Riordan Appoints Activist as 2nd Valley Liaison

Mayor Richard Riordan on Tuesday announced the appointment of Georgia Mercer, a veteran community activist from Tarzana, to fill the second of two San Fernando Valley liaison slots in his office.

Mercer was considered the front-runner for the first appointment early last September, but that job went to Cecilia Aguilera, a political novice and wife of an attorney in the mayor’s downtown law firm, Riordan & McKinzie.

Mercer and Aguilera will divide the Valley between east and west, using the San Diego Freeway as the boundary, Mercer said. Mercer will represent the middle-class, predominantly white West Valley in addition to serving as the mayor’s expert on Jewish and women’s issues citywide.

Mercer, 52, has served as the president of the Los Angeles Human Relations Commission, was on a civil rights task force assembled by former Gov. Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr., and worked on behalf of a host of liberal causes.

She is the fifth of nine liaison officers who will be named in the mayor’s office.

“I think that because there are two of us it reflects the mayor’s attempt to focus more on the needs of the Valley,” said Mercer, who assumed her duties Jan. 3.