Scooped! City manager hunt takes an unexpected twist

Matt's got a great scoop on the latest in the Durham city manager hunt. Seems that one of our three candidates (Patrick Salerno, most recently from Sunrise, FL) is a finalist for another city manager job. No big deal there, right? Qualified city managers are a relatively small pool, and city manager openings are equally small.

Here's where it gets good.

Pat Salerno, former city manager of Sunrise, Fla., is in the hunt for the Wichita top job, according to that city's Web site.

Wichita's search is aided by Jim Mercer of The Mercer Group, the same Atlanta firm helping the city of Durham.

In another parallel, Durham finalist George Kolb recently left the city manager job in Wichita. Salerno declined comment when reached Tuesday afternoon.

Hey, maybe Durham and Wichita should have gone halfsies on the Mercer Group's headhunter fee? Certainly no less ethical than billing two different clients for the same work, no?