Cayce paid a media relations firm thousands when it had another under contract
The city of Cayce paid a communications firm more than $17,000 for services rendered in late 2023 and early 2024, despite already contracting out with a different communications firm.
The city, which has been mired in controversy over the last year as a number of top officials have abruptly departed amid city council bickering and staff frustration, paid NP Strategy $17,725 for various media relations work, including at least $2,100 to discuss the city’s strategy relating to public records requests, according to invoices provided to The State.
“At this time, it is believed that those funds to pay the second public relations firm to do media relations and address police department FOIA requests came from the police department or general legal fund,” city spokesperson Ashley Hunter told The State.
“It is not typical to see media relations funds for a second public relations firm come out of a department’s legal fund and that is something we will continue to look into,” Hunter added.
The payments to NP Strategy came while Cayce was also paying Hunter, who runs public relations firm MPA Strategies. For her work with the city she makes around $78,000 annually. Hunter has been working with the city for more than a decade.
“It does not make any sense since we have a contract with MPA Strategies to handle that sort of business for us and I did not find out until long after this transaction was ordered … I did not find out until after the fact that this was actually done, which is really disappointing,” City Councilman Phil Carter said.
It’s unclear who exactly authorized the company to do work for the city. The city council did not take a vote on approving those funds, multiple council members confirmed. The invoices are addressed to then-city manager Tracy Hegler. Hegler, who resigned from the city in a ‘mutual separation’ in July of last year, did not immediately respond to The State’s request for comment.
Under Cayce’s city ordinances, the city manager is authorized to procure services for which funds are provided in the budget, but has to get council’s approval for services over $25,000.
The invoices detail work that the company did for the month of December 2023, as well as one invoice from April, and include at least three billed meetings related to reviewing Freedom of Information Act requests. It’s unclear what public records requests the company was reviewing or why.
The company deferred questions about what exactly the money was used for to Cayce, citing client confidentiality, but provided a statement to a reporter outlining the company’s strengths at “navigating the fast-moving, often unpredictable media landscape” when asked why Cayce would have employed two marketing firms at once.
On December 13, 2023, NP Strategy billed Cayce $1,008 for a call regarding “FOIA strategy response, review of documents and drafting messaging.” In April, the company billed the city $87 for a less than 20 minute phone call with a WIS reporter. At least seven line items in the invoices, totaling $3,118, include phone calls or strategy meetings with someone referred to as “Chief.” The $400 initial meeting, on December 6, 2023, listed as a “background call to gather information” included Chris Cowan, who was Cayce’s police chief at that time.
Cowan oversaw the department from October 2021 until he left for a job with the University of South Carolina in July 2024. During his time, from November 2021 until April 2024, 44 employees, or around 20% per year, left the department, according to a memo sent to city council in April 2024 and later provided to The State.
Cowan didn’t immediately respond to The State’s request for comment.
After Cowan left, the city hired Chief Herbert Blake from Buncombe County, N.C. Blake abruptly resigned after three months on the job after employees in the department accused him of creating a hostile work environment.
This story was originally published June 12, 2025 at 2:43 PM.
