Crystal Thomas
The State Journal-Register
With Springfield heading into the summer tourism season, the fate of the Springfield Convention and Visitors Bureau director is still uncertain.
Citing a immediate need for leadership in the department, Mayor Jim Langfelder appointed Benedictine University’s Springfield campus director, Janet Kirby, as acting director starting mid-June, a year-long appointment that doesn’t require Springfield City Council approval.
An attempt to prevent Kirby — who aldermen say lacks the necessary tourism experience — from filling the job failed during Tuesday night’s council meeting, but aldermen will have another chance at the next city council meeting.
Five aldermen co-sponsored an ordinance that would eliminate $100,000 — the amount of Kirby’s acting director salary — from the personnel line of the SCVB budget. But since the measure was put on emergency passage, it required eight votes for approval.
The sponsors — Ward 1 Ald. Chuck Redpath, Ward 5 Ald. Andrew Proctor, Ward 6 Ald. Kristin DiCenso, Ward 7 Ald. Joe McMenamin and Ward 10 Ald. Ralph Hanauer — voted to cut the money, as did Ward 2 Ald. Herman Senor. Four aldermen voted against. Since the ordinance failed to get eight votes, it will follow the regular city council procedure at the next meeting, when it will only need six votes for passage.
Langfelder announced last week he would appoint Kirby as acting director after his original pick for the position, Scott Dahl, quit after two days, citing a “personal matter.”
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Aldermen who voted for the ordinance spoke highly of Kirby, but didn’t think she had the experience or education to be tourism director. They also noted she lived in rural Sangamon County. City code mandates department directors live within city limits. Kirby has said she would move to Springfield if the mayor asked her to stay for more than a year.
McMenamin said he wanted Langfelder to open a national search for a candidate, despite the possible short-term nature of the job. Since there are several vacancies in the SCVB, McMenamin said the ability to choose staff should belong to a long-term director.
“Even though it’s 11 months until the election, if you’ve done a great job, a solid job as mayor, you’ve got to act like that and go out and recruit as if ‘I deserve re-election,’” McMenamin told the mayor. ”… We don’t know who might step forward, what good people might step forward to lead our tourism effort.”
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Joe McMenamin for Ward 7 