By Dewey Terrill
JC Post
The recent decision to terminate Military Affairs Council Director Rob Wilson from his job has led to anger, questions and confusion in the Chamber of Commrce over the role and structure of the MAC. Some of that surfaced during the council's advisory committee meeting on Thursday.
First there were not enough members in attendance for a quorum but those that did attend shared their sentiments. Speaking to Chamber President Mickey Fornaro-Dean, Committee member Jim Sands emphasized that things in MAC were good with Fort Riley and the community. "You took something that was positive and destroyed it."
There is currently no MAC Director but since his termination Wilson has been hired on a temporary basis by the City to serve as a military liason.
Fornaro-Dean wants to focus on the way forward but MAC Advisory Committee member Dick Young asked, "If the City has now picked up military affairs is this board even viable any more?" Fornaro-Dean said Chamber and City staff have met to see how they can coordinate to work to move forward between the two organizations. She said at this point it's probably a decision of the MAC board.
There were multiple tense exchanges during the meeting between Committee member ( county commissioner ) Trish Giordano and Fornaro-Dean. Giordano called for a need for the council to meet again soon, and she called for a detailed 2025 budget review to which Fornaro-Dean agreed.
JC Post talked seperately after the session with both Giordano and Fornaro-Dean.
Giordano said hopefully the chamber, city and county can figure out "the best way to keep the Military Affairs going strong. We have a very good relationship with Fort Riley, which is very intrical to our community and our community growth." She noted that Rob Wilson is a good person for keeping communicstions open between the community and the Post.
There is a joint city-county-school district meeting on Monday. Giordano said, "We need to have a neeting and discuss this. It's an issue, especially with budget time coming up we need to figure where we're going to go." She doesn't know if it will involve city and county or if they will have to meet seperately and added that there's a master agreement between the city, county and the chamber."It's a contract so we have to figure out what we do."
Giordano plans to ask for an audit review of MAC. "There's just some questions in the budgets. I don't know if some of the line items are correct." Giordano also stated, "We as elected officials are responsible for the monies and if there's a question those questions need to be answered."
Fornaro-Dean said the future course for MAC needs to be decided with discussions "between the chamber, the city, the county. "I think this is a time where we all need to come together and discuss what's best for our organizations and our community for moving forward and growth." On the decision to release Wilson from his job Fornaro-Dean confirmed that she could not comment, noting that it was an HR issue.
Fornaro-Dean wants the community to realize that military affairs, the EDC and membership is important, "and it's important that you keep the missions of these divisions in mind and you seperate out personalities."
Befoe the meeting Fornaro-Dean issued a release that said recent staffing changes have created a transition period for MAC. "At this time the priority is ensuring continuity of operations and continued support of MAC's mission and community partnerships."