10 | QSALTLAKE MAGAZINE | NEWS
Qsaltlake.com |
ISSUE 314 |
AUGUST, 2020
Utah Pride Center leaders say they will survive the pandemic Two rounds of employee reductions due to the current pandemic have brought allegations of retaliation and mismanagement at the Utah Pride Center. Former employees complain that the Center is questionable with its finances, and has a lack of transparency in hiring and firing. Center leaders say the allegations are not only untrue but were duly investigated by outside professionals who found no wrongdoings by Center management.
Restructure No. 1 The first round of restructuring occurred shortly after shutdowns were forced around the state because of the Coronavirus. On April 30, ten employees were let go as the Center adjusted its focus due to its forced closure and the questionable future of its largest fundraiser of the year — the Utah Pride Festival. “This downsizing is happening as a result of COVID-19’s impact on our funding streams,” explained Center Executive Director Moolman at the time. “We are seeing slow and lower donor engagement, depressed economic outlook, large donor funds tied to the stock market, and the slow rollout of the PPP/SBA grants to non-profits.” “This has become our reality,” he said. On May 27, Liz Pitts, who was the Community Engagement Director in charge of garnering sponsors and other donors for the Center and the Festival, sent an email to the members of the board of directors spelling out a long list of grievances she had given to the
Center’s HR firm, Stratus.hr. In it, she spelled out 29 questions, including everything from why, when the Center was seeing a banner year up until April, did it find itself in the position of laying off 40 percent of its staff, to the cover-up of the former operations director’s alleged “book doctoring” and “potential theft?” “I believe in my heart that you have the best intentions and care sincerely about Utah’s LGBTQ+ community members. I also believe deeply in the mission and vision of the Utah Pride Center,” Pitts wrote. “So, I beg you, please investigate and take action on behalf of the remaining Pride Center staff and the individuals who need the Center so desperately.” She wrote that her allegations against the operations director “destroyed trust between Rob and I, and I have been treated with dismissal and hostility ever since.” Moolman disagreed that such dismissal and hostility ever happened. “Absolutely, that situation did not take place as described,” he said.
Restructure No. 2 Just before the second round of restructuring, Utah Pride Festival Director Hillary McDaniel sent an email to Utah Pride Center Board Chair Mona Stevens requesting to be put on the board’s agenda for the next meeting to discuss the items in Pitts’ email. Stevens declined to put McDaniel on the agenda. McDaniel then sent an email complaint to Stratus.hr on the morning of June 10. Hours later, she was let go. “To me, it points to retaliation,” McDaniel told The Salt Lake Tribune. “These were the people asking hard questions about financial transparency about who was let go and why.”
Moolman said the plan for the restructure, including whose positions would be eliminated, was made well before the complaints and the email to the board. “In fact,” he said, “it had been vetted by numerous community leaders and pro-bono lawyers.” “If people think that such decisions can be made in a matter of hours, they haven’t been in a position to have to let people — especially people they consider friends — go,” Moolman said. One of the biggest questions the former employees and volunteers have put forth is why the Center, after acknowledging they received a Paycheck Protection Program loan through the Small Business Association, didn’t choose to keep the staff on the payroll. “There were so many questions about the PPP loans,” Moolman said. “Every time we thought we understood how the program worked, we got a call that things had changed.” Center leaders determined they would pay back the loan rather than incur debt. “Surprisingly, upon thoroughly examining the terms of the PPP loan program, we found that the loan would have put the Center under undue fiscal strain with its requirements and payback schedule,” said UPC board treasurer Christine Decaria. “The Center, for the last several years, has been operating in the black, and [the board] determined to keep it that way and to not burden the Center with unproductive debt.” In the end,” Moolman said, the Center leaders believed that the former staff would do better utilizing the $600 unemployment boost than coming on for 10 weeks only to be let go at that point.
Leaderhip response to allegations On July 20, Center leaders issued a statement and a video responding to the allegations. “For more than 30 years, the Utah Pride Center has proudly been the voice of our community, creating lasting change and working with the public to ensure inclusion among all who live in and call Utah home,” the statement read. “Like so many organizations and small businesses, the swift and indiscriminatory spread of the Coronavirus affected many aspects
