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ANDREW MEACHAMTo stem a tide of red ink at the casino and theater, a new job would lessen the load but pay less, require muscle.
GULFPORT - To the dozens of supporters who turned out before the City Council on her behalf, Marlene Shaw is the glue that holds the city and its arts community together. To City Manager Tom Brobeil, Shaw is someone who holds a job that will not exist much longer.
If the council passes the proposed budget Thursday, Shaw's position as events manager will disappear. A new position, cultural facilities coordinator, demands less brainpower and more manual labor. The city says it needs to stop hemorrhaging money for cultural activities, or at least hold the losses to $100,000 a year.
The budget for fiscal year 2005 runs $267,910, although that figure includes losses carried over from previous years.
The proposal transfers the administrative part of Shaw's job - booking and promoting events - to the leisure services department. A less expensive job emerges out of what is left, the actual managing of events from start to finish.
"This is a business decision," Brobeil said. "We are looking to get leaner and reduce our overhead."
Shaw plans and manages all activities at the Gulfport Casino and the Catherine A. Hickman Theater, creates marketing for both and supervises staffers. She earns a little more than $38,000 in a position that tops out at $50,000 a year.
Under the proposed reorganization, leisure services director Jim O'Reilly and assistant Mercedes Perez would move their offices into the casino and take over management of the casino and theater.
The cultural facilities coordinator would work evenings and make sure that scheduled events go smoothly, according to the job description. The coordinator must possess "sufficient physical strength and ability to perform manual labor for extended periods of time," and be able to climb a two-story extension ladder. Pay ranges from roughly $28,000 to $41,000.
While the City Council can vote on the budget, it cannot rule on personnel decisions made by the city manager. Thus the council would have to reject this budget, with its restructured jobs, for Shaw to keep hers, although she could apply for the lower-paying position.
Some residents don't like what they see in these developments.
"Someone who has worked that hard and done that much, I'm just very upset that they can just get rid of her," said Elizabeth Neely, 57. As curator of an American Indian exhibit and cultural center, Neely said she has worked with Shaw for the past five years, and that Shaw seemed overworked handling the casino and the theater.
"She was really working two jobs and being paid for one."
Shaw has worked for the city since 1999, starting out as an assistant community affairs director. Since getting the job as events manager in 2001, she has livened up the casino with regular ballroom, swing, salsa and line dance lessons. The casino also books weddings.
The Hickman theater opened in 2000. This month, the theater is hosting an art exhibit, a play by Gulfport Community Players, a lecture, and a free concert by the South Pasadena Community Band.
Shaw, 52, said she is proud of her diverse programming, and of the marketing she developed with former community affairs director Jill Vines. "We've brought a lot of accountability," Shaw said. "A very strong relationship with the community has developed."
Rod Kittle, co-owner of the EZ Gallery, worked with Shaw on the recent Gecko Fest, an event she used to organize. After the city opted out of this year's fest, Shaw stayed on as a consultant to the Gulfport Merchants Association.
"She sat on the organizing committee," said Kittle, 54. "She told us what vendors to call, and what to do and not to do with the city."
Mistrust over Shaw's apparent phaseout has sparked a range of speculation. Some contend that O'Reilly and Brobeil have already picked a candidate for the cultural facilities coordinator job. Some cannot forget that in O'Reilly, Brobeil hired the husband of his former city clerk at Indian Rocks Beach. Still others blame O'Reilly and suspect a rift between Shaw and the leisure services director - which both deny.
Two of Shaw's evaluations have been mostly positive, although the need for the casino and theater to generate more money surfaces in both. The theater takes in less than $5,000 in revenue each year, against $100,000 in operating costs. One of Shaw's evaluations posited a goal to increase revenues for the casino and theater by 30 percent.
That has not happened. Now the city must do something, Mayor Michael Yakes said.
"When we look at the loss of an employee, it's like having a family member not invited for Christmas," he said.
The City Council hears a second reading of the budget at 6 p.m. Thursday at City Hall, 2401 53rd St. S.