KAREN HUME Hired at Capitol

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Karen Hume is leaving Operation P.R.I.D.E. to become managing director of the Capitol Arts Center.

“It was a hard decision. I have a great love for Operation P.R.I.D.E. and all those things we’ve been able to accomplish over the last few years,” she said this morning.

Hume has worked at the civic beautification agency for four years, and been its executive director for two, she said. But she was the Capitol’s volunteer coordinator before that, and kept doing some work there even while running Operation P.R.I.D.E.

“We are very, very fortunate to be able to hire Karen,” said Barry Williams, Capitol Arts Alliance board chair.

The Capitol hasn’t had an executive director since Mike Thomas left a year and a half ago, he said. Managing Director Dawn Wesley took over many of the executive director’s duties, but this spring she cut back and then left to work with her husband, a professor at Lindsey Wilson College, Williams said.

“That’s when we began looking,” he said.

The managing director’s job was advertised nationwide and drew 25 applications, Williams said. Many of the applicants were extremely well-qualified in specific areas, but Hume brought the best combination of skills, enthusiasm for the Capitol and knowledge of the community, he said. She’s also secretary for the Southern Kentucky Performing Arts Center board, and so should help draw the Capitol closer to that institution when it’s built, Williams said.

The Capitol isn’t hiring a new executive director, but will hire an administrative assistant to help Hume with day-to-day tasks, he said. That change should save the arts group about $20,000 a year, Williams said. The Capitol is still looking to hire an educational director, and one of Hume’s first tasks will be to help sift through about 40 applications for that job, he said.

Williams didn’t disclose what Hume will be paid, but said it’s about the same as Wesley’s salary.

“She got a very decent raise,” he said of Hume, whose pay at Operation P.R.I.D.E. has depended on an annual city appropriation of $25,000 or less.

The Capitol’s board offered Hume the job about a week and a half ago, and she took a few days to decide, Williams said. She’s working a couple of hours a day at the Capitol now, and should start full-time in about 10 days, he said.

Hume said she thought for a long time before taking the job, talking with Williams and Wesley. Although Wesley has officially left, she’ll be around to help for a short while, Hume said.

Her move to the Capitol was mentioned at Tuesday’s city commission meeting. Commissioners Brian Strow and Brian “Slim” Nash said the Operation P.R.I.D.E. board should delay seeking an executive director until the city - which provides most of P.R.I.D.E.’s cash funding - discusses whether the agency’s efforts should be refocused. That discussion is scheduled for a nonvoting commission work session Sept. 16.

Hume said she hopes the city and Warren County grasp the importance of partnership with Operation P.R.I.D.E., providing not only funding but work crews from the Warren County Regional Jail to clean and mow major entrance routes to the city.

Any organization should keep examining its goals, and each director of P.R.I.D.E will handle things a little differently, but some of its tasks are mandatory, Hume said. Maintenance of the landscaping on Cemetery Road is written into a contract between the state, city and county, and the city and county entrusted that task to Operation P.R.I.D.E., she said.

Beyond that, P.R.I.D.E. has expanded its reach recently, but along the same themes: landscaping, recycling and anti-litter education, Hume said.

“As far as I know, the Operation P.R.I.D.E. board is proceeding as planned to put out an ad for an executive director,” she said.