ORANGE BEACH, Ala. — Coastal Arts Center of Orange Beach Coordinator Wanda Price has been terminated, but neither city officials or Price will comment on the firing because she has appealed to decision to the city’s Personnel Board.

“When it comes to personnel issues our policy is we do not speak about it until the entire process is completed,” Mayor Tony Kennon said. “We appreciate all that Wanda Price has done for the arts center, but in Orange Beach anything good that happens is the result of a team effort. It’s never from the actions of one person.”

Price said her first appeal was denied during a meeting with Kennon, City Administrator Ken Grimes and City Clerk Cathy Constantino. Constantino is also the Human Resources director for the city.

“I received a letter from the mayor he will not reconsider the decision,” Price said in an email to The Islander. “There is second hearing in January.”

That meeting, according to former arts center employee Juli Jordan, will be Jan. 14. Jordan resigned her post at the center just before Price’s termination.

“I resigned from the arts center because I saw 'the writing on the wall,’” Jordan said in an email to The Islander. “The heading that the art center had been on was about to change - and so it has.

“Wanda Price created an active, vibrant art center that garnered much attention and became something very special and unique to the Gulf Coast Community.”

Price had just marked her fifth year as the coordinator at the center when she was told her services were no longer needed.

Terminated or censured employees can appeal to the city Personnel Board which is a five-person panel. Members serve four-year terms. Two of the members are citizens appointed by the City Council, another citizen appointed by the mayor and the city employees nominate two members and two alternates.

Members appointed by the council are Vicki Kopf and Nat Pruitt and the mayor’s appointee is Michael Bonham. Employees on the board are Nicole Woerner and Vicki Pishna and the alternates are Travis Coleman and Jeanne Fitzgibbons. The lawyer for the Personnel Board is John Lawler.

Recently the Friends of the Arts in Orange Beach were awarded a $500,000 BP Tourism and Marketing grant to make improvements to facilities at the arts center and market the new and expanded facilities and events there. Price and Jordan were the authors of the grant.

Scott Hardee, president of the Friends of the Arts board, said plans are still moving forward to make those improvements with the grant money.

“We’ve just recently received the grant money and we’re in the process of getting organized as to how we’re going to spend it and one what projects and that sort of thing,” Hardee said. “We are excited where we are. We think we are in the right position to do some good things for the center. We are moving forward.”

Hardee had no comment on the firing of Price.

“She’s a dear friend of mine and I think it would be inappropriate for me to comment on that,” Hardee said.

During her time at the center Price said the annual Festival of Art went from a budget of $6,500 to $123,500 in those years. Price said the center added and made improvements and expansions to the Hot Shop, the state's only public access glass blowing studio, the Special Exhibition Series, the After School Arts Program, the Children's Theater Troupe, Summer Arts Camp, ArtStars and the Scarecrow Festival. Price said she also helped write several grants to get money for the center and helped expand adult education classes.

The center also hosted weddings and corporate events during her tenure. Most recently the new Clay Studio opened in the former space occupied by the Hot Shop.

“In short, under my leadership the programs and facilities were greatly improved and expanded with the Arts Center becoming a significant contributor to the island's quality of life for residents and guests,” Price said.