions

As state
and national pressure mounts against the project, locals charged that
its PR firm, D.C.-based Ogilvy Public Relations, wasn’t doing enough to
earn its $9 million contract.

A former rail authority chairman — Quentin Kopp, one of Ogilvy’s most
vocal critics — said the firm overcharged for simple tasks and
over-billed for short meetings by several hours.

Ogilvy has a
different story.

“We were unable to develop a solid working relationship with your
agency, and that impeded the kind of top-notch work we are accustomed to
providing our clients,” the firm’s West Coast managing director,
Michael Law, said in a letter to rail officials Wednesday.

According to the San Jose Mercury News, the firm heard that it might
be fired at an upcoming rail authority meeting, and promptly resigned.

Construction
on the 500-mile rail project will begin in about a year, and if more
financing is secured, plans say the trains will start to run in 2020.