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Sign the petition demanding accountability and transparency at the Lansing Area AIDS Network. You can sign the petition here.

It is time for Jake Distel to resign from the Lansing Area AIDS Network. Join me in calling for his resignation, by signing this petition.

It is disappointing to report that my calls for the resignation of Jake Distel as the executive director of the Lansing Area AIDS Network has been met with the tradition response by Distel– ignore, shame and shift blames to everyone else.

But more troubling is that in an email exchange with Board President Maxine Thome, I was made to believe I had done something wrong by publicly calling for Distel’s resignation. In that email, Thome, a person I have a great deal of respect for, made a plea for “respect.” I had to admit a very deep and troubling disappointment in this plea.

Respect is something which requires both sides to engage, dialog and explore solutions together. Sadly, as this blog has hinted at over the years, that has not been the case with LAAN. Instead, any attempt at activism and engagement has been met with silencing, shaming and defensiveness by the agency.

Respect also requires that when an agency has been presented with an in-depth series of complaints, all backed up with evidence, that the agency not promise a nebulous time frame for action. It requires immediate, forceful action. That action may be simple, like saying an executive committee meeting will be scheduled by x date to discuss the group’s next action. People deserve, in a respectful environment, to know how things will proceed, and how to participate.

Respect also dictates that ASOs engage their clients with The Denver Principles. That means the opinions, involvement and engagement of HIV positives is actively sought, encouraged and engaged. I would expand beyond that and note that ASOs have an obligation to hold board meetings which are open to the public, and publicized. The board should also be easily reached via email or phone and that information should be available on the ASOs website.

Respect also dictates openness. That means, in this era of the internet, transparency in the electronic frontier. It is not difficult to place the group’s bylaws, and minutes of meetings, policies and budgets on line. The budgets would be presented in the so-called “check book” style of transparency. Afterall, the money used by the agency is either tax dollar funds, or donations (although a vast majority of LAAN’s money is grant money, with a very small amount being raised in fundraiser). That means its our money. We should be able to see how it is being spent, month to month, and we should be able to point to a place where we know how accountable that spending is. Right now, as I pointed out yesterday, we have spent thousands in prevention efforts and we have failed on that account.

So, if LAAN would like things to be respectful, then LAAN can start the process by engaging in fundamental ways to be respectful themselves.

Following is a letter I sent to Jake Distel, executive director of the Lansing Area AIDS Network, last night. I am calling for his immediate resignation, or termination by the board, for failing to do his job. It is a sad day, but if LAAN is going to effectively combat the continuing increase in new cases, it needs leadership which understands the crisis and is willing to think outside the box. Since 2003, Ingham county has averaged 24.71 new cases of HIV a year. Since 2005, it has averaged 22.2 new cases a year. Clearly, we are failing somewhere.

If prevention were any other business model, which consistently failed to return on investment for year after year, the CEO would be fired. This situation is no different. LAAN, through its prevention arm, has failed to accomplish any meaningful decrease in new HIV cases in the county. As executive director, Distel is the CEO of the organization. It falls on him to accept the responsibility for this failure, and resign. If he does not, the Board of Directors should immediately fire him, for cause.

The question is: will the board fire him? Will Jake take responsibility? In private correspondence with me, the indications are that he will not take responsibility and will expect to continue to operate in the offensive, ineffective ways he has for years.

According to the 990s from the group, between Jake Distel and Audrey Matisoff, deputy director, account for $122,968 of the organization’s $804,885 budget in 2008. That mean two people account for one-eighth of the entire budget! The entire staff is 12 people, and costs the organization $609,839. That means two people account for 1/6th of that entire expense, while the remaining 10 people account for an average salary and benefits of $48,687.10 a person. It also only left the organization, $195,046 for all other program and organization expenses such as food pantry, medical cost and prescription assistance, emergency needs assistance all for clients, as well as office rent and prevention expenses such as materials, condoms and lube. Is there any wonder why Ingham county’s HIV rate continues to climb?

It is time for new leadership.

Here’s the letter

May 24, 2010

via electronic mail

Dear Jake,

I have done a lot of soul searching in the last 72 hours in relation to HIV prevention and addressing the HIV crisis in Ingham county. As a result, I have spent the better part of the last two days creating an intensive HIV prevention and education strategy which will marry traditional face to face outreach with social networking and internet resources. The entire program would be supported by an intensive, but simple, HIV marketing campaign — something the state and the county have never done effectively.

I will be presenting this at the meeting May 25 as a basis for discussion. It is my understanding that no immediate decisions will be made at this meeting, which is disappointing. I will be calling on LAAN and ICHD to begin an immediate process to review, evaluate and implement the strategy I am presenting.

This is only one part of what I have come to understand as an issue in Ingham county.

I have also come to the conclusion that there is something else I will have to recommend and demand at the meeting– and now. I am writing to you to provide you with advance notice of my intent so that you do not get blindsided. I will be calling for your immediate resignation, or your discharge from LAAN, as the executive director. I have arrived at this decision based on two simple, but profoundly troubling issues.

First, you are at the helm of LAAN and under your leadership, new HIV cases have averaged 24.71 annually since 2003. While there has been a downward trend with the first two years or so seeing significantly higher rates, the reality is that in the last five years alone the county has averaged 22.2 new cases a year. This year’s statistics are trending to land in exactly the same place. In addition, in the past two years, Ingham County has suffered two syphilis outbreaks, including one which is happening at this moment. In both cases, HIV was a co-infection in many of the identified cases of syphilis and it was found in the same target demographic age group of 30-39. This age category represents a sizeable number of the cases of HIV in Ingham county, yet prevention efforts, messages and programming is directed at younger people in the 13-29 age categories. Additionally, we know from many of the men involved in the HIV/Syphilis outbreak found their sexual partners on the internet.

In a March email you stated to me that the use of the internet for HIV outreach and prevention programs was “not a priority” for the Lansing Area AIDS Network. This shows a profound misunderstanding of aggressive intervention and prevention programs, as well as a dramatic failure in leadership. This statement underscores the the continuing HIV crisis in Ingham county and shows you are not capable of directing and running the programs to deliver effective, targeted prevention messages.

My second concern is that while I have been consistently offering my assistance, ideas, observations and time to assist LAAN in overcoming what I see as clear structural flaws, particularly as they related to HIV prevention and LAAN marketing, I have been met with silence, defensiveness, and being put off, never to be returned to. If you are doing this to a community leader with 20 years of media experience, how many other people are you hampering in their attempts to work with LAAN? HIV is a community problem, and it cannot be addressed by a small core of individuals, no matter how committed, who are acting without community buy-in, input and influence. This clearly is the case. Under your leadership, LAAN has shrunk, become nearly invisible in the LGBT community, disbanded client based support groups, and gutted programs such as the Buddy program and other client services.

In short, in my estimation, you have mismanaged LAAN. As a result, I am left with no other alternative but to publicly call for your immediate resignation or termination. It is not healthy to keep the management leadership in a failed business. And the statistical realities of HIV in Ingham county show, LAAN has failed in a primary purpose– prevention. Some one has to take the responsibility for this, and that some one has to be you.

Your resignation would be a bold statement to the community that LAAN is serious about addressing the HIV crisis in Ingham county.

Sincerely

Todd A. Heywood

Client Lansing Area AIDS Network

blogger/owner TheConversationStartsHere.net