GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — The videos Rob Bliss produced for the City of Grand Rapids in exchange for debt forgiveness had amassed just more than 300 views on YouTube as of Monday night and experts say they may not be worth the money for which they were exchanged.

Rob Bliss is known for being the mastermind behind large-scale events in Grand Rapids like a giant waterside downtown and a massive pillow fight.

But while putting on those events, he accrued debt with the city. With the tab totaling around $11,000, the city made a deal with Bliss. He produced nine 30-second videos and the city wiped his debt off the books.

When news broke about the deal in October 2015, the videos had not yet been released. Now they are available to view online.

The 30-second PSAs feature few shots and simplistic editing.

Cynthia Kay owns Cynthia Kay and Company Media Production, an award winning production company in downtown Grand Rapids. After a request from 24 Hour News 8, she reviewed the PSAs and was surprised at the quality level.

“It’s very surprising,” Kay said. “I’ve seen interns at colleges and universities do more creative and better work than that.”

Kay said she suspects the videos took about a day’s work to shoot with minimal time in editing.

“Good is subjective. But there’s really simplistic and that’s what that is,” Kay said. “I don’t see a lot of variety in the shots. It’s pretty simplistic — something that could be shot very quickly and edited even faster.”

“One person, one camera, the going rates in the market would be anywhere from $1,500 to $2,000… Nowhere near $11,000,” she added.

Karl R. Koelling with Taproot Pictures, another production company, also said the videos were of low quality.

“I would say that the creative approach is very basic, and that the production quality is low as well,” Koelling said in an email to 24 Hour News 8. “If you were to have asked different production companies to price these out based on concept alone (without seeing these, the finished product), you would most likely have found some that would have charged less, as well as others that would have charged more.”

A spokesperson for the City of Grand Rapids said the city is satisfied with Bliss’s work.

“We got what we paid for… He lived up to the terms of the contract,” spokesperson Steve Guitar said. “We had hoped the video would get our story across… and he did that.”

Guitar declined to comment on whether the city felt the videos were actually worth the $11,000 in debt for which they were exchanged. He did say the city would consider working on similar projects with Bliss again.

“We’d certainly entertain the idea,” Guitar said.

Bliss recently returned to the headlines after filing a lawsuit against an organization that he claimed paid him only about half of the $50,000 he was owed for a project.

Bliss, a former WOOD TV8 employee who is not related to Grand Rapids Mayor Rosalyn Bliss, did not respond to requests for an interview with 24 Hour News 8 Monday evening.

Kay said the videos don’t reflect the level of talent available in Grand Rapids and could’ve been better for the price.

“We love our city. We do. We are fiercely proud of our city. So, we obviously want everything to really reflect well on it,” Kay said. “I think there’s a certain level of quality that we expect from the city. I just don’t know that that meets the quality level certainly that I expect.”

In the past, the city said the value Bliss’ projects brought to the city was a factor in its decision to make the deal with him.