The Carbondale City Council passed a motion to inform the executive director of the Carbondale Convention and Tourism Bureau in light of concerns about the performance of the Bureau under her direction.

Some members of the council have said they are not satisfied with Executive Director Debbie Moore and the manner in which she represents the bureau to Carbondale businesses.

Mayor Neil Dillard, Councilwoman Maggie Flanagan and Councilman Michael Neill voted in support of the motion.

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Councilman John Budslick and Councilman Larry Briggs voted against the motion.

Neill said he was not seeing adequate cooperation with area businesses from the bureau.

I have called people in Carbondale specifically to see is they are getting adequate cooperation from the director and I haven’t been getting a favorable response, Neill said.

As a result of the formal motion, City Manager Jeff Doherty has sent a letter to Moore informing of the council’s concerns.

At the direction of the council I have informed the director by letter to the Carbondale Convention and Tourism Bureau that the council has concerns that could affect their funding, Doherty said.

Councilwoman Flanagan called on the tourism board to review the position after recent events caused her to have deep concerns about Moore’s performance.

Flanagan would not elaborate on what the recent events or her concerns were when addressed by Councilman John Budslick.

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Budslick asked the members of the council to voice their concerns at the meeting to let the public know what the concerns were.

We’re talking about firing someone here, and I think the public is entitled to know what these concerns are, Budslick said.

Budslick said he did not think the concerns against Moore were legitimate and cited a number of recent awards to Moore and the bureau under her leadership.

I do not have any concerns about her performance and apparently no one else did, either, Budslick said. I asked them three or four times at the meeting what their concerns were and they had no answer to that.

It is not fair to fire this woman if there are no legitimate concerns.

The bureau is a non-profit organization funded by the city of Carbondale with money from Carbondale’s 5 percent hotel tax.

In the current fiscal year the city allocated $195,000 to the bureau.

The funding for the bureau will be discussed at the budget hearing April 7.