![\"Las](\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/LasCrucesCityHall1-336x186.jpg\")
Heath Haussamen \/ NMPolitics.net<\/p>
Las Cruces City Hall<\/p><\/div>\n
The state’s top transparency advocacy organization, the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government, disagrees, and says all applications should be released.<\/p>\n
The Mercer Group, the private firm Las Cruces\u00a0hired to run its\u00a0city manager search, had conducted “a preliminary screening of 51 applications” as of March 29, according to a letter the search firm sent to outgoing City Manager Robert Garza on that date. The letter\u00a0was released to NMPolitics.net in response to a public records request.<\/p>\n
The letter, which is signed by The Mercer Group’s president, James L. Mercer, was accompanied by 11 candidates’ applications, which you can find, along with Mercer’s letter,\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mercer was seeking\u00a0feedback on which candidates the city wanted\u00a0“to pursue further,” the letter states.<\/p>\n It’s clear the candidates expected confidentiality, and that Mercer intended to give it. His letter to Garza is labeled “personal and confidential,” and he wrote in the letter, “Several of the applicants have expressed the need for considerable confidentiality in the process so as to protect their current employment situation.”<\/p>\n Las Cruces Mayor Ken Miyagishima has said The Mercer Group told applicants their names would be confidential unless they were picked as finalists \u2014 and the city hasn\u2019t yet named finalists.<\/p>\n