The last-minute cancellation of a job fair Thursday in Harvey came after communications between Mayor Christopher Clark and Wind Creek casino concerning the number of people expected, officials said.
Roger Kuehn, general manager of Wind Creek Chicago Southland casino, told the Southtown he called Clark Thursday morning to follow up on texts Clark sent to Brent Pinkston, chief operating officer for parent company Wind Creek Hospitality, the night before voicing concerns about the event’s anticipated size.
“I didn’t shut it down. I didn’t call up and say, well, you’re gonna shut this down,” Clark said. “I asked questions and just said, look, we can’t be responsible.”
Clark said he was not made aware of the event until about 11:45 p.m. Wednesday, when Harvey police Chief Cameron Biddings sent him the event’s flyer, which was posted on the Park District’s Facebook page.
Biddings did not answer calls from the Southtown.
The Facebook post said the event was split into two sessions from 10 a.m. to noon, and 3 to 6 p.m. Thursday to accommodate the expected turnout.
Clark said this led him to believe the event would be too large to accommodate the venue and that there were not enough police and fire personnel available to provide security.
“We don’t know if we were going to get three people, 30 people, 300 people or 3,000 people,” Clark said. “We weren’t informed and we weren’t prepared. And all the time that, I guess, that this has been planned, the city of Harvey was not notified.”
Kuehn said when he learned more than 100 people had arrived before the 10 a.m. start time for the event, he believed Wind Creek staff were ill-prepared to manage the anticipated crowd, citing safety concerns and Clark’s warning as the primary reason for him abruptly canceling the event.
“We’ve done a couple of outreach events in the past, and we’ve never had any sort of crowd like this before, or demand or volume,” Kuehn said. “I too was very concerned over the fact that we didn’t have the resources in place for a large event … but first and foremost, I was concerned about the safety and welfare of those people in attendance.”
The recruitment event was to be held at the Harvey Park District’s Gloria Taylor Center. It aimed to inform job seekers about more than 1,000 available positions at the casino, which is set to open this summer in East Hazel Crest.
Kisha McCaskill, executive director of the Park District, said the event was well advertised beforehand which contributed to the turnout, which she believes the Park District could handle.
“It’s been online, it’s been shared over 600 times, so it was very well known that it was going to take place,” McCaskill said. “I can only be very clear, we have had large events, 400 to 600 people, with employment fairs before. We’ve done Ford Motor Company. We’ve done Amtrak. So we’ve had very large fairs before and we’ve actually not encountered any problems.”
After former Park Board President Anthony McCaskill challenged Clark in the last mayoral race, McCaskill said she believes Clark’s communication with the casino to voice safety concerns was a retaliatory effort aimed at shutting down the event.
Clark said he only had safety concerns in mind when he spoke to casino officials.
“He ran in 2018 and again in 2023 so they probably make it seem as if I have some type of axe to grind,” Clark said. “What they’re doing is they’re projecting.”
The casino will host a career fest from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Aug. 7 at Prairie State College in Chicago Heights, where recruiters will conduct interviews and hire on-the-spot throughout the day.
Kuehn said everyone who showed up for Thursday’s event will be notified of the career fest.
“I know it inconvenienced people that took time out of their schedule, and I feel really bad about that, but we took everybody’s name that was on the ground at the time, and we are going to communicate with them and make sure they get an invitation to our career fest,” he said.
smoilanen@chicagotribune.com
