Mitch Peters, chair of the Indiana Dunes Tourism Board, referred to as for a employees survey on the board’s September assembly, a transfer that the board accredited, based on assembly minutes.

By the November assembly, Peters instructed the board that the board’s govt committee had reviewed the surveys, previous human relations paperwork and different analysis to create a plan to enhance how the tourism workforce functioned, based on minutes from that assembly.

The minutes go on to notice that Sandy Remijas, then the bureau’s director of operations, had chosen to resign and accepted a suggestion to be paid with advantages by means of the remainder of the yr. Peters clarified in a telephone interview this week that the settlement was made in case the company wanted Remijas’ help in closing out the monetary books on the finish of the yr.

Lorelei Weimer, the tourism entity’s longtime director, acquired excessive marks within the worker survey, Peters instructed the board throughout that assembly, based on the minutes, which stated that “Peters reported there have been a large number of employees survey responses that have been extraordinarily optimistic towards Weimer. She has the entire confidence and belief of the employees. A couple of areas of enchancment have been recognized.”

The minutes do little to make clear why Weimer, who had been with IDT for 33 years, since she was a university intern, and was its chief for 22 years, abruptly resigned weeks later.

The Put up-Tribune requested the assembly minutes from September by means of the board’s Thursday assembly, in addition to Weimer’s contract, in an try and study extra about why the favored, well-liked tourism director left her longtime submit as county officers grapple to find out whether or not to pay out the remaining two years of her three-year contract for an quantity to not exceed $225,000.

The request has stymied some members of the Board of Commissioners and County Council, notably as a result of her separation settlement, past the requested funding from the tourism innkeepers tax, is shrouded behind a non-disclosure settlement.

“There are not any allegations that Lorelei engaged in any malfeasance or felony exercise of any nature,” Peters stated. “I don’t need any misconceptions on the market about that problem.”

He declined to touch upon why the worker survey was carried out, apart from to substantiate that it was his concept.

By late December, based on accredited minutes from the Dec. 21 assembly, which adopted an govt session, Weimer had indicated she needed to start utilizing her board-approved 9 weeks of trip time beginning Jan. 19 and that she would transition to a consulting position with Indiana Dunes Tourism as soon as her trip time was over.

Christine Livingston, IDT’s vice chairman, was to be promoted to interim president and CEO as of Jan. 19. “Christine’s wage and advantages as interim President/CEO shall be adjusted instantly upon the conclusion of Lorelei’s Trip and transition into her position as advisor (March 22, 2024), with Christine’s wage and advantages to be adjusted starting on March 23, 2024,” the minutes state.

Each gadgets within the accredited assembly minutes are marked as amended. Peters stated by telephone that the board initially accredited the $225,000 settlement for Weimer through the assembly, then amended the minutes to take out the quantity.

“We have been nonetheless deciding what to do,” Peters stated, including the quantity was faraway from the minutes “as a result of we have been nonetheless negotiating.”

Peters beforehand stated the board unanimously accredited that determine however a vote on a settlement quantity didn’t seem in assembly minutes. In actual fact, the board didn’t approve the quantity till the tail finish of Thursday’s assembly, based on a draft of these minutes offered by the company to the Put up-Tribune. The assembly adopted an govt session.

The quantity, based on the draft minutes, is “to not exceed $225,000 minus any quantities paid to Weimer for the reason that settlement convention.”

Moreover, based on minutes from the Jan. 18 assembly, Peters offered messaging for any questions concerning Weimer’s transition to a consulting position and famous that “An NDA will restrict dialogue by each events on the settlement with Weimer.”

Weimer stated in January that she had determined to step apart as a result of after 33 years with Indiana Dunes Tourism, it was “time to take a pause.”

The transfer shocked county officers, together with Commissioners President Jim Biggs, R-North, who has stated he didn’t learn about Weimer’s resignation till he examine it within the Put up-Tribune. He discovered that notably irritating since commissioners have 4 of the 11 appointments on the tourism board, greater than some other entity, and he has stated he hadn’t heard about any issues or considerations there from commissioners’ appointees.

“I didn’t get a whisper that something was flawed over there and we’ve all these appointments to that board,” Biggs stated earlier this month.

“If this type of nonsense continues, I’ll transfer to interchange each one in every of our appointments.”

He additionally questioned a settlement settlement for a county worker “who up till this time was a very talked-about worker,” and stated that the tourism director is the one division head within the county working below a contract. Different division heads are employed as appointments.

Weimer requested for a contract a number of years in the past, Biggs has stated, after the director of the South Shore Conference and Guests Authority on the time made a play to take over Porter County’s tourism bureau.

“I’m not taking place that street the place you’re telling taxpayers, ‘I can’t let you know,’ or ‘I don’t know’” in regards to the cause for a $225,000 settlement, he stated.

Council member Purple Stone, R-1st, serving as interim president and charged with setting the assembly agenda, declined to place the funding request on the agenda for Tuesday’s assembly with out understanding extra about what had led to the settlement.

Commissioners held a closed-door assembly Wednesday with representatives from the council and the tourism board to debate the settlement and the council plans an govt session earlier than their Tuesday assembly.

Weimer’s most up-to-date three-year contract with Porter County Conference, Recreation and Guests Fee, signed Nov. 17, 2022 and taking impact Jan. 1, 2023, famous she had been president and CEO of Indiana Dunes Tourism since June 1, 2001.

The contract was slated to finish Dec. 31, 2025. Beneath the phrases of the contract, if Weimer resigned, she was to provide the tourism board a minimum of 60 days discover, and she or he would obtain accrued and unused trip days. She additionally was to be paid her base wage through the 60-day discover interval.

If Weimer was terminated, she was to be paid “a severance cost equal to 12 (12) weeks base wage, plus accrued and unused trip days,” except she was terminated for simply trigger.

There doesn’t seem like something within the contract a few non-disclosure settlement upon Weimer’s separation from the company.

alavalley@chicagotribune.com