On Jan. 20 the City Advertising and Promotion Commission met for a special meeting to discuss one topic: the position of the Events Coordinator & Auditorium Manager. Commissioners had discussed this in November but were discussing it again at commissioner Bobbie Foster’s request due to administrative concerns about employee selection and placement.
Before the meeting, commissioners had been provided records of their decisions and conversations during the meeting in November. After listening to that recording Foster said, “I think it was very obvious that when we left the meeting we were all on the same page feeling like Tracy [Johnson] was going to move forward, it was included in the budget, the budget was approved… maybe there should have been a vote, but there wasn’t.”
Foster said she was surprised when this issue came up, referring to Chair Carol Wright’s decision in December to open the position to public applicants. “Number one, we didn’t discuss it, and number two, we didn’t vote on it. I had no idea this was being put on the website. I had no idea that we were even looking for other people and other applications. I feel like it was done in a manner that was not correct, and I’d like to correct that and then move forward.”
Foster said she felt that the posting of the job opening should have been voted on by the commission.
“I agree with Bobbie that the commission should have voted to put that in the paper, so a mistake was made,” commissioner James DeVito said. Since the position had been posted to the public, Foster asked staff if the applicants have to be interviewed at all.
To provide commissioners with how the CAPC hiring process had been handled in the past, Interim-Director Gina Rambo said, “I was told when I applied for this job that it was going to be posted [to the public], but that I had the job. I mean, so, that’s how it’d been done in the past. Whether that was right or wrong, I don’t know. As far as I know, no one else was interviewed.”
DeVito said that the commission may not be holding any special events through the end of June due to the pandemic, and the mayor froze all special events permits. Commissioner Harry Meyer said he wanted the CAPC to collaboratively work with the mayor’s moratorium on events.
“Without the prospect of having any events for the next six months I feel at this time that it would probably behoove us just not to hire those positions and wait and see as the year develops to see if it will become necessary to fill those positions,” DeVito said. He stated he did not feel the CAPC’s expenses incurred in the last eight months from the Overhead Music Series and the special events contract served the city well stating, “Nothing occurred in the last eight months regarding special events except for the balcony series, and if you look at the expenditure for the position and the expense for that, we are looking at around $50,000 spent for putting some musicians on the balconies. I don’t feel that we got much return on an investment.”
DeVito stressed the importance of prudent fiscal responsibility by commissioners. “We’ve got to be stewards of these resources because these resources come from a lot of small businesses in the community that are really struggling right now,” DeVito said.
“I’m concerned about tax collected money being spent in a not-prudent way,” commissioner Melissa Greene said. The CAPC’s acceptance of the 2021 budget during the year 2020 went against written protocol and, “Passing the budget last year was probably not legal. I think there is a lot of confusion,” she said.
After discussion, in a 4-3 vote, commissioners passed the motion to place Tracy Johnson back on the original special events contract from Jan. 1 until Jan. 31. There was added discussion about creating an exploratory committee that looks at events and a position to coordinate those events, but no vote was taken.
Rambo stated in an earlier January 2021 meeting that she believed it was within her authority to hire Johnson, and commissioner Jeff Carter replied that it was ultimately the commission’s decision. In an email from Mayor Butch Berry after the meeting, he provided support to Carter’s statement that the commission decides how they operate. Regarding the hiring privileges afforded to Gina Rambo in an interim-director capacity, Berry wrote, “Gina Rambo is still an ‘Interim Director.’ Permanent Directors are given both broad responsibility as well as broad authority.”
The next regular meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, Jan. 27 at 6 p.m. in the AUD.