$10 Million Bay Bridge Contract Included ($500K) Book Deal, Video

State officials overseeing construction of the new San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge agreed this year to pay a public relations company nearly $10 million for services the Brown administration says it knew nothing about, including hundreds of thousands of dollars to conduct tours and to produce a video and commemorative book.

“When we found out about it, we cancelled it,” said Jim Evans, a spokesman for the state Business, Transportation & Housing Agency, which oversees Caltrans. “A commemorative book and a documentary about the Bay Bridge is not a wise use of tollpayer resources.”

The contract included $500,000 for book printing.