The spokeswoman for the Haifa Municipality recently issued a call for publication on its behalf on local media websites. The discussion in the city council dealt with the question of how the tender was held and whether a professional evaluation of the "site value" was done at all, and any threshold conditions. The discussion also dealt with the connection between the site's criticism and the Haifa Municipality's willingness to advertise on it.
Eliran Tal, head of the spokes division of the Haifa municipality opened the discussion and said:
"We received price lists from 11 sites in three languages and we are requesting the council's approval to conduct a tender. When I took office, I received from my predecessors existing agreements, with most of the sites in the city, with all of them signed for a period of one year ahead, without thinking at all. My goal is to publish according to the needs of the municipality Many approached the voice of the reader, which we published and received price lists from the various websites.
According to Eliran Tal, the plan is to advertise on only 4 large local news sites and select them according to the traffic data accumulated in the "Google Analytics" software - completely objective data, according to him, and according to the valuation, to publish on the selected sites in an equal manner, according to the needs of the municipality and according to the professional considerations of Barge wing.
City council members Father Hahn and Kirill Kartnik We argued on the other hand that no professional (and independent) party checked such data and that no threshold conditions were defined for the tender, and that no professional opinion was submitted when the vote was submitted and when the data was submitted for the city council's decision.
◄ Advertising on local media sites - watch the discussion
"Can a wild boar start a news website and get paid for it?"
Council member Kirill Kartnik asked Tal: What were the threshold conditions of the tender?
Tel: "Any Haifa site can submit its price list."
"Each?" Kartnik tapped
"Yes, every Haifa site that operates in Haifa," replied Tal.
"Even a wild boar can open a website and access the tender?"
"On the face of it, yes," replied Tal...
"You saw that there is legitimate journalistic criticism and you are trying to silence it"
Kirill: "You saw that there are websites that criticize the municipality and its leader, so you changed the whole formula so that the spokesperson of the municipality could decide every 10 days whether to work with those websites or not. You are actually trying to silence legitimate journalistic criticism here in the city of Haifa, with us. In fact, news websites Locals will feel the rope around their necks. That's what you're doing here, you're not giving room for real legitimate communication in the city."
Kartnick continued: "There are websites there that I have never seen or heard of, where did you get them from? Anyone can offer and receive payment from public funds in your opinion?"
"What you did is not a tender"
His father Han commented on the matter and said to Tal: "A year ago, we sat on the tenders committee and talked about defining the threshold conditions for media sites in the city, taking into account many professional parameters, so that we could define the large and serious sites that have the highest exposure, especially in Haifa. We also suggested that you hire a professional to help you with this What you did is not a tender. You did not define the threshold conditions, you did not define the entry conditions, the intensity of exposure, you did not define anything. You took the flexibility to choose sites out of 10-12 sites in Haifa. This request of yours is strange and we will not approve it for you And that's a shame," Hahn said.
"It's amateur work"
"Some of those who submitted proposals are not websites at all, it is doubtful if anyone in the entire State of Israel knows them at all," said Avihu Han. "You cannot do amateur work and on the other hand ask that we leave you the flexibility to choose the sites and the publications as you see fit. What you did is at such a level that really, I tell you, we will not approve and it is not appropriate that it be approved."
"When I joined less than two years ago, I received existing agreements from the previous mayor's days," Tal said, "My goal is to advertise as needed. We will advertise on websites only when needed and not every month."
"There is no threshold of 30,000 hits!"
When Tal was asked about the threshold conditions for entering the tender, Tal replied that there was a certain threshold of 30,000 entries according to Google Analytics. Kartnik replied that this was not true and that these threshold conditions did not exist. "We need to cancel the tender, check how many hits each website has and make sure that quality and serious websites are chosen." Kartnik concluded.
"There are clear tools and processes to examine the media websites. Different websites have different exposure strengths. And according to that they should be selected. This is not a correct and proper tender that should be done with professional tools," Han clarified.
"Your decision doesn't hurt me but the Haifa sites," Tal said angrily, "We advertise recycling, sports events, etc.
Cliché: "This is a crazy border crossing"
Mayor Kalish Rotem:
"Isn't this an attempt to decide the speaker and work in his place? There is a pretty crazy border crossing here, I understand that they don't like what Aliran is doing, but... they want to decide where we publish?"
Council member Nir Shuver:
"This is a very important thing. The public needs to know what's going on. The public needs to know everything that happens in the city. The budget should be 4 times larger than the barracks. I want to say right now those who work on the websites of Radio Haifa, Haifa News, Haifa, are Haifa people and you are hurting them. We need to work with the media. The public needs to know what's going on."
Councilor Avihu Han
"There are appropriate tools to rank the sites. Each site has a different exposure and power. If Eliran Tal had made a proper tender, with the right tools, if he had told each site how much exposure it has - there would be no problem."
Eliran Tal said:
"Come work in my place."
Kartnik replied:
"Maybe this is the solution."
not approved
The issue was put to a vote and was not approved, as mentioned. Council members told Tal that they are in favor of advertising on local websites and wish to submit a revised tender. Tal replied that he did not intend to do so. "The meaning is that in 2022 there will be no advertising on Haifa media websites," Tal said.
The results of the vote - the tender prepared by Eliran Tal was rejected by the city council:
2 in favor • 15 against • 2 abstentions
At the end of a long and intriguing discussion, the city council rejected Eliran Tal's request for the approval of the Haifa Municipality spokeswoman's tender for the selection of websites for municipal advertising. The main reason for the rejection is the lack of a professional analysis of the news sites as well as the lack of an announcement on the distribution of advertising budgets in correlation to the value of the sites.
Eliran Tal's response to the city council's decision:
"I will not submit a new tender and as far as I am concerned there will be no municipal advertising in 2022 on Haifa websites..."
The honorable Mr. Roger agrees with some of your words and we will not forget how the previous mayor took care of the owners of Radio Haifa and we will not forget how during the election campaign they slandered the then cliché candidate and even belittled her. So what's the wonder that Radio Haifa is not her best??? And by the way, the local press in general never praised her, so don't be surprised... not everything was so pure with the previous one, and far from it
With all due respect to the spokesperson of the municipality Eliran Tal (and I have respect) the municipality does not own it.... He must inform the public in all the ways available to him. If it is found that the tender was not proper, he must re-tender. The residents of Haifa are not hostages of the municipal administration but their employers who pay their salaries. You should remember this and not get confused or make a mistake.
Full disclosure: I worked for 24 years at the Haifa Municipality Spokesperson as the Director of the Division, under the mayors of Mitsna and Yahav.
Eliran Tal the speaker forgot the journalistic principles that guided Eliran Tal the journalist
It is really sad that people who tell in media conferences that they work for the public to inform the good and bad of the municipalities
Becomes a municipal body that tries through budgets to silence legitimate criticism and demands that the public's eyes be blinded to the municipality's failings.
Come on, put us more "Haifai pig in the vicinity" signs... a great solution to the plague of wild pigs. And threaten those who will investigate the failure not to
Advertise with us. Not a dictatorship at all…
It is amazing that a municipal employee allows himself to inform the city council that he will not respect its wishes in a proper tender. It is clear that the municipality liked to advertise, it is clear that the bidding process must be in order, it is clear that the council's decisions bind the municipality - and still - a municipal official whose salary is paid by the public, announces that he will not obey the council's instructions and if what he wants is not done - then there will be no publication.
Does he have something to hide? Maybe he doesn't have the professional ability to deal with criticism? Does anyone instruct him to act like this?
It seems that the Ministry of the Interior should look into what is happening - after all, it is public money.
The audacity of a municipality spokesperson to tell the council members that he does not intend to do a tender according to metrics and also wants to decide every few days where to advertise according to the degree of momentum of the site is the crazy crossing of the borders, Mrs. Klish. The municipality has its own website. Social network entities and public buildings with boards and all notice boards in the city belong to the municipality, which means it can advertise for free.
Nir Shuver wants 4 times the budgets of barges.. Nice! This is the same faction of theirs that at every opportunity Klish and her gang told us that Yahav spends millions to buy media and also makes huge billboards for himself in every street stratification. How the wheel turns, turns to him.
Of course it's a bought tender, only websites that don't write against the mayor publish a point on them
Dear Mr. Tal,
First and foremost, please publish the entire tract of criminality that occurs in the Engineering Directorate and the Building Licensing Division in all that is related to the distribution of building permits that is trending, puzzling and contrary to the law!!
Please publicly publish all the mask of manipulations, demagoguery and lies that occur in the activities of the professional teams of the director of engineering and the building licensing division, which are expressed in the plenary of the local committee from the mouth of the city engineer whose job it is to maintain the proper management of all building licensing procedures, but who does the opposite without getting in the way.
These issues were widely publicized in the local press even without the need for your dubious tender. You seem to have forgotten that the Haifa Municipality is subject to and bound by the Law on Tenders and its regulations.
They also published how these criminal moves slip easily under the radar of the legal department attached to the local committee.