Regarding the Dec. 4, 2008 article “Cordova Cozies Up to Former City Contractor,” it is a shame that information concerning contractors such as the Mercer Group isn’t shared between local governments. Such information sharing might save the taxpayer a lot of money and elected officials a lot of wasted time and effort.
The article states that after paying the Mercer Group $10,000, the search failed to produce a candidate acceptable to the Council. Los Alamos County also hired the Mercer Group in 2003 to search for both a County Administrator and a Community Development Director. Los Alamos County paid Mercer a total of $17,773.78 (Oct. 24, 2004 Los Alamos Monitor) for a contract from May to September 2003.
Applicant Donna Dreska was included in the County Administrator candidates and Eric Toll was included in the Community Development Director candidates brought forward by James Mercer, President of the Mercer Group. Toll later resigned after it was discovered that he did not hold a BS in Urban Planning as stated on his résumé.
Councilor Fran Berting stated that “Mercer did let us down on Eric Toll.” (Los Alamos Monitor, Oct. 24, 2004). Dreska asked for a separation agreement from Los Alamos County after just one tumultuous and ineffective year on the job, following a trend established in Chandler, Ariz. and Boca Raton, Fla. She left Los Alamos with a settlement of $72,500 (Oct. 27, 2004 Monitor), close to the sum ($98,670) which she got from Chandler after her resignation was accepted there, soon before Mercer put her name forward to Los Alamos.
Dreska’s track record in Boca Raton, Fla. also raised questions after documented by citizens’ research via Google in late 2004. James Mercer knew Dreska personally, and recommended her highly to the Los Alamos search committee. Councilor Mike Wismer stated that “I think he (Mercer) should have been more thorough. Also, based on what happened with Eric Toll,…I would not recommend that we go through a headhunter.” (Los Alamos Monitor, Oct. 20, 2004)
Perhaps The City of Española should be grateful that none of Mercer’s recommended candidates for the job were hired after all.
Diane Albert
Los Ranchos