TO: Mr.

Jeff Grant, Human Resources Director

FR: Alan Reddish, Sr. Vice President

RE: Savannah City Manager Search

DT: March 4, 2020

This letter is to notify the City of Savannah that the Mercer Group is withdrawing its proposal dated
December 20, 2019 to provide executive search services for the selection of a new City Manager. We
are taking this action for the following reasons:

First, since submitting the proposal in December we have accepted several search projects that require a
commitment of resources which impacts our ability to properly assist Savannah with its search.

Second, we are concerned that the City’s expectation of having a new City Manager appointed in May is
unrealistic and hampers the ability of any search firm to properly recruit and evaluate quality candidates
Savannah deserves.

Third, typically when an election creates a major shift in elected leadership it takes a significant amount
of time for the dynamics of board governance to settle and for the governing authority to project a
unified vision along with a commitment to work effectively with professional staff to implement that
vision. Based upon media reports and internet postings of Mayor and Council actions to date, many
quality potential candidates probably will conclude that this is the stage of governance Savannah finds
itself in which creates a greater risk of failure than they are unwilling to take at this time. The Mayor
and Council may be better served by entering into an agreement with an interim City Manager to serve
until the end of 2020 and then restart the search efforts after the dynamics of their governance are
better defined and a candidate who can work within those dynamics can be selected.

Thank you for giving the Mercer Group the opportunity to submit a proposal for this important search
for the City of Savannah. We believe you deserve a quality search which will ultimately result in the
selection of a City Manager that can have long term success serving the Mayor and Council as well as the
citizens of your great city. If we can be of service in the future, please don’t hesitate to call upon us.

Sr. Vice President

The Mercer Group