I.F. Auditorium District re-votes to fire executive director

The Idaho Falls Auditorium District board took steps to clear up the controversial firing of their executive director.

The board fired executive director Cindy Ozaki last week in an executive session saying they need someone with better project management skills. However, the Post Register claims there was a technical violation regarding the way the board fired Ozaki, so it was invalid.

Even though the board disagrees with the paper, they went ahead and re-cast the vote this morning. They voted 4-1 to fire Ozaki. The only “nay” came from board chairman Terri Gazdik, who was not present for the previous vote.

The board is going to hire a new executive director to help with the progress of the event center.

“We’ll be looking for individuals that are skilled in project management,” Gazdik said. “But that also have the desire to see this event center being built and that have organization skills, management skills.”

The board is trying to move forward with the progress of their new event center. So far, they have raised $8.3 million for the center. Progress on the center is stalled until they hire a new executive director.

The board is also going to create a business advisory council to help with the event center planning.