"Top" economic development consultant apologizes for $150,000 "copied and pasted" reports

[somone]

http://www.bizlex.com/Articles-c-2011-03-03-97211.113117-Update-Release-of-Strategic-Economic-Plan-delayedConsultant-Apologizes.html

March 03, 2011
Update: Statement from Economic Development Consultant Angelou
Citizens group said much of report had been "copied and pasted"
by Tom Martin

Lexington, KY - The Austin, Texas consultant hired by Commerce Lexington and the Lexington Fayette Urban County Government to produce a Strategic Economic Development Plan has apologized after questions were raised about the veracity of the report and has withdrawn the report for review.

Angelou Economics won a $150,000 contract after competitive bidding in 2010 to conduct a comprehensive study of the Lexington area economy. The cost of the project was to be split evenly between the city and chamber. Commerce Lexington was preparing to present findings of the study at an event in Lexington later in the month when the local citizens organization ProgressLex questioned whether significant portions of the report had been "copied and pasted" from similar reports the firm produced for other cities... Angelou was described as "the top guy in the country" in the field of urban and regional economic analysis and planning.

(ProgressLex board member) Self, offering observations about a draft of the report's recommendations, raised questions in a Thursday posting on the organization's blog (http://www.progresslex.org)... Self noted identical language in the executive summaries of reports Angelou provided to Lexington and to the Pikes Peak region of Colorado. "This is only one of many 'copy and paste' jobs that we found in this document. Some are so horrible that they forgot to delete the spaces before the text when they replaced the previous city's name with 'Bluegrass region' for our report."

Self said "without looking too hard" he has discovered verbatim similarities between the Lexington report and those Angelou has produced for Pikes Peak, CO; Des Moines; Lincoln, NE; Pearland, TX; Commerce City, CO; Redmond, WA...

[rfranklin]

1. Sounds like the BP plans for the Gulf oil spill...

Thank god no polar bears were harmed!