A special meeting scheduled to discuss the selection of a permanent executive director for the Eureka Springs City Advertising and Promotion Commission was canceled last week.

One candidate, meanwhile, is presumably no longer in the mix.

As of a CAPC workshop held March 27, three candidates were being considered for the role: interim director Mike Maloney, John Pricher of Florida and local resident Susan Luddy, according to resumes provided to the Times-Echo.

While Maloney’s position was discussed in an executive session at the March regular CAPC meeting, commissioners Kolin Paulk and Bradley Tate-Greene were set to separately interview Pricher and Luddy and bring a recommendation to the full commission at special meeting scheduled for Wednesday, April 10.

However, according to an April 12 story in the online publication “Rough Draft Atlanta,” Pricher, a former Florida tourism official who has faced multiple disciplinary actions in his past two positions, including being fired from his most recent job, accepted a new role of vice president of marketing for Explore Brookhaven, just outside of Atlanta.

Pricher was set to start in his new role April 15, according to online reports.

A notice was sent out Tuesday, April 9, that the CAPC’s special meeting the next day was canceled.

Chris Clifton, commission chair, offered no explanation on the status of the hiring or the cancellation of the special meeting when contacted by the Times-Echo.

“We’ll be addressing at the regular meeting,” Clifton wrote to the Times-Echo on Tuesday, April 16, referring to the regular monthly CAPC meeting scheduled for Wednesday, April 24.

Luddy and Pricher were two candidates vetted and recommended by Staffmark, which was hired to assist in the search process. If the CAPC selects a candidate recommended by the agency, it would pay a fee of 12 percent of the position’s salary to the company.

“The practical look at this is Mike is the bar to beat,” commissioner Steve Holifield said at a March 27 workshop. “Is either one of these candidates you think will be better than Mike? If not, then that stops there.”

After being emailed resumes, commissioners discussed Luddy and Pricher briefly at the March 27 workshop, without naming the pair of applicants.

According to her resume, Luddy’s current positions include a part-time role for Eureka Springs Parks and Recreation doing “admin., marketing, events, community relations and operations,” and as a marketing consultant since 2016. Her background includes marketing and public relations positions at various companies since 2000. With the parks department, Luddy’s resume indicates she was an organizer for the Jamboreeka event held at Lake Leatherwood Park last July.

“A seasoned Marketing Communications and Public Relations leader and achiever with 20 years of experience in strategic communications planning, marketing and relationship building,” Luddy’s resume reads.

She got her bachelor’s degree in marketing from Franklin Pierce University in Rindge, N.H., and her masters in communications management from Simmons University in Boston, according to her resume.

Pricher was considered “incredibly impressive,” by Staffmark, commissioners were told at the March 27 workshop.

Despite Pricher being vetted by Staffmark, a quick Google search by the Times-Echo revealed a discipline-filled past in the two most recent jobs listed on his resume.

It’s unclear when Pricher’s resume was submitted for the CAPC position. The most recent position listed on the resume is tourist development director in Crystal River, Fla., with an end date of August 2023.

Pricher was fired from the Crystal River position, according to a story in the Citrus County Chronicle. The story reports that Pricher was fired by the Citrus County Visitors and Convention Bureau after two disciplinary hearings regarding misuse of funds, including questionable travel expenses.

Pricher was hired in Crystal River in November 2017. Another Chronicle report revealed that he had discipline issues in his previous position. According to his resume, Pricher worked for the Alachua County Visitors and Convention Bureau in Gainesville, Fla., in a variety of roles from 1997 to August 2017, serving as tourist development director from October 2013 until his departure.

The Chronicle requested public records which showed “a host of disciplinary actions in his former post in Alachua County.”

“Some mirror the same problems that led to Pricher last week being placed on paid administrative leave in Citrus County, including going above the heads of his bosses and submitting questionable expense reports,” the July 18, 2023, story reads, adding that a supervisor was proposing termination in a July 2017 memo, a month before Pricher’s resume indicates he no longer worked in Alachua County.