CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Cleveland City Council paid more than $360,000 over the last six years to a consulting firm for duties that remain unclear to some council members and that two council leaders refuse to discuss.

Council President Kevin Kelley and Council Clerk Pat Britt also refuse to explain how the Cobalt Group landed its first contract with council in 2008 and whether any competing firms received consideration.

Council records indicate that Britt, who administers the contract, sought proposals from no other firms and did not submit the Cobalt Group's proposal to any written evaluation.

Council unanimously renewed the firm's contract for a seventh year in December, though council members interviewed for this story struggled to explain what the firm does or acknowledged that they had never heard of the Cobalt Group.

Northeast Ohio Media Group started examining the work done by the Cleveland-based firm last month as part of an ongoing series on consultants employed by City Council.

An installment published in January found that another consultant, The Project Group, which is paid up to $250,000 a year to monitor public utilities, offered little or no advice in recent years on a number of controversial utility-related issues.

We've broken the rest of this story into the following chapters, so you can read the entire piece or click on the parts that pique your interest.

What does the Cobalt Group do?

"I have no idea what the Cobalt Group does, other than I was told they were working on internal management processes," Councilman Michael Polensek said in a recent interview. "Is it I.T.? I have no idea. .... And I would have to venture and say that the majority of the people in the body don't know that as well."

Cobalt Group founder, Patti Choby, declined requests for interviews, but suggested in an email that paperwork her firm submitted to council would resolve any confusion about the firm's duties.

But the consultants' yearly proposals and monthly invoices describe the scope of their work largely in broad terms with few specifics.

The language used in the firm's latest $66,000 contract states that the firm assists in "directing and providing technical assistance for the implementation of priority issue/opportunity areas of the Cleveland City Council Operations and Sustainability Plan."

And council members -- including some who have served on the Operations committee that oversees such contracts -- said in recent weeks that they were unaware that a so-called Sustainability Plan even existed.

In a written statement last week, the council president said he is in the process of assembling a special committee, headed by Britt, to review all of council's professional service contracts, and he does not want to influence the committee's findings by commenting on individual contracts.

Kelley said that the review, which was requested by some council members on the heels of NEOMG's story about The Project Group, would be complete in time for the 2015 budget process.

The Cobalt Group holds a "professional services" contract, which a city council spokesman said does not require council to solicit proposals from other firms.

But City Councilman Terrell Pruitt, the newly appointed Operations Committee chairman, said in a recent interview that the vetting process calls for all contract proposals to be scored each year -- even if the firm is the only one to submit a proposal for the job.

No record exists of the Cobalt Group's proposal ever being scored.

How the Cobalt Group came to council's attention remains unclear, though the professional paths of Britt and Choby have intersected several times over the years.

Both were hired in 1990 at the Mandel School of Applied Sciences at Case Western Reserve University - Choby as the director of communications and marketing, and Britt as a member of the Field Education faculty.

Britt was elected to City Council in 1995, and that same year, Choby left Case to serve as the program director at the Fairfax Renaissance Development Corporation in Britt's ward.

Choby left that job two years later to establish the Cobalt Group. And a few months after Britt was appointed council clerk in 2008, Choby's firm landed its council contract.

What the records say about the Cobalt Group

The Cobalt Group's first proposal to council in 2008 states that the firm would "implement and sustain ongoing operational improvements and the development of Council's infrastructure to support efficient systems/processes and delivery of quality services to constituents and other stakeholders."

(See the firm's contracts and invoices in the document viewers below.)

It goes on to outline four phases of work, focused on interviewing "key leaders and stakeholders," observing the legislative process and overall efficiencies and clarifying council's vision for the future. And it states that the consultants will serve as advisors and coaches to the clerk and her staff "through implementation of process improvements and sustainability."

According to proposals and invoices, the Cobalt Group helped organize policy and budget retreats for council members, consulted with Britt on certain staff assignments, helped strengthen council's communications department and assisted in selecting a software provider to install a new Legislative Tracking System and train council on its use.

More recent proposals suggest that the firm has helped Britt choose a vendor to handle the redesign of council's website and revise the legislative clerk's workflow.

Proposals and invoices refer repeatedly to council's Operations and Sustainability Initiative.

But when asked for a copy of what sounds to be a guiding document for the consultants, council Communications Director Jim Kopniske wrote in an email that it is an "ongoing initiative/project."

He provided a set of memos and updates, describing the technology upgrades and featuring several pages of bullet pointed recommendations from 2008, such as, "Change perception of safety in the city's neighborhoods," and "Educate the general public about what Council does, what the City Administration does - enhance the council's image with the public."

Council members renew contract with little knowledge of services provided

The Cobalt Group's contract was one of nearly two dozen current council contracts approved or renewed in December without a committee hearing to determine their merits.

Council members interviewed in recent weeks said they did not know what, specifically, the Cobalt Group does for council or Britt. (See video above for council members' candid responses.)

Councilwoman Dona Brady said she was surprised to learn that council has contracted with the consultants for six years and said she is unaware of any improvements on account of their work.

Pruitt said he has noticed that Britt's staff has been able to locate legislation more promptly upon demand since the legislative tracking system was installed. But he was uncertain on the specifics of the Cobalt Group's role in achieving that.

Councilman Zack Reed said he is familiar with Choby's credentials and believes she has "tools in her toolbox" that could benefit council.

"But I think it just comes down, once again, to communication," Reed said. "And we don't have that much communication with them. ... If you're not communicating with the full body of council, then it's meaningless."

Council members Kevin Conwell and Mamie Mitchell, both of whom served on the Operations Committee in recent years, said they were under the impression that the Cobalt Group was offering council members guidance on special projects.

Conwell went on to describe the contract held by The Project Group.

In an email Tuesday to NEOMG and Plain Dealer editors, Choby said her team works with Britt, council staff and the Operations Committee, not directly with council members, "with exceptions when we are engaging Council Members on various community-based projects on which we are working."

The example she provided was an Anti-Youth Violence Initiative.

Reed, who has been drumming up support for the initiative for years and spearheaded a white paper on the topic with the help of council researcher John James, said Tuesday that Choby expressed an interest in the project only in the past few weeks.

Choby wrote that her team had planned on releasing a case study on the Operations and Sustainability Initiative in May "summarizing the approach, outcomes and lessons learned."

"However, in light of the work your reporter is doing to disparage our work and reputation we have decided to release it earlier and independently," she wrote.

<a href="http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/1146757/cobaltgroupcontracts.pdf">CobaltGroupContracts (PDF)</a> <br /> <a href="http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/1146757/cobaltgroupcontracts.txt">CobaltGroupContracts (Text)</a>