Restructuring seeks to revive WTVP public television

 Citizens group questions secret process, more

In an 8-minute meeting preceded by secret deliberations, the board of directors of Peoria’s public-TV station on Jan. 16 announced the resignations of a majority of the board and a new board chair.

Effective Feb. 13, board members resigning (and the year their terms had been scheduled to expire) are Amanda Campbell (2025), Wayne Cannon (2024), Dr. John Day (2024), Monica Hendrickson (2024), Jerry Herbstreith, (2026), Stephen Morris (2025), Andrew Rand (2026), Sid Ruckriegel (2024), Stephen Shipley (2025), Sally Snyder (2026) and Ashley Spain (2026).

According to WTVP, remaining board members (and the year they’d been scheduled to leave) are Kim Armstrong (2024), Helen Barrick (2026), Andrew Chambers (2026), Alex Crowley (2025), Dawn Dinh (2025) and Jessica Ford (2025).

“It’s a step,” commented Becky Doubleday, a former WTVP Marketing & Community Relations staffer who co-chairs a new local grassroots group, “Friends of 47,” pushing for the board’s resignation, the transparent installation of new board members, and the appointment of an executive director also on the board.

“But [the action] hasn’t satisfied those goals,” she continued following the meeting. “We don’t know anything about the new members, the new chair or the selection process.”

New board members appointed without an explanation are Heather Acerra, Dr. Andy Chiou, Pastor Martin Johnson, Rick Lavender, Dan Pearson, Win Stoller, Daysha Warr and John Wieland, who was named chair.

“At this point, we have more questions than answers,” Doubleday added, “like why them and not others? How is the new board going to develop, and what kind of transparency and communications with the community will there be?”

Also not disclosed were details about WTVP’s claim it will have access to more than $1 million from unidentified donors.

“We are seeing more diversity and geographic representation from Central Illinois,” she said. “That’s great. The board should have representation from the communities in the broadcast area.”

However, she pointed out, Pearson lives in Geneseo, served by another PBS station (Moline’s WQPT-TV).

Also, Friends of 47, which in a few weeks gathered about 50 area residents and a few organizations to participate, thinks it’s unwise to have elected officials as board members.

“I don’t think politicians on a local public broadcasting board is a good idea given that it could give the public the impression of biased political programming,” she said. “That’s a red flag.”

Acerra is a first-term City Council member in Galesburg and Stoller is a State Senator representing District 37 elected in 2020. Further, there’s concern about Johnson, lead chaplain with the Peoria Police Department.

“Isn’t that a conflict of interest when the PPD is ostensibly investigating WTVP?” Doubleday asked.

After the September departure of finance director Lin McLaughlin, the resignation of CEO Lesley Matuszak, and Matuszak’s death by suicide, financial irregularities were publicly acknowledged. Within days, the board cut 30% from its $5 million budget, suspended publication of its monthly magazine, and laid off nine employees.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) delayed a grant to WTVP until the station addresses the situation. The CPB Inspector General is monitoring what happened and what the board plans. Besides CPB and Peoria police, the Illinois Attorney General’s Charitable Trust Bureau is looking into spending that Rand called “questionable, improper or unauthorized,” and it’s possible the FBI could be interested since federal funds are involved.

It’s unclear whether there are ties between previous WTVP leadership and the new board members. Friends of 47 wonders whether the new board will be insiders since several previous board members had served together on boards of Advanced Medical Transport, Carver Center, Heartland Health Services, the Heart of Illinois United Way, and other groups.

According to WTVP’s announced structure, published in 1969, representatives from Bradley University, Illinois Central College, Lakeview Museum, Pekin Public Schools, and Peoria Public Schools were to be part of the operation. It’s unknown whether that plan was ignored or part of a charter that was circumvented by a bylaws change.

Wieland could explain, lead a turnaround, and change any sense of an influential clique supervising station operations. A successful businessman and author of “Uncommon Threads: Weaving a Life through Family, Business and Faith,” Wieland in 1994 bought MH Equipment, which he’s said has since expanded by more than 10-fold in employees and sales. Of course, that enterprise is different than a nonprofit corporation depending on community support. But in interviews Wieland’s expressed some of his management philosophy:

* “It truly is all about getting the right people on your team.”

* “It’s never healthy for someone not to be held accountable in business or life.”

* MH Equipment’s has a “ ‘filter’ question we ask ourselves when dealing with people: ‘If your customer, vendor, or fellow employee knew everything about this subject that you do, would they say they were treated fairly?’ ”

* “It takes a long time to build trust and a second to lose it.”

 

Wieland retained MH Equipment employees during 2020’s COVID pandemic, sending them to help food banks and nonprofit ministries, and donating 11,000 hours of community service, he said. Such generosity surely helped employee relations.

In contrast, WTVP asked people it laid off to sign a five-page non-disclosure agreement that releases the station from all claims of violations of various federal laws, and prohibits the disclosure of “confidential, sensitive, and proprietary information” in order to receive severance pay. The station’s written whistleblower policy directed complaints to its CEO and Board Chair, Matuszak and Rand.

Meanwhile, Wieland made $56,400 in 19 campaign contributions to local and state candidates between 2004 and 2023 – 17 to Republicans, according to the Illinois State Board of Elections. A total of $17,500 went to Stoller.

As for Friends of 47 – the loose-knit group co-chaired by Doubleday and former WTVP senior engineer Chris Anderson – Doubleday said they “didn’t want to put together a group like this. [But] people are concerned that WTVP is trying to rebuild on faulty ground.”

At press time, a WTVP board meeting set for Jan. 23 was canceled, and previously announced 2024 meetings for the board, the executive committee, and the development committee are no longer listed on WTVP’s web site.

“I got involved with Friends of 47 because I am aware of the complexities of telecommunications that the broader community might not fully understand – like Public Broadcasting System and Federal Communications Commission compliance requirements,” Anderson said. “Are compliance questions being addressed to ensure the station stays up and running? I hope so, but we just don’t know.”