Richmond City Council will explore the cost of the mayor's public relations and marketing office at its budget work session set for Wednesday.

Some council members have questioned and criticized the administration's need for six public relations, information and marketing employees in the mayor's press secretary office on top of the 14 public information officers who work for other city departments, not counting the school system. City Council has one public information officer.

Despite the criticism, the proposed fiscal year 2009 budget for the press office is actually less than what it was before Mayor L. Douglas Wilder took office and his first budget.

Council president Bill Pantele (2nd) said City Council was asked to fund the press secretary office about two years ago, and did so knowing the mayor would have needs.

"It was the right thing to do," he said. "Since then, we've heard of various communications positions being added, like videographer, and we were advised of a great number of positions in the administrative side."

During tight budget times, the city ought to try to trim unnecessary expenses, Pantele said, which is why they requested more information to make good decisions.

But Press Secretary Linwood Norman said the office's responsibilities have greatly increased despite a 25 percent reduction in the office's budget since 2005, and the six employees aren't enough to address their needs.

"Not at all. The responsibilties far outweigh the resources. When you look at the magnitude of work we do, it speaks well to have a six-man office," he said, adding that some of their work includes Web site maintence, newsletters, brochures, annual reports, video programming and press events.

In comparison to surrounding jurisdictions, Chesterfield County has 11 employees in its government public affairs department, including an administrative secretary, a Hispanic liaison and three part-timers. Henrico County has 20 employees in its government public relations office, including nine who work for its nationally award-winning TV channel.

Neither county has any public relations official who works solely for the executive branch. But Richmond doesn't either, said Mike Wallace, a level-three public information manager who manages the mayor's press secretary office but reports to chief administrative officer Sheila Hill-Christian.

"We not only work with the mayor, but we also work with other departments, like community and economic development, finance and the office of minority business development," Wallace said. "(We also) manage government channel 17 on Verizon and Comcast and the www.Richmondgov.com Web site."

Overall, that office also works with 10 other city departments in addition to the mayor's office, Wallace said.

Councilman Bruce Tyler (1st) said council will be taking a hard look at the mayor's press office.

"As we looked at the budget, we had a lot of question marks beside the amount spent for public relations," he said. "My big concern is how you have six people pumping out information for the city."