Idle Mercury S&L; Consultant Quits : Thrifts: Former chief executive says he’s resigning because federal regulators haven’t used his services.

Leonard Shane, former chairman and chief executive of the failed Mercury Savings & Loan, said Monday that he is quitting as a $100,000-a-year consultant to the thrift because regulators who seized the institution three months ago haven’t used his services.

Miffed that he hasn’t been called on and embarrassed that he’s getting paid for doing nothing, Shane sent a letter to the regulator managing Mercury asking that his consulting agreement be terminated.

Shane requested that he be given normal severance pay, accrued vacation pay and other benefits departing employees receive.

James Zemcik, the third managing agent at Mercury since the takeover, could not be reached for comment. The letter was mailed Monday.

The development comes at a time when questions are being raised about salaries, wages and consultant fees being paid by the federal government to ousted executives of failed thrifts. Congress has scheduled hearings into the matter.

Shane, who had been making $330,000 a year, reduced his annual salary to about $100,000 last year as Mercury’s financial problems grew. The reduced amount, he said, is what the regulators had agreed to pay him as a consultant.

“I don’t want them to pay me any more salary,” Shane said in an interview. “But I have to do things like transfer my health insurance and my life insurance over, and I would expect to get whatever the severance policy calls for.”

Shane, who has sued regulators for withholding $850,000 in retirement benefits, said he doesn’t want to be treated any differently than other employees. But, he said, that has not been the case since the regulators seized the insolvent institution Feb. 27.

Besides refusing to turn over retirement benefits, regulators have refused to allow Mercury to indemnify him for any damages arising out of current litigation against Mercury, Shane said.

Plaintiffs, such as borrowers who believe that they were wronged by the S&L;, typically name Shane and top executives as well as the institution as defendants in their lawsuits. But directors and officers usually are covered by insurance policies and thrift practices that pay for any judgments against them as individuals.