Community composting: healthy soil, food, people – and planet

Many feel helpless about climate change since fossil fuels’ carbon-dioxide releases are mostly beyond our direct control. But another huge contributor to the crisis is methane, which is more than 28 times as powerful as carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which adds that over the last 200 years, the concentration of methane in the atmosphere has more than doubled, “largely due to human-related activities.”

However, there’s a way to address the common human activities of discarding food, which results in dramatic methane emissions, especially from landfills – composting, and the Peoria area has a convenient, simple way to make a big difference: community composting.

Except for home gardeners, food scraps might mean doggy bags, leftovers or trash. But food scraps and other material are being transformed into reusable resources that help lawns, farms and land all while eliminating unwanted methane releases.

“Divesting waste from the [City/County] landfill, extending the landfill’s life, and replenishing soil are the goals,” said Rebecca Cottrell, Peoria County’s Sustainability Coordinator.

When buried in landfills, organic waste decomposes and releases methane. Even when incinerated, moist organic waste requires intense energy to keep the burner temps high and can release toxins into the air. Besides releasing methane, degrading food can leak, polluting water and soil

That’s “problematic and not sustainable,” said Eric Goldstein, a senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Worldwide, 1.4 billion tons of food are landfilled annually. In the United States, about a third of food produced in the country isn’t consumed, and much ends up in landfills, where almost one-quarter of the contents are food waste; 58% of all methane emissions from landfills are from food waste, the EPA reported in October.

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“Composting feels relatively simple,” says Stephanie Katsaros, president of the environmental stewardship group Bright Beat, which she founded in 2010. “It’s not hard to separate your food scraps from waste, and if you have access to the infrastructure for it to be dropped off or picked up and processed, the benefits are clear: healthy soil, healthy food, healthy people and reducing greenhouse-gas emissions by keeping food out of landfills to reduce methane emissions.”

Plus, after organic material is baked, dehydrated, ground into powder and changed to mulch, or even animal feed supplements rich with protein and fiber, the finished product is odorless and loosens tight soils, adds organic matter to soil and has no harsh chemicals.

In greater Peoria, people can subscribe to the community composting service for a $24.99 setup fee purchased at Sous Chef in Peoria, Washington Wellness in Washington, or at the Ecology Action Center in Bloomington. That gets them  key card to access collection kiosks at various locations: outside Sous Chef, 1311 SW Adams; in the parking lot behind the Nook off Prospect Road and Seiberling Avenue in Peoria Heights; in the parking lot of the Connect Center, 1750 Washington Rd. in Washington, and at Normandy village, 1100 N. Beech St. in Normal.

The program is outsourced to private companies, so Peoria County doesn’t underwrite its costs beyond minimal investment, Cottrell says; “just for the kiosks and consumer supplies, and it could save taxpayer money in landfill life and costs.”

There’s no proposal for pick-up composting now, but the County is looking into expanding partners – especially throughout the county.

“We need interested municipalities and some private business willing to participate, Cottrell says. “Since 2018, it’s worked pretty great. It’s a nice resource and we’ve gotten good responses.”

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Community composting isn’t new. South Korea banned dumping food scraps into landfills in 2005, keeping about 90% of food waste out of dumps and incinerators, and hundreds of local governments there have processing facilities.

California requires local governments to provide organic waste collection, and New York City next year will mandate separating yard waste and food scraps for curbside collection.

In the last decade, many areas, large and small, started voluntary composting initiatives. Nationally, nine states now have some level of mandatory composting, and some cities have voluntary curbside collections. Others, including Peoria and Chicago, have drop-off options.

Chicago’s new $6 million community composting program has 15 drop-off locations for fruit and vegetable scraps, cooked food, meat, fish, bones, dairy, eggshells, bread, grains, coffee grounds and tea leaves.

“Diverting food scraps for composting is one of the easiest and most impactful ways for individuals and cities to address the climate crisis,” said Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson. “We can reduce harmful greenhouse-gas emissions, return organic materials to the Earth, and, most importantly, create healthier communities.”

More can be done, Katsaros says.

“Lawmakers are not moving fast enough to address our present and growing climate crisis,” she says. “The climate impact of organic waste in landfills is urgent matter. There are other environmental issues and solutions that need to be prioritized, but wasting resources is a widespread issue that also needs attention.

“We can no longer allow ourselves to ignore the fact that wasting resources is an irresponsible act of a privileged society.”

On Oct. 31, dozens of local leaders in an open letter appealed to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to help phase out food waste from landfills by 2040.

“Local governments across the country are already taking steps to keep methane-generating organic waste out of landfills. We have made systems changes to reduce food waste and ensure surplus foods are recovered to feed those in need. Food scraps that remain are diverted to community or curbside composting programs, creating valuable soil products,” says the letter, signed by officials from Phoenix and St. Paul, small towns in Massachusetts and North Carolina, and Illinois’ Oak Park and Highland Park and 50 others.

“Federal policy is essential to scale the methane prevention and mitigation efforts in a few leading localities to a nationwide, equitable approach. We need fast action from the EPA.”

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Meanwhile, on a 20-acre spread on Cameron Lane, in the shadow of the airport, Paul Rosenbohm operates Better Earth Compost, a business he started in 1998 – “long before it became popular,” he says. “It was a learning process and building a market from scratch, taking an unwanted product and making something better for the Earth – the same thing God does, only we do it in three months and He takes years.”

Rosenbohm, who’s also the Peoria County Board Republican representative for District 18, collects material from a variety of sources, from Dixon’s seafood and Princeville pumpkins to the community composting kiosks. After several different processes depending on the needs of customers, Better Earth Compost delivers various blends throughout the state, from gardeners and farmers to general contractors and local sites such as the Riverfront Museum and Peoria Stadium.

He knows it enriches the soil.

“There were fields here that years ago wouldn’t grow good weeds, and now it’s fertile, dark black prairie soil.”

A little education could encourage people to change from just tossing stuff into trash bags headed for landfills.

“Education is critical to growing awareness and changing mindsets and culture, in order for composting to become standard practice,” Katsaros says. “Community engagement around composting involves education and co-creating/collaborating on solutions — like composting at community gardens, or teaching children and families about composting through school-cafeteria composting programs and associated curriculum.”

There’s an “opportunity for those leading efforts to advance composting and the use of finished compost to learn from past efforts to promote recycling and use of recycled content,” adds Katsaros, who’s also president of Chicago Sustainability Task Force and active with the Illinois Food Scrap & Composting Coalition and the Wasted Food Action Alliance. “Various Illinois organizations promote such practices, with free educational resources, such as the Illinois Food Scrap & Composting Coalition (https://illinoiscomposts.org/composting-at-home/) and University of Illinois Extension (https://extension.illinois.edu/keywords/composting).

“Education and policy may be necessary to motivate businesses and institutions to change,” says Katsaros, who says Peoria County is doing “great work.

 “We cannot count on businesses to ‘do good’ if it doesn’t also make economic sense,” she continues. “Policy must be supported through education, and enforced, in order to achieve the desired outcome.

“Having participated on a grassroots level to get curbside recycling in Chicago, I believe in the value of advocating for curbside composting at a citizen/resident level,” she adds. “Advocating for policy change is something I think we all need to do. Local governing bodies can provide clear guidelines and (relatively easy) access, to maximize participation of individuals, businesses and institutions.”

Goldstein, with the Natural Resources Defense Council, hopes for modest momentum to start turning a dangerous nuisance into a positive product.

“When municipalities see that cities are in the lead on this, having successful programs, where the public is participating, and where some cost savings are actually possible, it’s likely that they too will hop on the bandwagon.”

Katsaros says participation is key – and possible.

“Not everyone is able to avoid driving a car, or able to buy an electric vehicle,” she says. “We can’t all afford to install solar panels on our roof. But we all have the ability to prevent waste – ‘pre-cycle’ – maximize reuse and recycling of all resources that align with our infrastructure… or try. That makes composting a personal way to address climate change.”

Rosenbohm agrees and simplifies his perspective: “I want to lend a hand to Mother Earth.”

 

For more…

Rosenbohm’s company lists what’s accepted and not for Better Earth Compost:

Accepted materials: food scraps, compostable products, spoiled grains / grain products, grass, leaves and brush, firewood and logs.

 

Not accepted: treated or painted wood, plastics, rock, concrete, metal.

 

Also, he refers questions on residential food scrap services, compostable products, community compost kiosks, and commercial food scrap hauling to Better Earth Logistics (https://www.betterearthlogistics.com/). 

 

For more information, go to Peoria County’s websites https://peoriacounty.gov/1194/Composting, where a two-page Food Scrap Composting brochure is available.

Price-fixing? EGGS-actly! (Yee-ha! A few culprits were nabbed)

In an era when legal precedents are as stable as tumbleweeds and courts like rodeos inside the OK Corral, civil suits about big business can seem like the Wild West.

 

Pitting giant food-distribution conglomerates against huge egg producers that control most of the market is like railroad titans taking on cattle barons. Where do everyday consumers fit it?

 

Indeed, as the Community Word reported in March, claims of price-fixing in eggs has continued. But maybe this verdict will get the attention of business and government.

 

First, under federal antitrust law, the damages are tripled, bringing the total penalty to more than $53 million. Also, government enforcement against monopolistic practices has been practically worthless, like 19^th century lawmen without the will or weapon to do their job, leaving virtual vigilantes of lawyers and juries to impose law and order.

 

This case, first filed in 2011, involved business behemoths General Mills, Kellogg, Kraft and Nestle suing lesser-known but powerful egg-industry titans Cal-Maine Foods, Rose Acre Farms, United Egg Producers, Inc., and United States Egg Marketers, Inc. for conspiring to increase egg prices, and the jury unanimously agreed days before Thanksgiving.

 

“We are incredibly pleased by the jury’s decision to hold [these] egg producers accountable for conspiring to inflate the price of eggs,” Brandon Fox, an attorney representing the food manufacturers, said to the Associated Press. “For the first time, the defendants have been held liable for their antitrust violations.”

 

That’s fine. But jurors were instructed to not consider more recent egg pricing during deliberations. So alleged market manipulation in the last year or so were unexamined, much less unpunished.

 

And some of us egg-lovers think a posse rounding up lawbreakers is warranted.

 

After all, the average price for a dozen eggs increased from $1.79 in December 2021 to $4.25 in December 2022, according to the St. Louis Federal Reserve, provoking ag advocacy group Farm Action to dispute business excuses and to ask the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to intervene.

 

“The real culprit behind this 138% hike in the price of a carton of eggs appears to be a collusive scheme among industry leaders to turn inflationary conditions and an avian flu outbreak into an opportunity to extract egregious profits reaching as high as 40%,” Farm Action said.

 

If there’s banditry, there ought to be consequences, no matter how influential the supposed outlaws may be.

 

For example, Rose Acre Farms, one of the losing defendants, is the second-largest egg producer in the country, behind only Cal-Maine. Its former chair, John Rust, is a Republican running for the U.S. Senate in Indiana.

 

It shouldn’t matter to the FTC, much less to shoppers, small grocers or farm advocates and their attorneys.

Saddle up, counsel!

A Christmas column for labor

 Christmas is deep in the heart of the season of Advent (from the Latin adventus, meaning “arrival”).

It can be an adventure, too (as in the Latin adventurus, or something “about to happen”).

But some people may already think “what IS happening with Christianity?” Often it seems as if the Right wing has hijacked Christianity, transforming it into an almost unrecognizable corruption of White Nationalism that’s as divisive as jobs where union-busters try to pit workers against each other.

During autoworkers’ Big 3 strike, UAW President Sean Fain told workers how he was influenced by his faith, quoting the part of Matthew where Jesus says even if faith is the size of a tiny mustard seed, it can move mountains: “Nothing will be impossible for you.”

Fain said that autoworker solidarity would work: “an act of faith in each other.”

Fain’s words and workers’ win “not only reinvigorated an emboldened labor movement in the U.S.,” wrote John Blake of CNN, “it also marked the revival of another movement in America: the Social Gospel.”

Christianity’s Social Gospel was embraced by many churches in the 19^th and 20^th centuries, says Heath Carter, author of “Union Made: Working People and the Rise of Social Christianity in Chicago.”

Carter, a professor of American Christianity at Princeton Theological Seminary, said, “For countless workers throughout American history, traditional faith and labor militancy have gone hand in hand. From the labor movement’s earliest days, workers insisted that they organized because the Bible told them so.”

Social Gospel’s adherents advocated for the 8-hour work day, and opposed child labor and business monopolies.

An early union, the Knights of Labor, was established in 1869 by Quaker mechanic Uriah Stephens and invigorated a decade later by Catholic machinist Terrence Powderly. Made up of bricklayers and boilermakers, blacksmiths and carpet weavers, it was technically a “secret society” since workers gathered privately to avoid retaliation by bosses, so the Vatican initially frowned on the group. But then Cardinal James Gibbons of Baltimore intervened to get Rome to see the Knights differently. By the mid-1880s, the Knights numbered about 700,000 members and led a nationwide strike against the Union Pacific Railroad, and in 1891 Pope Leo XIII wrote “Rerum Novarum,” a papal letter about the rights and duties of capital and labor that expressed support for the Social Gospel in general and labor in particular.

Church solidarity with working people has developed beyond “Rerum Novarum,” and progressive Pope Francis praising labor. Moderate Pope John Paul II in 1981 wrote, “Workers not only want fair pay, they also want to share in the responsibility and creativity of the very work process. They want to feel that they are working for themselves — an awareness that is smothered in a bureaucratic system where they only feel themselves to be ‘cogs’ in a huge machine moved from above.”

And conservative Pope Benedict XVI in 2008 wrote that unions are more important today because of globalization.”

Throughout the 20^th century, there were many “labor priests” who advocated for workers, and in 2018, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops filed a legal brief supporting the right to unionize in AFSCME’s fight in the “Janus” Supreme Court case that nevertheless weakened unions by making it easier for people covered by collective bargaining agreements to enjoy their benefits without paying dues to support negotiating and enforcing contracts.

Decades ago, Christian leaders comfortably allied themselves with labor, drawing on scripture. The New Testament says, “Those who become rich by abusing their workers have sinned against God” (James 5:1-6) and “Rich people are to be generous and ready to share” (II Timothy 6:18-19). And the Old Testament added, “Do not exploit your neighbor … Do not keep the wages of the worker” (Leviticus 19:13), and Isaiah (58:3-7) said, “To observe religious practice but oppress your workers is false worship.”

Today, attendance at most faiths’ worship services has declined, according to Gallup, as has membership in unions. But like labor in recent years, engagement with socially conscious religions could experience a resurgence. Many factors contributed to a loss of involvement in organized religion and organized labor, like everyday people losing hope and having little knowledge of history.

“Most Catholics no longer know the Church has teaching about labor and work,” says former letter carrier and rubber worker Clayton Synai, director of the Catholic Labor Network.

In 1996, the late John Sweeney, then AFL-CIO president, said, “It's time unions and the Church stopped trying to go it alone. Unions need aggressive participation by the Church in our organizing campaigns. In most cases, we're up against employers who are willing to break the law by firing, harassing and intimidating workers and the only way we can back them off is with the help of the Church. Likewise, we need the public support of the Church in bargaining situations where employers have forced us out on strike and then permanently replaced the workers.”

Public support for unions has grown, according to Gallup, which pegs it as 67%, the highest level since 1965, and though unions are still recovering from decades of “permanent replacements,” bargaining givebacks, and employers who break labor law with impunity, almost 300,000 new workers organized last year. So maybe there’s momentum for an ongoing turnaround.

It’s only right, according to some Christians.

“Capitalism thrives on selfish impulses that Christian teaching condemns,” writes author Gary Dorrien, who teaches religion at Columbia University. And today, the Social Gospel is increasingly affecting politics; it has nothing to do with racism or nationalism, involving not only Fain but U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, author and scholar Cornel West, the Rev. William Barber II, and others.

“No one should have been surprised to read about Fain's faith,” said National Catholic Reporter columnist Michael Sean Winter. “As the labor movement finds new strength and support in American society, the leaders of the Catholic Church, clerical and lay, would do well to stand arm-in-arm with organized labor. Fighting together for a more just society is our heritage and our hope.

“When workers in the very religious 19^th century looked for metaphors and ideas about the solidarity they know they would need to succeed in organizing themselves into unions, it was only natural that they turned to the same verses and ideas that shaped the Social Gospel and Catholic social teaching back then and formed Shawn Fain and millions of religious progressives today,” he continued. “There is no group in American society with whom it is easier to share a conversation about Catholic social teaching than the leaders of the American labor movement. It is my experience that the concepts drawn from papal teaching are always received on the first bounce among labor folk. They get it. They live.”

Merry Christmas.

Violent crime in drops to pre-COVID numbers, according to new FBI data

The Community Word in September covered early indications of a drop in violent crime, especially homicides, and that was confirmed by the FBI’s annual findings in its Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) program released in late October.

Violent crime in the United States declined last year — dropping to about the same level as before the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite such statistics, politicians are reacting to the public perception that crime is widespread and growing. Some officials campaign on that misleading characterization; others boost funding to law enforcement to counter “soft-on-crime” attacks.

The FBI shows violent crime dropping 1.7% last year, and that included a 6.1% decrease in murder and non-negligent manslaughter. Rape decreased 5.4% and aggravated assault dropped 1.1%. During the social disruption during the 2020 pandemic, the U.S. murder rate alone jumped 29%.

Overall, violent crime in 2022 was far lower than the historic highs of the 1990s, but during last year’s congressional elections, 61% of registered voters said violent crime would be very important when making their decision about whom to vote for, according to a Pew Research Center survey.

 

Despite fewer violent crimes, property crimes went up last year, the FBI said. Property crimes jumped 7.1%, with motor-vehicle thefts showing the biggest increase: 10.9%. Much of that may be linked to social media with how-to posts on stealing certain models such as Hyundais and Kias.

 

According to Jeff Asher’s Substack newsletter “Jeff-alytics,” even with the increase in property crimes in 2022, the property crime rate is still much lower than it has been in recent history.

“The property crime rate in the U.S. has fallen an astounding 61% since 1991, even accounting for the somewhat sizable increase in 2022,” Asher wrote.

The FBI’s new data covers more than 11 million criminal offenses reported in the UCR program through the Summary Reporting System and the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS).

The FBI said the new numbers represent 83.3% of all agencies covering 93.5% of the population. That compares to last year’s numbers coming from just 62.7% of agencies, representing 64.8% of Americans.

Some data analysts attributed that to many agencies not adapting to the then-new NIBRS in time to submit 2021 crime data.

 

Some states, including Illinois, technically require local law enforcement to report crime data to state agencies which can forward data to the FBI.

 

“Some states lag,” reported Amanda Hernandez from Stateline news. “Florida, Illinois, Louisiana and West Virginia, for example, all remain below the 50% reporting mark, which means less than half of the police departments in their states submitted 2022 crime data to the FBI. Despite these reporting rates, the data shows that greater shares of these state’s populations were represented in last year’s data than in 2021.”

 

Meanwhile – arguably pandering to misleading political attacks about a “crime wave” – the White House last month announced $334 million in new funding for state and local governments to hire more police officers, plus bolster crisis-intervention and school-safety programs

Peoria County Auditor’s case may be winding down

On Nov. 2 the 4^th District of the Illinois Appellate Court formally notified Peoria County and one-time County Auditor Jessica Thomas that the Mandate from a May 31 ruling that Thomas has no right to finish her term after last year’s referendum eliminated the office was issued that day.

The Supreme Court of Illinois in July granted a motion by Thomas’ lawyer Justin Penn to extend a stay of the Mandate from the Appellate Court ruling “until 35 days after disposition of the petition for leave to appeal.”

The Supreme Court’s disposition occurred on Sept. 27, when it denied Thomas’ petition to appeal the Appellate Court ruling that overturned Peoria Judge James Mack’s November 2022 injunction continuing the status quo for the office of Peoria’s Auditor. Mack’s injunction, which permitted Thomas to continue receiving her salary, was issued weeks after 70% of Peoria County voters cast ballots eliminating the office.

Penn, of the Hinshaw and Culbertson law firm, said the Supreme Court’s decision was “a disappointing result for sure, but the Supreme Court does not take many of these.”

On social media, Thomas wrote, “Unfortunately, our petition for leave to appeal was not granted. This outcome was not unexpected as the court grants less than 5% of petitions for leave to appeal.”

Peoria County Administrator Scott Sorrel commented, “The Illinois Supreme Court declined to hear Ms. Thomas' appeal of the Appellate Court's decision, which upheld the will of the voters. The County of Peoria appreciates the Court respecting the outcome of the referendum that voters overwhelmingly approved in November of last year.”

The roots of the two-year dispute started in October of 2021 when the Peoria County Board voted 16-2 to approve a 2022 budget that changed the staffing and duties of the Auditor’s office. By law, funding for all County elected officials’ offices are set by the County Board, which said it streamlined its mostly automated accounts-payable process while retaining its external auditor, Sikich. On Nov. 15 that year, Thomas filed suit claiming her authority had been usurped and seeking the restoration of her funding and staff.

The referendum was held a year later and challenged by Thomas, but the Appellate Court disagreed with her.

“The November 8, 2022, referendum had the effect of eliminating the office of County Auditor,” Appeals Court Justice Kathryn Zenoff wrote. “The referendum was valid and eliminated the office.”

Thomas on Nov. 3 posted, “Peoria County spent over $500,000 trying to remove the elected Auditor from office before her full four-year term expired on November 30, 2024. The County's actions were unfair and essentially cheated the Peoria County voters. Taxpayer dollars were used to legally fight to remove the Auditor from office before her term expired.”

The Appeals Court said the referendum process was fair.

“The referendum is sufficiently clear that it invoked the voters’ constitutional ability under section 4(c) to eliminate a county office prior to the expiration of plaintiff’s four-year term,” Justice Zenoff said. “The referendum asked whether voters wished to ‘eliminate’ the office without qualification.”

Penn added, “As far as next steps, the only real issue remaining is my fees and the lifting of the injunction.”

It’s unclear whether Thomas has other ideas.

“The County's incompetence may continue to cost taxpayers,” she said.

FBI may be involved with disarray at WTVP

As widely reported locally, board members from the embattled WTVP-TV 47 have filed a Peoria Police report about financial irregularities at the public TV station, filed an “employee theft” claim with its insurer, and is being investigated by Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s office.

But the developing situation also may include the FBI, and a few details of what board chairman Andrew Rand called “questionable, improper and unauthorized” expenditures are being alleged by someone who’s worked at the station and shared concerns on the condition no name be used to avoid retaliation.

WTVP’s board disclosed limited information about questionable spending days after WTVP CEO Lesley Matuszak resigned and committed suicide in late September. Finance and human resources director Lin McLaughlin also is no longer with the station.

Five months before, WTVP/Illinois Valley Public Telecommunication Corporation’s federal “tax return … provided to members of the board of directors” reported the previous year had contributions and grants down $303,625, and expenses up $524,322.

Rand announced cuts of some $1.5 million, or 30% of WTVP’s budget.

One of nine people laid off as part of the board’s slashing expenses posed questions authorities may investigate. Speaking on the condition no name be used, the former WTVP employee claimed:

* WTVP’s board apparently no longer has a nominating committee nor a finance committee, seemingly further consolidating executive control of the operation, and

* it’s not been disclosed what person(s) signed off on financial reports.

The Attorney General’s office, which has the power to dissolve boards of nonprofits if the state finds wrongdoing, is anticipated to focus on misuse of funds.

The source said that someone may have kept “a second set of books” noting payments for personal clothing and travel for Matuszak, which investigators could explore, and that fund-raising auctions have raised far less than earlier years, which insiders say could stem from the station buying “luxury” items instead of using donated goods and services, and aiming for wealthy supporters instead of everyday viewers.

For example, WTVP in June held an “Evening with Cole Hauser,” the actor from TV’s “Yellowstone” (which doesn’t air on public TV). Admission was $5,000.

Also, in recent years, management’s de-emphasizing community involvement resulted in far fewer volunteers from the area.

The FBI received a citizen’s recommendation to examine the station’s operation, and the agency asked whether elected officials were involved. Three board members were.

Filing a police report could indicate that the board seeks to distance itself of typical board responsibilities by blaming others.

Meanwhile, the station has requested continued funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private but federally funded organization that’s expected to probe what happened and WTVP board’s response. However, a 2022 appeal to the CPB Inspector General to look into WTVP’s operation was acknowledged as received, but action, if any, was never shared.

Another long-time supporter who commented but insisted on anonymity said, “WTVP is an institution that deserves better governance.”