Reminder: What The Board Said Gurban Would Do
Friday, January 02, 2004 CONTACT: Jon Olson, board president,612-230-6400 Ginger Sisco, Sisco Public Relations, Inc.,763-544-0629
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MINNEAPOLIS PARK BOARD ELECTS JON OLSON AS PRESIDENT, JOHN ERWIN AS VICE PRESIDENT Annual meeting draws crowd of 100
MINNEAPOLIS, MN ... Friday, January 02, 2004 ... The commissioners of the Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board elected Jon Olson as president of the board by a vote of 5-4 at its annual meeting this evening. John Erwin became vice president on a vote of 6-3.
The annual meeting drew a crowd of nearly 100. Though the annual meeting is not generally a regular board meeting, the commissioners voted to allow 20 minutes of open time so people in the audience could speak. All of the comments were critical of the process in December by which Jon Gurban was selected to serve a one-year term as interim superintendent.
Outgoing board president Bob Fine opened the meeting with what he termed clarification of misconceptions. He said the appointment of Jon Gurban as interim superintendent was done to "permit the dust to clear." He said that this allowed someone who knew the staff and the system to provide leadership and direction during this time while the board reviewed and determined what direction it would take. (In the superintendent search process, the top two candidates withdrew their names from consideration.)
Fine said that Gurban will not make any changes in the system without consultation of the board. Gurban is expected to work on the park system's master plan which has been stalled for some time. Fine asked board members to support the superintendent.
In further action in the meeting, the board decided by a vote of 6-3 to evaluate its current counsel, Brian Rice, by spring of this year with the intent to request that the counsel be selected for 2005 after a call for RFPs (request for proposals). Rice was selected to serve as board attorney for 2004 by a vote of 8-1.