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Metro Arts project manager urges council to start executive director search, cites broken leadership
Summary
A Metro Arts project manager told the council the agency is 'structurally fractured,' urged an immediate executive director search and requested a special session with HR to ensure an equitable hiring process after staff complaints and stalled searches.
Atilia MGA, a public art project manager for Metro Arts, told the council on June 2 that Metro Arts needs a new permanent executive director and asked the Metro Council to request a special session with Human Resources to review the agency's executive-search readiness.
"While Metro Arts needs adequate funding, financial investment is only viable under new departmental and commission leadership," Atilia said, adding that she has worked for the agency for seven years and has more than 26 years in the field. She described a lack of transparency "between leadership and staff," between the commission chair and commission members, and between commission leadership and HR.
Atilia said HR has been prepared to launch an executive search for more than a year but that the commission chair has "reportedly rejected these opportunities" and, she alleged, misinformed commissioners about HR readiness. She said the resulting gridlock "directly wastes taxpayers' dollars and city resources," and that the internal environment has produced three formal complaints, including her own.
She asked the council to "request a special session with HR leadership to review their extensive efforts to this search for the safeguard of artists, our taxpayers, our staff, and the integrity of Metro Arts" and to "establish an equitable, transparent hiring process immediately." She concluded her two-minute public comment without a formal motion or committee action recorded in the meeting.
Why it matters: Metro Arts administers public-art programs and grant distributions that affect local artists and cultural programming. Atilia's comments frame these operational and personnel concerns as affecting service delivery and public funds. The council did not take immediate formal action on the request during the meeting.
What the speaker requested and next step: Atilia asked for a special HR-review session and an initiated executive-director search. The transcript records her request but contains no staff response committing to a specific timeline; council staff follow-up was promised only generally.
