Aurora Mayor John Laesch’s proposed slate of board members to lead the Paramount Theatre and other related entertainment venues in the city will soon go to the Aurora City Council for a vote.
At a City Council Committee of the Whole meeting Tuesday evening, Laesch’s proposed appointments for the Aurora Civic Center Authority’s board were considered, and they are now set to go before the City Council for a final vote.
The proposed appointments are said to represent Laesch’s vision for the future of the Aurora Civic Center Authority — that it will offer more diverse programming and be more financially stable. The organization owns the Paramount Theatre, the Copley Theatre, Paramount School of the Arts and North Island Center, and manages the city-owned RiverEdge Park and Stolp Island Theatre.
Laesch has proposed six people be appointed to the nine-member Aurora Civic Center Authority board: four new appointees and two reappointments.
The proposed four new appointees are Juan Sifuentes, Diane Lantz, Nastasha Prunty and Christopher Childress, who would seemingly replace former board members John Savage, Mike Baum, Chris Weber and Cynthia Latimer.
Sifuentes is currently the chair of East Aurora School District 131’s board, and has previously been touted by Deputy Chief of Staff Nicholas Richard-Thompson as having experience managing a budget and acquiring talent, as well as being able to help the Civic Center Authority reach Latino audiences.
Lantz retired as the executive director of Illinois Government Finance Officers Association and previously served as Elk Grove’s assistant finance director. She’s also a frequent patron of the Paramount, Richard-Thompson said previously.
Prunty, meanwhile, is the president of Gospel Morale and Entertainment, and is a “nationally-recognized creative director” who has “elevated Black art and entertainment across the region,” according to Richard-Thompson.
And Childress is a philanthropic business leader and co-founder of Progressive Business Solutions. He is not a resident, but frequents the Paramount, officials have said.
The two board members who are proposed to be reappointed are Gina Moga and Jonathan Hylton. Moga is a retired special events manager, and Hylton has 25 years of investment advisory experience.
And already on the board and staying on it are Brian Caputo, Philip Van Lear and Tim Hoppa.
Caputo is the city’s chief operating officer. He was the city’s chief financial officer from 1998 to 2017, and has also served as president of the College of DuPage, among other roles.
Van Lear was appointed to the Aurora Civic Center Authority board by Laesch late last year. Born and raised in Aurora, he’s been a professional actor and director for over 45 years, appearing in TV shows such as “Prison Break,” “Chicago Fire” and “Empire.”
And Hoppa is staying on the board for another year, Laesch has said, as the city works to find a potential replacement.
The terms for the proposed new appointees would be intentionally staggered by lottery, according to the city, so as to “ensure board continuity and prevent all terms from expiring at the same time.”
Should their appointments be approved, Lantz and Prunty would be appointed to terms set to expire in 2028, while Childress and Sifuentes would be appointed for terms expiring in 2027. The terms for Moga and Hylton, on the other hand, would not expire until 2029.
Following the initial “start-up” period, all members would be appointed for three-year terms, per the city.
The proposed appointments, however, have generated some debate from City Council members in recent weeks — particularly as it relates to the push for more diverse programming and to fundraising.
Ald. Patty Smith, 8th Ward, for example, has pushed back against Laesch’s assertion that the Paramount’s programming hasn’t been diverse.
Ald. Carl Franco, 5th Ward, at a meeting earlier this month, questioned the mayor’s proposed “change in direction” for the board and suggested that it would be problematic for ACCA if its board wasn’t able to fundraise enough.
“I just don’t know that we’re going in the right direction with all this holistic stuff and the diversity,” Franco said at the meeting in early June. “Because, at the end of the day, we got a great product, and how do we keep that great product going?”
Franco’s concerns have since drawn some criticism from state Sen. Karina Villa, D-West Chicago, who suggested that his comments on the matter “dismiss(ed) the value of diversity, equity and inclusion.”
On the question of fundraising, Ald. Mike Saville, 6th Ward, noted at that meeting that it has been the practice of Aurora Civic Center Authority board members to either contribute funds themselves to the organization or bring in outside funding.
Laesch, however, has said that part of the reason for appointing new people with financial backgrounds is so that they start asking questions, such as potentially looking at prices, that would also lead to financial stability.
In a recent interview, Laesch pointed to Lantz’s financial background and Childress’ experience with fundraising, for example, and said some of the candidates are already meeting with existing members and providing ideas for the board going forward. He told The Beacon-News he believes the proposed appointments make for “a well-rounded team to achieve the goals” that he has for the Aurora Civic Center Authority.
At the previous meeting, Franco also asked Laesch if it was his aim to put people on the board who would remove Aurora Civic Center Authority President and CEO Tim Rater, to which Laesch said it was “absolutely not” his intention and said that Rater even had a hand in picking out the proposed board members.
Then, at a public reception for the proposed new board members last week, Laesch again explained his goals for the appointments, which he cited as maintaining continuity with the board, increasing diversity, having a “level of financial oversight and acumen” and for the appointees to have a “passion and love for the arts.”
Given that fundraising “traditionally has been one of the only things that (the city) look(s) at in board members,” these criteria “expand the scope” of considerations when it comes to deciding who to appoint, he said.
And the mayor and his administration prioritizing diversity is “not only because it’s a value and principle, but because the community requested it,” Richard-Thompson said.
The reception also provided an opportunity for the proposed new board members to introduce themselves and describe their respective backgrounds to the public.
Then, on Tuesday, the proposed appointments and reappointments were ultimately brought forward at the council’s Committee of the Whole meeting.
Consideration of the appointments, which had been discussed previously at the Committee of the Whole level, were held until this week to allow the recent public reception to happen first, explained Ald. Edward Bugg, 9th Ward, at Tuesday’s meeting.
But, following the reception, Bugg indicated that he was in support of moving the appointments forward for final approval.
“I felt that all of the prospective appointees were very forthcoming, gave excellent information and answers,” Bugg said. “I was impressed.”
The proposed appointments are currently expected to be voted on by the City Council at its meeting on June 23.
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