Inside per week of the resignation of former long-time Indiana Dunes Tourism Board President Mitch Peters, the remaining members of the manager committee met Thursday afternoon and unanimously elected Don Ensign to be their new president.
Scott Tuft was elected vice chairman whereas treasurer Richard Riley and secretary Barb Lusco will keep their positions.
“I sadly take this place,” stated Ensign, who had been the vice chairman, following the vote. “I’ll do my greatest to guide us via what we now have to undergo and convey again some calm.”
Regardless of surviving a tie vote for his elimination on the April 23 Porter County Council assembly, Peters selected to resign saying the criticism of his management and efforts to oust him wouldn’t cease. Peters and the IDT Board have been roundly chastised for getting into right into a severance settlement with former IDT CEO Lorelei Weimer with out consulting the council.
The county council appointed Peters to the board and he served in that capability for 14 years, the final 13 as president. The council is looking for his alternative and is scheduled to decide at its Could 28 assembly.
The IDT Board agreed to pay Weimer $225,000 for a buyout of the final two years of her three-year contract. The board additionally has been questioned about why a county worker had a contract to start with.
In different enterprise, the board unanimously authorized an addendum to its authorized providers settlement that identifies Patrick Lyp as supplier of authorized service to the board. Lyp, who’s the full-time legal professional for the town of Valparaiso, will take over for David Hollenbeck, who has been IDT’s legal professional since its formation over 30 years in the past.
Nobody on the board may bear in mind precisely how lengthy the board stretches again, however Ensign stated it was at the least 34 years.
“Dave goes to be nonetheless part of us,” he stated.
Hollenbeck has been named “of counsel” within the addendum, which means Lyp can seek the advice of his experience as wanted.
“It is going to be invaluable to me to have that,” Lyp stated. “When it comes to what you’re paying for, the very same contract will probably be used.”
“If there have been some extraordinary circumstances, the framework is there to pay him,” Lyp stated of Hollenbeck, however stated in any other case the longtime legal professional has supplied his steering professional bono.
Hollenbeck has served as legal professional for many years for various county boards together with the Board of Well being and the Park Board.
“I don’t know what we are able to do as a board to acknowledge his service for the final 30 years, however I feel we should always do one thing,” stated Riley.
The board will meet once more at 4 p.m. on June 20, the situation to be decided, because it has begun holding a few of its conferences with sister entities such because the Porter County Expo Heart, Memorial Opera Home and Sundown Hill Farm County Park.
Shelley Jones is a contract reporter for the Publish-Tribune
