Mitch Peters, chair of the Indiana Dunes Tourism Board, called for a staff survey at the board’s September meeting, a move that the board approved, according to meeting minutes.
By the November meeting, Peters told the board that the board’s executive committee had reviewed the surveys, past human relations documents and other research to create a plan to improve how the tourism team functioned, according to minutes from that meeting.
The minutes go on to note that Sandy Remijas, then the bureau’s director of operations, had chosen to resign and accepted an offer to be paid with benefits through the rest of the year. Peters clarified in a phone interview this week that the agreement was made in case the agency needed Remijas’ assistance in closing out the financial books at the end of the year.
Lorelei Weimer, the tourism entity’s longtime director, received high marks in the employee survey, Peters told the board during that meeting, according to the minutes, which said that “Peters reported there were a multitude of staff survey responses that were extremely positive toward Weimer. She has the complete confidence and trust of the staff. A few areas of improvement were identified.”
The minutes do little to shed light on why Weimer, who had been with IDT for 33 years, since she was a college intern, and was its leader for 22 years, abruptly resigned weeks later.
The Post-Tribune requested the meeting minutes from September through the board’s Thursday meeting, as well as Weimer’s contract, in an attempt to learn more about why the popular, well-liked tourism director left her longtime post as county officials grapple to determine whether to pay out the remaining two years of her three-year contract for an amount not to exceed $225,000.
The request has stymied some members of the Board of Commissioners and County Council, particularly because her separation agreement, beyond the requested funding from the tourism innkeepers tax, is shrouded behind a non-disclosure agreement.
“There are no allegations that Lorelei engaged in any malfeasance or criminal activity of any nature,” Peters said. “I don’t want any misconceptions out there about that issue.”
He declined to comment on why the employee survey was conducted, other than to confirm that it was his idea.
By late December, according to approved minutes from the Dec. 21 meeting, which followed an executive session, Weimer had indicated she wanted to begin using her board-approved nine weeks of vacation time starting Jan. 19 and that she would transition to a consulting role with Indiana Dunes Tourism once her vacation time was over.
Christine Livingston, IDT’s vice president, was to be promoted to interim president and CEO as of Jan. 19. “Christine’s salary and benefits as interim President/CEO shall be adjusted immediately upon the conclusion of Lorelei’s Vacation and transition into her role as consultant (March 22, 2024), with Christine’s salary and benefits to be adjusted beginning on March 23, 2024,” the minutes state.
Both items in the approved meeting minutes are marked as amended. Peters said by phone that the board initially approved the $225,000 settlement for Weimer during the meeting, then amended the minutes to take out the amount.
“We were still deciding what to do,” Peters said, adding the amount was removed from the minutes “because we were still negotiating.”
Peters previously said the board unanimously approved that figure but a vote on a settlement amount did not appear in meeting minutes. In fact, the board didn’t approve the amount until the tail end of Thursday’s meeting, according to a draft of those minutes provided by the agency to the Post-Tribune. The meeting followed an executive session.
The amount, according to the draft minutes, is “not to exceed $225,000 minus any amounts paid to Weimer since the settlement conference.”
Additionally, according to minutes from the Jan. 18 meeting, Peters provided messaging for any questions regarding Weimer’s transition to a consulting role and noted that “An NDA will limit discussion by both parties on the agreement with Weimer.”
Weimer said in January that she had decided to step aside because after 33 years with Indiana Dunes Tourism, it was “time to take a pause.”
The move stunned county officials, including Commissioners President Jim Biggs, R-North, who has said he didn’t know about Weimer’s resignation until he read about it in the Post-Tribune. He found that particularly frustrating since commissioners have four of the 11 appointments on the tourism board, more than any other entity, and he has said he hadn’t heard about any problems or concerns there from commissioners’ appointees.
“I didn’t get a whisper that anything was wrong over there and we have all these appointments to that board,” Biggs said earlier this month.
“If this sort of nonsense continues, I will move to replace every one of our appointments.”
He also questioned a settlement agreement for a county employee “who up until this time was a very popular employee,” and said that the tourism director is the only department head in the county working under a contract. Other department heads are hired as appointments.
Weimer asked for a contract several years ago, Biggs has said, after the director of the South Shore Convention and Visitors Authority at the time made a play to take over Porter County’s tourism bureau.
“I’m not going down that road where you’re telling taxpayers, ‘I can’t tell you,’ or ‘I don’t know’” about the reason for a $225,000 settlement, he said.
Council member Red Stone, R-1st, serving as interim president and charged with setting the meeting agenda, declined to put the funding request on the agenda for Tuesday’s meeting without knowing more about what had led to the settlement.
Commissioners held a closed-door meeting Wednesday with representatives from the council and the tourism board to discuss the settlement and the council plans an executive session before their Tuesday meeting.
Weimer’s most recent three-year contract with Porter County Convention, Recreation and Visitors Commission, signed Nov. 17, 2022 and taking effect Jan. 1, 2023, noted she had been president and CEO of Indiana Dunes Tourism since June 1, 2001.
The contract was slated to end Dec. 31, 2025. Under the terms of the contract, if Weimer resigned, she was to give the tourism board at least 60 days notice, and she would receive accrued and unused vacation days. She also was to be paid her base salary during the 60-day notice period.
If Weimer was terminated, she was to be paid “a severance payment equal to twelve (12) weeks base salary, plus accrued and unused vacation days,” unless she was terminated for just cause.
There does not appear to be anything in the contract about a non-disclosure agreement upon Weimer’s separation from the agency.
alavalley@chicagotribune.com
