Editors' resignations divide
CHCA Board
Roll call ballot fails to support
effort to bring Sturdivant back.
Tally at end of story.
 James Sturdivant, seated, and Michael Mishak
by Amy Brisson
The resignation of Local editor
James Sturdivant and associate editor Mike Mishak
have exposed deep-seated divisions within the
Chestnut Hill Community Association and the Local
staff, and has sparked both public and private
debate over the future of the newspaper and the
role of its publishers.
In a long and contentious
board meeting last Thursday, members of the Chestnut
Hill Community Association voted twice against
inviting Sturdivant back to work until a replacement
could be found.
Sturdivant turned in a letter
of resignation on Wed., Oct. 19, offering to remain
in his position until Nov. 16. He cited internal
restructuring without clear explanations and the
undermining of editorial independence as two main
reasons for leaving.
In a statement to the press,
Sturdivant said, “I have come to realize
that the CHCA leadership’s vision of what
their paper should be and my idea of what is required
of a true journalistic enterprise may no longer
be compatible … The newspaper’s integrity
depends on its being able to report and comment
on all elements of the community, including the
public actions of the community association, from
a position of editorial independence. Recent internal
events have convinced me that a strong commitment
to such independence no longer exists.”
Although Sturdivant gave
four weeks notice in his letter, he was asked
the following day, Oct. 20, to vacate his office
by that afternoon.
According to Chris Kemezis,
CHCA vice-president of operations, the decision
to ask Sturdivant to leave immediately was in
keeping with a policy established a year ago,
and was not personal. He said, “if someone
resigns then we are sad to see them go, and appreciate
everything they did for us, but we need to move
on from that date.”
But at Thursday’s board
meeting, attended by approximately 100 people,
the question of Sturdivant’s immediate departure
was nowhere near resolved. Maryanna Ross Cowper
made a motion to invite Sturdivant back to the
Local for an indefinite amount of time. In roll
call vote the motion failed, 21 to 14, with three
abstaining. A second motion, opened by Jeremy
Heep, to accept Sturdivant’s resignation
but ask him to continue in a transitional capacity
until Nov. 16 was also defeated, 16 to 17, with
president Maxine Dornemann casting the tie-breaking
vote.
Janine Dwyer, an at-large
member and local business owner who voted in favor
of inviting Sturdivant back, said, “Jim
was very capable, for the sake of the staff and
the sake of procedure it would have been the intelligent
thing to do.”
Dornemann, who voted against
the motion, said in a phone interview Monday that,
“had Jim come to me first I would have asked
him to hold off … it was not a productive
thing to do.” But, she added, in business
it is a “generally accepted practice that
when you move on you move on.”
Since Sturdivant was not
at Thursday’s meeting, there was some speculation
over his reasons for leaving. During an interview
Mon., Kemezis explained that he thought the trouble
was in part due to incorrect rumors that had been
circulating around the office. He said that a
draft organizational flow chart that placed a
newly created “managing editor” position
above the senior editor was stolen off a computer
and reproduced, although “it had never come
to the board and it was nonsense.”
Kemezis said that the future
of the “managing editor” position
would be the subject of coming board meetings,
although he felt that the title would be changed
and the job description defined so that it would
not suggest authority over any other editor.
Others felt that the reasons
lay deeper, in the editorial and managing policies
of the paper. Dwyer said that she felt there was
“a desire to control what the Local says
and what it doesn’t.” Ron Recko, who
also voted in favor of inviting Sturdivant back,
said in a brief conversation Monday that the board
was attempting to squelch criticism, and that
the debate was over controlling the content of
the paper, especially within the editorials.
Mishak, who quit on Oct.
28, the morning after Thursday’s board meeting,
also emphasized the issue of editorial independence
in a statement to the press about his departure.
Mishak wrote, “Recent
internal events, particularly the strong push
of management to restrain the newspaper's muscle
- its editorial independence to comment on all
things newsworthy, including the community association
itself, signal a clear departure from the basic
journalistic standards that have made the Local
a valued and respected community institution since
1958.”
The issue of editorial content
was on the table in Thursday’s meeting during
a discussion of the paper’s “Lentz
policy,” according to Dwyer. The policy,
which appears each week in the Letters section,
promises that the paper will provide a forum for
airing all points of view and requires that positions
presented by the CHCA or members be identified
as such.
Although the reaffirmation
of the policy was discussed at Thursday’s
meeting, it was never officially voted upon, according
to Local production designer Scott Alloway.
Dwyer argued that the policy
was undermined by a change to the CHCA bylaws
in 2004, which put the word “editorial”
under a list of publisher committee duties.
“In my opinion the bylaws
need to be changed,” she said.
Dornemann, on the other hand,
said that she did not think the bylaws were in
conflict and said she “wasn’t aware
we were trying to alter the Lentz policy.”
Dornemann said that she would have voted in favor
of reaffirming the policy, although she has previously
argued for dissolving it, according to an editorial
written by Katie Worrall in August 2004.
In her editorial Worrall stated,
“The reason [for dissolving the policy]
given to me by Maxine Dornemann is that the Community
Association has no control over the Local, that
the policy ties the hands of the CHCA and is not
a good defense if the Local and the Community
Association face a lawsuit.”
The Lentz policy, as well
as the future of the staff and the paper, will
continue to be the focus of future meetings. For
now, the recent departure of many on the newspaper’s
staff has left the paper with a skeleton crew
and many questions over who will come in to fill
the vacuum.
The arrival of Vijay Kothare
on Friday, October 28, who was originally introduced
as interim editor, left many confused. His position
was later clarified as a consultant and temporary
help for the staff. According to Dornemann, potential
candidates for interim (or long term) editor are
still to be identified, and will appear before
the board and go through the proper process before
appointment.
But for the staff and the community at large,
finding a replacement editor is only one piece
of the reconstruction necessary.
As Dwyer summed up, “In the past 18 months
we have lost seven key employees: three editors,
a business manager, lead sales executive, community
manager, and an executive secretary. They have
been replaced in some fashion, but it leads me
to the question: What’s going on here?”
”Corrected version of the roll call vote.
A transcription error by
CHCA officials resulted in the incorrect tabulation
of Mark Keintz vote on the motion to have James
Sturdivant asked to return to the Local. Keintz
voted YES. The printed edition of the Local shows
a NO vote. This information was received at 9
PM Wednesday, Nov. 2.
Initial roll call vote on the motion:
“We will ask James Sturdivant to
return to his position of editor and stay until
some future date.”
Lawrence Walsh - YES
Sister Jean Laurich - YES
Lou Aiello - YES
Mary Ann Ross- Cowper - YES
Janine Dwyer - YES
Mitch Melton - YES
Brien Tilley - NO
Amelia Carter - NO
Virginia Mallery - YES
Bright Judson - NO
John O’Connell - YES
Michael Schantz - Abstention
Mark Keintz - YES
Douglas Doman - NO
Maxine Dornemann - Abstention
Chris Kemezis _ YES
Walter Sullivan - NO
Sanjiv Jain - NO
Tia Burke - NO
Robert Hendrick - YES
Stewart Graham - NO
Tom Kessler - NO
Ron Recko - YES
Jane Piotrowski - NO
Janice Manzi - NO
Anne Spaeth - YES
Claire Lemisch - YES
Tom Hemphill - NO
Caroline King - NO
Leigh Filippini - NO
Cecile Mihalich - NO
Pamela Waters - NO
Susanne Lentz - NO
Jeremy Heep - NO
Dina Hitchcock - NO
Mary Ann Dwyer - Abstention
Elspeth Lodge – NO
Bob Bacino – YES
Voting Results:
15 YES; 20 NO; 3 ABSTAINED
Motion fails.
Second Vote on the motion (by show of hands):
To accept James Sturdivant's resignation
and ask James whether he would consider his offer
to continue in a transitional capacity until November
16 only as he had offered.
16 YES; 17 NO
Motion fails with president Maxine Dornemann casting
deciding vote after a tie vote by the board.
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