The Scenic Rim Regional Council's PR hardman, Mr Lyall Mercer is at it again. Having ordered the Tamborine Mountain Daily Star to remove articles and rearrange the Star's layout recently - which is the subject of an Official Complaint by the Daily Star - he is now targeting the local print media with his criticism and demands.
This time Lyall Mercer has complained to the award winning Boonah newspaper, the Fassifern Guardian, over the placement of a letter and an article regarding Mercer's employment contract with the Scenic Rim Regional Council.
Mr Mercer, a self-proclaimed expert on "managing" the media on behalf of clients, bitterly complained in an email to The Guardian's Editor Wendy Creighton that ". . . the heading and sub-heading of the article were inaccurate and inflammatory and the entire basis of the letter was inaccurate."
When asked about Mercer's comments, Editor Creighton said, "I point out that had Mercer or the Council media department, the Mayor or the CEO chosen to answer any of the several emails we sent with questions regarding his engagement before publication, then his argument would carry some weight."
Mercer says the rate he is charging the Scenic Rim Regional Council - which was said to be $1,000 per day - was overstated in the Guardian letter.
BACKGROUND: A rate of $1,000 per day is a fairly typical rate for mid level corporate PR person in our experience.
Typically a PR person at this charge-out rate would have 4-5 years experience but would generally have to report to a more senior PR Manager on all but a minor consultancy.
In the corporate and government sector, there is nothing unusual about rates of $120+ per hour for expert consultants.
Mr Mercer however, says that he is actually discounting this $1,000 per day rate for the Scenic Rim Regional Council.
"The actual rate based on the total hours is well below this," said Mercer, "And works out at approximately one-third of my usual consultancy rates. It is below, or at the most equivalent to, most professional wages."
While operating businesses in both Brisbane and Los Angeles, Mr Mercer seems to have a soft spot for the ratepayers of the Scenic Rim, leaving more profitable work in the private sector to help the Council "improve communications, increase efficiency, provide better ways for residents to stay updated with important information and bring added benefits to ratepayers."
Mr Mercer went on, "I am honoured to work alongside the staff at SRRC who genuinely care about this region and strive to make it better."
Scenic Rim Rate Payers Association President Ken Vandermolen seems unimpressed with the reasons given for Mr Mercer's employment. In an email to Mercer, Vandermolen said: "I have applied for RTI material regarding your employment as I object in the strongest possible terms to both your employment at MY expense and the wastage of the rate payer dollars on top of an already top heavy Media Department within council."
The question is - what crisis or media management issue triggered the employment of someone with Mr Mercer's particular experience and why is he prepared to discount his services to one-third of what he normally charges in the free market? That's just $333.33 a day for someone who says he normally charges 3 times that. What is going on here? Who is helping who out?
I guess, for the temerity of asking such impertinent questions, that we will have to endure another explosive outpouring from Mr Mercer.
A Crisis PR consultant who creates his very own crises? Sounds like a perpetual motion machine doesn't it? It is such fun tearing up money in the midst of an economic slump. It has such a decadent style about it . . .
Well, I guess I'm just Cranky!