Grand Forks' Event Center Commission met on Wednesday morning and began exploring the future of the Alerus Center, discussing the possibility of hiring a management firm that could install a director or, alternately, hiring someone.
City leaders have been grappling with their next steps after an investigation into a dysfunctional workplace at the Alerus Center led to the firing of Cheryl Swanson and Bob LeBarron, the facility's executive director and assistant director, in November. In the immediate aftermath, leaders with the events center and at City Hall said they anticipated a discussion about the relationship between the two groups as well as a push to find new leadership.
The work began Wednesday morning. The commission informally resolved to start a leadership search that simultaneously explores two options: hiring individuals to fill the director post or hiring a management firm to do so with commission input. Events center leaders are expected to meet again at 7:30 a.m. Jan. 4 to discuss the matter further and review early findings.
The commission also discussed the exact nature of its duties and relationship with the city with City Attorney Howard Swanson. Commission chairwoman Julie Rygg said that conversation was inspired by a sense that not all commission members were on the same page at the city through the firing process, a problem rooted in the difficulty of sharing sensitive information among commission leaders without making it public.
"The commission didn't have the opportunity to sit down and discuss it as a whole until that final day when the mayor sat down and made his final decision," Rygg said. "But the thing is, if we'd sat down and discussed it as a group before that, some issues would have been made public that wouldn't have been fair to the employees, that wouldn't have been fair to the discussion."
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A discussion of the roles and duties of the commission and the city, Rygg said, helps set the table for more efficiently dealing with tough issues in the future.
"I think we're off to a good start with that, and I think we'll work with the city, work with the city attorney, and make sure we're making the best decisions for the Alerus Center," Rygg said.
