Mercer Update
July 6th, 2007 by Joel Rozen in News
Their city manager finally hired, Sarasota commissioners have now turned their attention to the Mercer Group, Inc., the national headhunting firm responsible for delays in their search process. Just two days after selecting Bob Bartolotta for the job, commissioners learned of a 2003 scandal involving the former city manager of Jupiter, FL — one of several details that had not been properly noted by the Mercer Group.
As CL reported in mid-June, this was not the first time Mercer’s Florida Branch Director Tom Freijo had been remiss. And in both cases, eerily similar despite divergent outcomes (Bartolotta was hired in the end, whereas Citrus county commissioners ultimately lost their first choice), Freijo stopped answering his phone once his oversight was detected.
But as was announced yesterday at city hall, there’s little room for revenge. Having reviewed the terms of their $20,000 contract with the Mercer Group, city attorney Robert Fournier reported his findings:
“I would have liked to advise the commission that you could have withheld the last third of payment with impunity,” he said. “Both parties, when the contract was executed, had the understanding and expectation that unproven allegations would be uncovered and reported. [But] I just don’t think that the language in the contract is explicit enough to do that.”
Especially since Bartolotta was selected in the end. “I really saw little recourse here other than to make the payment, so I have to reluctantly give you that advice.”
Commissioner Kirschner asked if Fournier had discussed this with Mercer. The attorney had not. “I want to have a dialogue with them,” Kirschner said. He motioned for further negotiation with the firm, and suggested that if this proved futile, the commission would issue a press release to the business wire describing the headhunter’s negligence.
The commission accepted his proposal.
(Commissioner Clapp later proposed inviting Freijo in to “discuss his performance,” mano-a-mano, with the commission. “I’m not sure I even want to go there,” said Mayor Palmer.)
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