In the wake of yet another CEO-related controversy, the board of directors for the Reno-Sparks Convention and Visitors Authority (RSCVA) voted at its May meeting to hold off on hiring a search firm until July to find the successor to Charles Harris, who was recently granted an early separation from his contract and will depart at the end of June.
The reason for delaying the process was to give the organization time to regroup and rethink its vision for finding the right leader. Four of the last five CEOs have left amid controversy, including Harris. There have also been two internal investigations in that time.
The organization itself is also about to change substantially, as three board members—Grand Sierra Resort’s Shannon Keel, Ann Silver from the chamber of commerce and Jessica Sferrazza from the airport authority—will leave at the same time as Harris.
With so much change happening, the remaining board members felt it would be best to wait until the new members arrive so that they may offer fresh perspectives on the process.
At the recent meeting, several members acknowledged the numerous CEO-related headaches in recent years, and emphasized the need for change moving forward.
Reno Mayor Hillary Schieve was perhaps most vocal—according to the Reno Gazette-Journal, Schieve said at one point that the agency has been “doing the same thing over and over again,” and that they’ve never stopped to have a “conversation about what it looks like moving forward and where we want to be, and maybe fix some of the things we’ve had challenges with in the past.”
Fellow board member Rick Murdock agreed, saying that it’s “ mission critical that we get this right,” per the RGJ.
Notably, the board did not discuss the possibility of naming an interim CEO, but the matter is on the docket for June. In her comments, however, Schieve expressed that the existing board could “handle the ship” for the time being, implying that an interim CEO might not be needed at all.
One of the reasons for the agency’s trouble in keeping a good CEO, the RGJ explained, is that the job is much more public than other similar tourism-related roles.
Per state law, the RSCVA is subject to open meetings and public input, and their communications can often be accessed through public records requests. In fact, most of the controversial findings laid out by the RGJ, such as Harris’ fiery email denying any intention of extending his tenure, were obtained through such requests.
One solution would be to increase the pay and benefits of the position to make it more desirable, but that was met with skepticism this time around, given that one of the biggest controversies from Harris’ tenure was his lucrative 35 percent bonus structure.
Per the RGJ, Schieve expressed that she feels uneasy about “waving a big carrot out there,” because that attracts more candidates who are “just coming for the carrot and not the community.”
Despite the decision to postpone the search, the board has already selected the finalists to find the CEO when it is ready: Florida’s Winner Partners and Chicago’s DHR Global.
