Two of the Jefferson City Parks and Recreation Commission's biggest projects took small steps Tuesday toward public announcements.
Chairwoman Denise Chapel said after a 90-minute closed session that Lincoln University officials soon should announce the contractor for the planned wellness center, a joint LU/Parks and Recreation project.
And the commission soon will meet with finalists for the director's position, which becomes vacant when current director Bill Lockwood retires in March after 33 years as parks director.
"Right now, we will be interviewing our top few candidates," Chapel told the News Tribune, noting the total number of interviews still "is subject to negotiation."
With Lockwood's departure coming in about 80 days, Chapel acknowledged the commission has about two months to schedule, then do, the finalist interviews, and then "get someone committed. In fairness, you would want any candidate that you would choose to give you 30 days notice - so you want to be fair to their administrations as well."
She hopes Gail Strope, Jefferson City's human resources director, can schedule the interviews "as soon as possible ... to make sure there is a healthy transition in place.
But she offered no specific timeline.
Likewise, Chapel said, there's no specific timeline for announcing the contractor for the multipurpose Wellness Center to be built on the south end of the LU campus, across Lafayette Street from the Jefferson City High School complex.
"The timeline is to make sure that we can get the best negotiations possible," she explained. "Architects Alliance will continue to negotiate on our behalf. And then Lincoln will make the announcement, because they are, actually, over this process."
LU curators held a closed conference call meeting Friday to discuss the contract negotiations. Shortly after opening the meeting at 3:30 p.m., the commissioners voted to go into closed session to discuss both the director search and the Wellness Center contract.
They also asked the parks staff to leave the room for the discussions.
Chapel said the staff has not been frozen out of the Wellness Center discussions.
"The staff has had input and will continue to have input," she said. "This was an opportunity for the commission to be able to discuss the future.
"The director (Lockwood) will not, actually, be programming or facilitating in the Wellness and Recreation Center - and we have to give our (director) candidates an opportunity to have input.
"And the only way to do that is to try to figure out how to have those discussions, then transpose those into, basically, interview questions and figure out how they would handle some of those issues that we will have as we look toward opening the doors."
She repeated that the Parks and Recreation staff "has been involved all along the way (and) have given input as we have talked with our architect and our vendor partner. So, we are pretty confident with what staff has set as a priority for them."
But, past meeting minutes show staff has been cut out of at least part of the multipurpose discussions.
An email from Chapel on July 8 informed Architects Alliance and Lincoln University officials that effective immediately she would become the point person for all communications on the multipurpose project.
Also, in minutes from a special commission meeting July 28, it noted after a closed session," Lockwood expressed his opinion that the Parks staff feels in the dark on much of the multipurpose building information. He does not have a problem having President Chapel as the lead contact, but administratively it is the responsibility of the staff to be involved."
The minutes later noted Chapel said, "she knows that staff has been talking with consultants and she has expressly requested that this not occur."
However, Chapel has said the decision to become the point person for communications had nothing to do with any tensions between staff and the commission, and instead came out of a desire to ensure the process run as quickly and smoothly as possible on a tight timeline.
Tuesday's closed session lasted more than one and a half hours with the following staff waiting in the break room: Lockwood; Tina Werner, general recreation and support services director; J.J. Gates, park resources and forestry director; Phil Stiles, recreation facilities and special services director; and Amy Shaw, administrative assistant who typically keeps commission meeting minutes. Though none made direct comments on the record, it was a tense atmosphere.
In the closed session were representatives from Architects Alliance (Cary Gampher); Lincoln University (Sheila Gassner); and Central Missouri Professional Services (Mike Bates).
In open session, the commissioners also approved use policies and rental rates for Green Berry Acres - the former Girl Scout camp that now is part of the parks system - and for Quigg Commons in North Jefferson City. The commission also approved a request to name the shelter at the Quigg Commons for Gene Bushman, who contributed a substantial donation to build it and some restroom facilities at the commons.