The board of directors of Ryerson’s community radio station is facing impeachment after allegations of favouritism, bullying and marginalization.

At an emergency meeting on Saturday, a group of CKLN community members moved to hold a non-confidence vote that would dissolve the current board of directors.

The group has now begun to collect signatures from 100 CKLN members that would empower them to call an emergency general meeting in February.

“There’s a major break in relationships between CKLN volunteers and the board,” said Tien Providence, the station’s assistant music director.

At the centre of the controversy is the board’s decision to appoint Tony Barnes, a board member himself, as interim program director of the station. Volunteers allege that the job wasn’t advertised and the decision was made without consulting staff or volunteers.

James McLeod / Ryersonian Staff

Producer and host Norman "Otis" Richmond will no longer be the Afrikan Liberation Month co-ordinator.

“The staff is now burdened with a program director who basically hired himself into that position,” Providence said.

“It does not look good from any perspective. It’s unconstitutional and illegal.”

Though Barnes wouldn’t comment on the non-confidence vote, he said that his appointment was within the scope of CKLN’s governing bylaws.

“The board appointed myself as interim director and the board is in its legal right to do so,” he said.

“I don’t understand what it is they fear. There’s no conflict of interest. A lot of people toss the words ‘conflict of interest’ around, but they’re not reading the bylaws and they’re not taking time to understand the situation.”

Mike Phillips, the station’s manager and engineer and a CKLN board member, said he is caught in the middle of the dispute.

“What was done complies with our bylaws. That doesn’t mean to say that I think the bylaws are right,” Phillips said.

Barnes was given the program director position at a Jan. 16 meeting of the CKLN board. His appointment came soon after the previous program director, Tim May, abruptly left the station after working there for the past eight years.

“We got an e-mail on Wednesday, and (May) was out by the Friday,” Providence said.  “We don’t understand why the program director who was at CKLN for eight years had to leave in two days.”

Phillips said that the board’s lawyers advised him not to comment on why May left the station.

“It was a mutual agreement between himself, myself and the CKLN board. That is the limit to which I am prepared to discuss it,” he said.
CKLN’s board of directors has seen several staffing changes since its members were elected at the general meeting in April 2006. Three of its 11 elected members – Emmy Pantin, Selwyn Peters, and Verlia Stephens – left the board before their terms were complete.

“(The board) bullied people who were also elected into the board until they couldn’t take it any more and left. And instead of holding byelections to fill those positions, they just appointed new people,”

CKLN volunteer Dale Whitmore said. “They’ve taken over the board by appointing their friends to the positions.”

Also at issue is the replacement of producer and host Norman “Otis” Richmond as Afrikan Liberation Month co-ordinator. Richmond learned he was being replaced after an ad for the job was posted.

“I heard through an e-mail calling for people to be hired,” Richmond said. “I have been doing this for the past five to six years.”

Richmond said he hadn’t received any complaints about his performance as Afrikan Liberation Month co-ordinator.

“The team got a lot of accolades. People seem to like to work with me,” he said. “I was upset, but it’s nothing personal. It’s ideological. It’s not about me, it’s about ideas.”

Barnes would not comment on Richmond’s position.

In order for the non-confidence vote to pass, at least 25 CLKN members must attend the emergency meeting. A two-thirds majority vote will carry the motion to dissolve the board.

If  that happens, the CKLN volunteers would like to hold another round of open elections. Because the station is run almost entirely by volunteers, CKLN staff say the programming schedule would continue as usual.

“The corporate types are trying to take over the community types. They want to get rid of the spoken word.”

CKLN operates at arm’s length from the university, but receives funding from full-time student fees.