March 22, 2007 Issue                                       

©2007 The Chestnut Hill Local

Board moves to prohibit prior censorship, forms committee to examine Local management
by JENNIFER KATZ

At a March 15 special meeting, Chestnut Hill Community Association board members cleared the way to abolish the Publisher’s Committee, once charged with managing the operation of the Local.

The vote means that community association members will now have the opportunity to vote on whether or not the organization’s bylaws should be changed to do away with the Publisher’s Committee at an annual meeting in May.

The meeting was intended for board members to discuss bylaw changes as recommended by the Bylaws Committee. Last Spring, the board asked the Bylaws Committee to look at the Publisher’s Committee bylaw to see if it should be kept as is, abolished or changed.

Tolis Vardakis, co-chair of the Bylaws Committee, said after the nearly yearlong investigation, his committee concluded that the Publisher’s Committee was “meddlesome” and had the potential to interfere with the duties and authority of the editor.

The actions of the previous Publisher’s Committee members were at the heart of a period of turmoil between the community association and the Local and added to what many believe was widespread dissatisfaction with the board resulting in the election of most of the current Executive Committee widespread. It was at the first meeting of this year’s board that member Ed Feldman and president Ron Recko called for the abolition of the Publisher’s Committee.

In its place, Vardakis said, a combination of factors would better suit the goals of the Publisher’s Committee. According to the current bylaws, the Publisher’s Committee “represents the publisher of the Local regarding the editorial, financial, and business management of the Local.”

In recommending abolishing the Publisher’s Committee, Vardakis said, the board should form an employee relations ad-hoc committee, hire a business manager, and add managing the Local’s finances to the Budget and Finance Committee, which should be expanded to handle the additional duties.

The Publisher’s Committee replaced the Local Management Committee in 2003. According to CHCA past president Maxine Dornemann, the LMC had become too detailed.

“They couldn’t buy a trash can at the Local without going to the committee,” she said.

The 2003 change in bylaws also provided for a business manager at that time.

Dornemann said she is in favor of keeping the Publisher’s Committee and sees its function as vital to the CHCA, owner of the Local, and to the paper itself.

“You need an intermediary between the paper and the community association,” Dornemann said at the special meeting, “to act as advocate for the paper and to protect the community association in its responsibility as publisher.”

Pete Mazzaccaro, editor of the Local, also said he would like to see the Publisher’s Committee retained.

“We can manage the day-to-day operations of the paper,” Mazzaccaro said. “It would be nice to have [a body] to work on long-term planning towards preserving the paper and fulfilling its mission.”

In a change of position, Recko argued that the Publisher’s Committee, if utilized properly, could be a valuable tool for the paper.

“The editor needs people to go to regarding other aspects of running the paper that he may not have as much experience in, like the business aspects or commissions or salaries,” Recko said. “We need a committee to look at these things and to work in concert with Peter on what he needs to make it a better paper.”

Carol Cope, a board member, suggested a compromise to satisfy both sides of the issue — form an ad hoc committee to figure out what is needed.

“Take a year with the ad-hoc committee and look into what is needed,” Cope said, “then decide what kind of standing committee to create.”

Audience members suggested that the board be thoughtful in whom they appoint to such a committee.

Eileen Reynolds, a Chestnut Hill resident and former Inquirer employee urged the board to appoint any of the number of community members with “ink in their veins.” And Local circulation manager, Cheryl Massaro, asked that employees from the paper be included on the committee.

The board agreed with Cope and passed a motion to establish an ad-hoc committee in conjunction with the editor of the Local effective immediately, and to be abolished in one year to look into what the paper needs in terms of an oversight committee.

If moving towards the abolition of one committee and implementing another was perhaps an effort to improve relations between the CHCA and the Local, another of the evening’s efforts could only be seen as more of the same.

At the meeting, the board also voted to add an article (I,C,3) to the bylaws affirming the paper’s editorial independence and freedom of expression.

Titled “Editorial Independence,” the new bylaw states, “Any form of prior censorship expressed or implied is prohibited. Any person may suggest to the Editor subjects to be covered but the Editor has the sole authority to decide what is ultimately published.”

For some, the article bestowed too much power upon the editor. Mary Anna Ross Cowper expressed her concern that the bylaw gives the editor the ability to edit letters.

“My concern is that letters are published as they come in and that the editor may not edit them in the forum,” Ross Cowper said.

Dina Hitchcock answered those concerns saying that the Lentz policy, which covers letters to the editor, already protects letter writer’s freedom of expression and access to the forum.

Cope went one step further explaining that the editorial independence clause relates to the board more than the editor.

“In the bylaws we speak to board members,” Cope said. “This says don’t you dare get in the editor’s face — we are talking to ourselves here not to the editor.”

Another bylaw change the board approved at the meeting speaks directly to the Chestnut Hill Community Fund trustees. Seeking more transparency and accountability from the trustees, the board approved an article that trustees will issue two reports a year to the association on the status and activities of the fund to be presented at the annual and October meetings of the board.

Contact staff writer Jennifer Katz at 215-248-8804 or jenn@chestnuthilllocal.com.