By Anthony Gorges
JC Post
The Junction City Area Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors held a special meeting on Wednesday afternoon in the Chamber of Commerce conference room. Nine members of the board were in attendance for the meeting, while two attempted to join via Zoom.
The board met in executive session for a total of one hour. The first executive session was for 30 minutes, followed by another 20 minutes, with the last session being only 10 minutes. Following the conclusion of the executive session and reopening the meeting to the public, a motion was made.
Jordan McCann, board member for the Military Affairs Council (MAC), quickly moved to make a motion. "I would like to move to make a motion to terminate the independent contractor for failure to act in the best interest of the Chamber." The motion was seconded by Dick Young, also of the MAC board. Following the motion and a second, Board Chair Ashley King called for a roll call vote.
The roll call vote to terminate Mickey Fornaro-Dean (the Economic Development Director for Junction City and Geary County) "for failure to act in the best interest of the Chamber" passed 8-1. Matt Junghans was the only no vote, with Ron Johnson abstaining from the vote. Dr. Reginald Eggleston, Matt Charvat, and Joel Poole were not physically in attendance and did not vote.
The official roll call vote passed 8-1. It is listed below:
Matt Charvat - No vote (not in attendance)
Matt Junghans - No
Ron Johnson - Abstained
Keith Ascher - Yes
Kelly Niemcyzk - Yes
Jordan McCann - Yes
John Seitz - Yes
Jim Sands - No vote (not in attendance)
Dick Young - Yes
Shawn Robison - Yes
Ashley King - Yes
Pamela Polk - Yes
Dr. Reginald Eggleston - No vote (not in attendance)
Joel Poole - No vote (not in attendance)
Following the roll call vote, Fornaro-Dean got up and left the meeting room. Prior to the vote to remove her as the independent contractor and Economic Development Director, she had previously been voted out and removed as the President of Operations for the Chamber at last week's meeting.
As part of the same meeting, the board also voted to remove Finance Director Katrina Tipton. This motion passed as well, with nine yes votes and one board member abstaining. Shawn Robison is the board member who abstained in this roll call vote.
Following the personnel moves and decisions to move on from Fornaro-Dean and Tipton, the board then approved a motion for lawyer Michael Montoya to work to retrieve any displaced funds.
Lastly, the board also approved CNR Consulting to do an audit of the Chamber's finances. This motion passed, and the CNR Consulting group will begin its full audit of the books next week and will be "boots on the ground" for four days. The Chamber board should receive the results and findings from the audit on July 22. The cost associated with this is $3,500. This includes a 50 percent discount for the Chamber being a nonprofit organization.
Ashley King, chair of the board and interim president of the Chamber, spoke with JC Post following the board meeting. "There was a motion to terminate the independent contractor for cause, for failure to act in the best interest of the Chamber. That motion passed, and we then moved forward," King said. "There was also the motion to remove the finance director, and that motion passed as well."
In regard to the audit from CNR Consulting, Ashley King thinks this will help figure something out financially for the Chamber. "We are going to contract with a company to come in and just kind of help us figure out where all the finances are, find any deficiencies, and just get us set up for success," King said. "We are really excited to work with them and move forward."
Mickey Fornaro-Dean declined to make any comments following her termination.
The next Chamber of Commerce board meeting is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. in the Chamber conference room.