Sunday, January 31, 1999
Shirey's PR exec gets the word out
BY JIM KNIPPENBERG
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Oh. So city manager John Shirey now has an official public relations person on the payroll?
Looking to launch a new image, is he? Put a softer spin on some of those rough stories that sometimes come popping up (911 operators, supposed police misconduct)?
Hmmm. Psst! is hearing rumbles like, “Why does he need PR? Why not buy a salt truck or something with the money? It's not as if we could take our business elsewhere.”
Let's ask Gina Ruffin Moore, appointed to the job four weeks ago. “The city manager's office has always had a communications manager. True, my focus will be a little different and we may be more visible over here, but there's no reason to grumble. It's not a new post or anything like that.
“What I'll be trying to do is get the word out about services the city provides. Since these all fall under the city manager, I'm sure he will be more visible. But that's not the goal.
“The goal is to make sure Cincinnatians know that every penny of their tax dollar is well spent.”
Take the Recreation Department for example. “It's one of the largest in the country and has been voted No. 1 in the country (National Parks Commission) and nobody knows.
“I'm going to make sure people do — all that and more.”
Before city hall, Moore did PR three years at UC and, before that, three years for Cincinnati Public Schools. “That was a challenge. But it may be nothing compared to this.”
Oh yeah, one more thing: If the Ruffin name rings a bell, well it should. Gina is the niece of Temptations singer, the late David Ruffin.
THE ONION CRISIS: More rumbles, grumbles and a major crisis: Frisch's is having trouble meeting the demand for onion rings. So much trouble that in the past week Psst! heard from several whiney customers.
What gives?
“It's a good position to be in when demand outstrips supply, but it is a problem,” marketing director Karen Maier says.
“You need to understand how it works. We use colossal yellow Spanish onions — 800 bags a week, 50 pounds each. That's 40,000 pounds or 20 tons a week.”
Onions are peeled with an air hose, sliced in a bread slicer and bagged at the Walnut Hills commissary, then shipped to 88 stores.
“They're hand-breaded at the stores,” Maier says. “It's a messy, time consuming two-step process, one for batter, one for breading. That's the problem — individual stores can't do them fast enough.”
Furthermore, it's going to get worse before it gets better: “Our TV commercials started running this week, and since onion rings are one of our signature dishes, they're featured. That always boosts sales.”
On the bright side, “We're testing a breading machine. That should eliminate the problem.”
BELL WATCH: Meanwhile, over in France, the Millennium Monument World Peace Bell is in the throes of a spit-and-polish job.
That from Verdin Co. president Jim Verdin. “So far, the bell is perfect. Exactly what we had hoped. We now have four people working full time to clean and polish it to the gold sheen the finished product will have.”
The schedule has the bell getting its yoke mid-February, being tested March 8, put on display to the people of Nantes (where it was cast), March 24 or 25, then hefted onto a barge to New Orleans (expect a big party).
Verdin expects the bell in New Orleans July 4, and in Cincinnati in early September.
Psst! appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Have an item to report? Call Jim Knippenberg at 768-8513; fax: 768-8330.
Psst! appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Have an item to report? Call Jim Knippenberg at 768-8513; fax: 768-8330.
KNIPPENBERG ARCHIVE
