It is about time that the City of Atherton hired a credible consulting firm to once and for all, clear the air in this small City in the Southern part of San Mateo County. The newspapers, and some residents, are having a field day with the staff and and City Council. Hopefully, the current City Mgt will get the backing he needs to get to the bottom of the Cities problems. With all the negative newspaper articles, it is probably worth some of the taxpayers funds to clean up this mess.

Good for atherton. Thats more productive than using tax payer money to put a spin on the inside doings and slam firefighters like MPFPD has done.

mike puts a spin on this thread to misunderstood, over paid Menlo Park firefighters.

Atherton had an efficiency expert on its payroll several years ago. His name is John Johns. He was the Town's finance director. He was expelled from the Town when he started asking questions about how the Police Department was spending its money.

Let's hope the consultants don't suffer the same fate.

Unlike Mr. Johns, I suspect these consultants were hand-picked, like Police Peterson, to figure out how the cops are actually overworked and underpaid. Nope, I don't see these guys creating a "hostile work environment." And I don't see the police chief roughing them up or falsely arresting them either. They will make people like Jerry Carlson very happy.

You are aware of Mr. Danielson's past, aren"t you? See: Web Link

He and Interwest are tied together at the hip as well.

Good luck.

City Manager Danielson was the former City Manager of Elk Grove, which contracted out entire city departments to both PMC and Interwest Consulting.

I would be very skeptical and suspicious of these "studies."