Long Term Freelances: Drupal and HTML/XML/PHP Wanted

Our boutique web agency that works primarily with small businesses, restaurant and were migrating away from our current ASP developers and moving all our CMS required sites to the drupal platform. We currently have a solo freelance developer who has worked out well but is rather new to Drupal and is potentially leaving freelance work so we are looking for 1-3 drupal developers who we can use as needed for a current project and on an ongoing basis. CURRENT PROJECT We have a project we are ready to have programmed as the designs have been completed and approved. It is a website for a small model agency. We require a drupal developer who can setup a standalone drupal site on a shared server where we host. It would require the ability to upload multiple photos of models and enter data for their bios and physical details. There are four sections in their front end website that will require this, models, kids, hands, hair & makeup. Each with slightly different details to be entered but these statistics will be required to be searchable through the front end (i.e. select age range XX - XX). There is also a voices section that will require upload of up to six MP3 files per person that can be listened to through the front end. The client has also uploaded all of this content already through our current ASP CMS which will be retired, but we will need the developer to be able to migrate this database and content into drupal so it does not have to be completely re-entered (is this possible?). COMMUNICATION We are of course open to telecommuting and would like the developer to be accessible via skype during CST normal business hours. We are based in Minneapolis, Minnesota (central time zone). ONGOING RELATIONSHIP We would like to establish a long term relationship with a freelancer (not a full firm as this will be too costly for us) who is likely to stay in drupal development for no less than a year. We DO NOT want to deal with a middle man using a foreign developer as we already have contacts for eastern european and indian firms and the timezone difference and language barrier make these unnattractive. We would ideally like a native english speaker and a US timezone developer. BUDGETS We work on fixed bids with clients so we can discuss the requirements and our budget for this current project when review your materials and can email screen images of the approved design. We originally had a czech developer who has worked with us for a year agree to do the HTML and drupal for $1,200 but we are flexible with this but want to know from the community if this sounds reasonable, low or high as well. HTML NEEDS This is not an HTML/CSS site but we are also looking for an HTML/CSS/PHP coder to program the functioning front end skeleton. We are anticipating using a second person for this purpose for greatest efficiency and are open to referrals by our drupal selection if they have an existing relationship with them. INTERESTED? Please email and include a selection of no less than six previous drupal projects and what their requirements are, how long you have been developing, where you are located and what your hourly is. To see samples of our style of work you can visit our website (although not sure how with this sites restrictions) But don't be fooled...hehe we are not as big as the website makes us appear. As we have not hired from this site before we would love to hear the community's opinion on how to best determine competence.