Visit Estes Park board decides to not move forward in CEO search at this time

Story by Suzy Blackhurst

Finding the right person to lead Visit Estes Park, the local marketing district charged with promoting tourism to the area, appears to be a harder task than the organization’s board of directors anticipated.

Two candidates, Candace Carr Strauss and Cindy Mackin, made presentations before a search committee in late January. Since then, Carr Strauss withdrew, and Mackin, who currently is the organization’s community engagement director, has not yet been interviewed by the VEP board.

Following an executive session during its regular monthly meeting on Thursday afternoon, the VEP board voted not to move forward with the search at this time.

Prior to the vote, VEP Vice Chair Kirby Hazelton told the group she would be voting against an upcoming motion delaying any action in pursuing the CEO search, saying she believed the board should complete the process already begun by interviewing Mackin.

The vote came after Mackin asked the board about her candidacy.

“I ask you if I am qualified, and I have support of the majority of the staff, the stakeholders, the community, the state destination marketing organizations, what exactly is it that is preventing you from even interviewing me, and let alone not hiring me at this point?” Mackin asked. No one on the board responded.

Before the vote could be held, Cato Kraft, executive director of the Estes Nonprofit Network, asked to speak during the meeting, which was held via Zoom. Making clear she was speaking on behalf of herself and not the organization for which she works, Kraft asked the board to address a memo posted on the Visit Estes Park email portal that outlined the potential hiring of a three-month interim executive director.

“Can you talk a little bit about what that is and what it means for taxpayers in this community?” she asked.

“This is not really part of this boat right now, so no, but it was just a proposal, and there’s nothing going on right now with any of that,” responded Sean Jergens, VEP chair, prior to calling for a vote on the motion to delay action on the selection process.

Mike Zumbaugh, who is the finance director and has been serving as the interim CEO since the resignation of Kara Franker in September, issued a press statement on Tuesday from the board about the CEO search process.

The statement was read into the record Tuesday night at the Town Board meeting by Trustee Kirby Hazelton, who serves as the Town Board liaison to VEP:

“Near the end of the process, allegations were raised related to one of the finalist candidates. This created the need for the Search Committee to pause the search and recommend an investigation be completed to determine the veracity of the allegations. The District Board agreed with the Search Committee’s recommendation and a third-party investigator was brought in to complete the investigation. The investigation is complete, and the District Board has been briefed on the outcome with assistance of its legal counsel. Based on the investigation’s conclusions, while accounts of the evening in question differed and ultimately did not indicate that the candidate engaged in inappropriate behavior, the allegations appeared to be raised in good faith. In addition, there was no finding that District staff were related to or a source of the allegations.”

Search committee members included Larimer County Commissioner Jody Shadduck-McNally, Estes Park Mayor Gary Hall, VEP Chair Sean Jurgens, VEP Board Secretary Deb Gibson, and local business owner Reed Woodford.

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