The Washington Blade - Friday, May 21, 1999
Mark Sullivan

The demonstrators said they are angry that the board is putting together a plan to downsize the cash-strapped organization without first seeking their input.

"The board has not really involved the staff in major decisions," said Rob Ornstein, GMHC manager of direct marketing. "They are not asking the staff for its opinion on anything."

But members of the board said this week that they have been meeting with senior staff members about the organization's future for some time. They said the impression that employees are being left out of the loop is a result of "miscommunication."

"We are relying on the staff to help give us direction about where they think the agency should go," said Thomas Morgan, secretary of the board. "It's the members of the staff who are the experts, not the board."

Morgan and others on the board said employees will be included in a committee currently being put together to restructure the organization. That committee, which is expected to finish its work by August, will map out how GMHC can continue to serve an expanding client base with a drastically reduced budget.

GMHC's budget woes became public knowledge at the end of 1997, when the organization announced the first in a series of budget cuts and staff layoffs. At that time, the organization had a $30 million budget and 288 employees on the payroll. Since then, GMHC has trimmed its budget back to $24 million and has a total of 225 staff positions. About 25 of those positions are currently unfilled.

Despite numerous cost-cutting measures, the organization is still ailing. It ended its last fiscal year $2.5 million in the red and has managed to repay only about $1 million of that debt.

AIDS organizations across the country are facing similar problems because of a decrease in donations during the past few years.

The size of the gathering outside the building Tuesday seemed to surprise Executive Director Joshua Lipsman, who came outside just after noon to find a man with a bullhorn leading close to half of the organization's staff in a chant of "Whose agency? Our agency!"

Lipsman, who left a position as head of the Alexandria, Va., health department to run GMHC, listened quietly as employee after employee took the bullhorn to express how they can no longer stand behind an organization "that doesn't listen to us."

"GMHC is not a governmental organization," one woman shouted. "It's a grassroots organization. And you're pulling the grass out."

Lipsman stood silently for a long time, then finally responded: "Your comments are very good. They speak for themselves."

Employees said Lipsman's comments to the crowd did little to assuage their fears about the organization.

"People were waiting for something," said longtime staffer Heidi Jones, "and that something didn't come."

Employees said they began to plan the protest Monday after learning that Pat Pollok, managing director of development, had been told she would no longer be employed by GMHC. They said it was no secret among the staff that Pollok, a very popular member of the senior management team, had butted heads with Lipsman over the direction of the organization on several occasions.

Lipsman told the Blade that he is not allowed to discuss personnel matters. Board members also refused to comment on Pollok's departure from staff, saying only that they leave all personnel decisions to Lipsman. But members of the staff said Lipsman called Pollok into his office at about 2 p.m. on Monday to inform her that she would no longer employed by the organization.

Pollok, too, said she can not discuss why she is no longer with the organization.

"I am devastated to leave my staff and the entire staff at GMHC," Pollok said when reached at her home on Tuesday. "I'm sorry that I can no longer do the job I thought I was hired to do, one that I was willing to do and able to do."

Her departure came the day after AIDS Walk, the organization's biggest fundraiser, raised more than the $4 million GMHC had projected. The staff of the development department said they were celebrating the success of the event when they got word that Pollok would no longer be their boss.

"To fire the director of development the day after AIDS Walk exceeded our expectations and drew a record number of participants was a slap in the face," said Steve Asher. "It was insulting to the work that we did."

The development staff members sent an e-mail to the rest of the staff saying they would call in sick the following day to protest Pollok's departure, and they were summoned to a meeting with Lipsman at about 5 p.m. He informed them that Pollok no longer worked for the organization and said that, in recognition of their hard work during the previous weeks, they could take off the following day.

Members of the development staff said it seemed clear Lipsman was simply trying to pre-empt their protest. But Lipsman characterized it differently.

"Interestingly, when we met, I gave them the opportunity to take the day off," Lipsman said. "When I got back to my office, I got a note saying they intended to take the day off."

The development staff said they decided after the meeting with Lipsman that, instead of taking the day off on Tuesday, they would stand outside the organization's headquarters in silent protest. At 9:30 a.m., about a dozen staffers lined up against the wall of the building on West 24th Street. Lipsman came outside briefly, offering to meet with them inside. They refused.

An hour later, dozens of employees, including many department heads and senior managers, joined them outside. Other staffers leaned out windows on the second and third floors. When one staffer implored his co-workers to "remember our ACT UP days," they began to chant "Where's Pat? Who's next?"

The employees asked Lipsman, who came outside for a second time, to invite members of the board to attend the next staff meeting. Lipsman said he would relay the message. But when contacted on Wednesday, Lipsman refused to confirm whether he had done so, saying only that he was "keeping everyone informed."

"I think it's a level of detail about internal matters that isn't appropriate to share publicly," Lipsman told the Blade.

Board members said they had heard about the request from the employees, but said they would most likely not attend.

"We expect Josh to run the agency," said Morgan. "We don't feel it's appropriate for board members to run day-to-day affairs at the organization."

Morgan said Lipsman and his top aides should be communicating what goes on at board meetings with the staff. He said he finds it "very frustrating" that this has apparently not happened.

"I don't understand why the rank-and-file employees feel they are not part of process," said Morgan. "Senior management attends all of our board meetings. For reasons that I don't understand, some of the expectations of the board are not filtered down to rest of the staff."

John T. Green, co-chair of the board's program committee, agreed that communication between staff and the board seems blocked.

"Frankly, every board meeting has included members of the staff," said Green. "They have all included senior management."

Green said the lack of information flowing back and forth had led to some "miscommunication." One misconception, he said, is that the board plans to pare back the services it provides to clients with HIV and AIDS and focus mostly on prevention and lobbying. He said there will be some "painful" cuts in the future but that the agency will always provide services to people with AIDS.

"We have no intention to do away with programs and services," said Green. "Do we want to maybe have a different look to our programs? Very possibly. But there's no intent to do away with programs."

Tuesday's protest was another bump in the road for Lipsman, who angered members of his staff last month when he acknowledged purchasing $4,500 worth of new office furniture, as well as a laptop computer and cell phone, even though the organization is deeply in debt.

Lipsman, who joined the GMHC staff last fall, said he made the purchases before learning the severity of GMHC's financial problems. He said he tried, unsuccessfully, to return the furniture after he understood how strapped the organization was for money. He said this week that the furniture, for which a final payment has yet to be made, is still in storage while he decides what to do with it.

Lipsman also garnered criticism for some of the stances he has taken, such as his advocating that GMHC drop its opposition to a law requiring that the names of people with HIV be reported to state health officials.

At Tuesday's protest, one man who identified himself as a client, angrily denounced Lipsman for pushing a position that is "frightening to people with this disease."

After a pause, Lipsman replied, "Thank you for your comment."
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