IndyMedia Article On Secret WBAI Board Meeting to "Evaluate" White & Riddle
From the NYC Independent Media Center ( April 22, 2009 11:25PM EDT):
http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/2009/04/104867.html
WBAI Local Station Board Secretly Does Snap "Evaluation" of Two Managers
WBAI Local Station Board Executive Session Violates Pacifica By-Laws & Conducts Unfair Evaluation
By a WBAI supporter
On Monday, April 20, the WBAI Local Station Board, meeting in secret session on four days' notice, voted over the strong objections of the Justice & Unity members to do an immediate snap "evaluation" at that meeting -- without any preparation or data collection -- of WBAI General Manager Tony Riddle and Program Director Bernard White.
On Monday, April 20, the WBAI Local Station Board, meeting in secret session on four days' notice, voted over the strong objections of the Justice & Unity members to do an immediate snap "evaluation" at that meeting -- without any preparation or data collection -- of WBAI General Manager Tony Riddle and Program Director Bernard White. Comments made by board chair Mitch Cohen and member Steve Brown, who brought the evaluation motion, made clear that the goal was to initiate the process of firing both men. (Under Pacifica's bylaws, if the LSB votes to terminate the General Manager and the Executive Director agrees, the deed is done. The body has no direct power to terminate the Program Director but can make the General Manager's unwillingness to do so a basis for his own termination.)
Cohen opened the meeting with a long statement claiming that this unprecedented no-notice evaluation was justified by the station's serious financial problems and what he claimed was recent "abuse of the airways," a clear reference to on-air protests against Pacifica's Interim Executive Director Grace Aaron's order to lock out WBAI personnel from the station's transmitter and install remote-control broadcasting equipment, plus other actions that could end WBAI's historic autonomy and impose national control.
After more than 90 minutes of angry denunciations, points of order, and challenges to the legality and ethics of this action by Justice & Unity members, and repeated votes by the majority to reject all such challenges, the 8 Justice & Unity board members present denounced the proceedings as a sham and a railroad which they refused to legitimize, and walked out of the meeting.
Riddle, who as General Manager is a non-voting ex officio board member, remained in the room -- despite Chair Cohen's call for him to leave due to what he alleged were claims by staff members on the board that they feared retaliation from Riddle if he remained while they discussed his evaluation. When Riddle asked for the legal citation supporting Cohen’s effort to exclude him, Cohen said he could not provide any.
Justice & Unity members made numerous challenges and protests against the arbitrary, bylaws-violative, and grossly unfair process being followed. Each point of order was rejected by Cohen, and each motion offered by these members to overturn Cohen's rulings or require a board action was voted down, generally by a 12-8 margin. The challenges included:
* The notice for the meeting (convened by the 4 board officers who are all part of the body's ruling majority) failed to follow the bylaws requirement to specify the purposes of any "special" meeting. The notice only used vague language from the bylaws section listing the general topics that are permitted to be discussed in executive session: "The meeting is concerned with matters regarding personnel, proprietary information, litigation and other matters requiring confidentiality, as well as financial information obtained on a privileged or confidential basis." Justice & Unity members noted that the bylaws requirement for specific notice was designed both to prepare members for a short-notice meeting and to prevent additional, unexpected topics from being added at the last minute.
* Any board decision to do a snap evaluation violated its motion passed last August to elect a Management Evaluation Committee to carry out that task concerning both Riddle and White. It was noted that the committee had met as recently as the previous week to decide procedures for a staff survey to gather data on White's performance. (Post-meeting note: The next day, committee convener Steve Brown single-handedly and arbitrarily abolished the committee, declaring in a public email that "this committee no longer exists and will not be holding further meetings. As of Pail [sic - April] 15, the function of management review reverted back to the full body of the LSB and will remain under its direct supervision unless and until the LSB makes other provisions.")
* The entire concept of an "evaluation" of any employee without any notice, any gathering of data (through documents and interviews with staff), or any discussion with the employee and opportunity for them to respond to the evaluation, is unfair and unethical in the extreme. Justice & Unity members noted that such a process violates every standard requirement of personnel practices to ensure that an employee's rights are protected when their work is evaluated, especially when termination is being considered.
* Discussion and voting on Brown's motion in closed session violates the open meetings requirement of the Pacifica bylaws. In all past evaluations of management, the board discussed and voted in public on the timetable and procedures to be followed, and there was detailed review and public input on how the data would be gathered, what the steps of the process would be, etc.
* The meeting agenda must include a discussion and vote at the end on what public report to make on the actions taken. Majority members voted this down, claiming they were under no obligation to report anything to the public.