DULUTH — Community Action Duluth’s board of directors has launched an investigation into the nonprofit’s executive director after the union representing its staff raised concerns of financial mismanagement and a hostile work environment.
Friday’s announcement came one day after the union, represented by AFSCME Council 5, held
announcing it had approved a vote of no confidence in Executive Director Classie Dudley and CAD’s board of directors.
Cece Netzer, CAD’s community market food justice specialist, said the no-confidence vote stems from “a history of financial mismanagement, a hostile work environment and an unwillingness to address concerns.” Netzer said that staff brought their concerns to the board in September, but the board hadn’t responded by Thursday evening.
“It seems that the board leadership is more concerned about protecting the executive director than they are with advocating for the organization and its employees,” Netzer said Thursday. The union also filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Review Board.
Clint Austin / Duluth Media Group file photo
Then, in a Friday evening news release, the board of directors said it brought in an outside party to conduct a “workplace inquiry” into the allegations.
“The Community Action Duluth board of directors has received allegations regarding interpersonal conflicts between employees and the executive director,” the board said. “To ensure transparency and uphold accountability, and after weeks of work to identify an external third-party consultant, the board has authorized a confidential and impartial inquiry.”
Dudley did not respond to the News Tribune’s request for comment Monday.
In a six-page news release sent 12 minutes before the union held its news conference outside CAD’s offices in the former Lincoln Park School, Dudley and the board addressed what it characterized as “misinformation.”
“Over the past several weeks, numerous allegations have been made regarding Community Action Duluth (CAD) and its staff, full of misinterpretations, inaccuracies and plainly false claims,” the news release said.
CAD helps low-income people file taxes, enroll in health insurance, train for jobs and access food, among other programs.
Since Dudley took over as executive director in June 2022, complaints about her management and the organization’s financial state have surfaced from time to time. The board of directors said some of that public criticism and scrutiny of Dudley, who is Black, stems from her race.
“The Community Action Duluth board of directors believes that race, sex and age are contributing factors in how recent events have unfolded,” the board said in its release.
The latest spillover of CAD concerns into public view began Oct. 31, when CAD canceled its upcoming Hillside and Lincoln Park farmers markets, and its vendors reported they were owed money.
The CAD board on Thursday said it canceled the upcoming farmers markets when it learned of the unpaid vendors. CAD said it helps several vendors accept payments from the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program’s Electronic Benefit Transfer card, and it reimburses the vendors with funds it receives from grants.
“Receiving and allocating payments requires significant administrative resources,” CAD said.
CAD said it has more than $78,300 in outstanding invoices as of Nov. 18, but that it had paid farmers market vendors through Aug. 25.
A group of vendors on Friday said that was not true, as many of them had not been paid up through August.
“The delay or lack of payments to vendors was happening long before October, and in fact happened immediately at the start of the market season by starting one month behind in reimbursements,” the group of vendors said in a news release.
“We are struggling to understand why we haven’t received communication long ago and are understandably frustrated with the amount of time and energy it has taken to have CAD’s attention to respond to our concerns,” the vendors said. “We are committed to the idea that ruptures can be repaired.”
During the union’s news conference, staff leveled additional financial concerns.
“There are a number of financial concerns that have been occurring at Community Action Duluth, some of which are recent, but many have been recurring and have created a pattern of clear financial mismanagement that has limited the ability of staff to do those jobs effectively,” said Tara Wieland, benefits outreach specialist at CAD.
Leased vehicles have been repossessed, unpaid electric bills have piled up for the group’s greenhouse, and transactions on the organization’s credit cards have been declined, forcing employees to use their own money, Wieland said.
Unfair labor practice charge
The union said it filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board against CAD after the organization threatened two union employees for negotiating the wage for what it believes is a new job classification.
According to a copy of the charge provided to the News Tribune: “The employer threatened to demote the employee that held the new job classification if the union continued to assert its right to negotiate the wage rate. Following a subsequent grievance hearing regarding this matter, the employer threatened to discipline another employee for having served as a union witness at the hearing.”
Ken Loeffler-Kemp, AFSCME Council 5 field representative, provided the News Tribune with a July 23 email to Dudley outlining the first allegation of retaliation and an Oct. 10 email to Shawn Pearson, chair of CAD’s board of directors, outlining both instances of alleged retaliation. But aside from a request for additional details, CAD has not responded to the union, Loeffler said Monday morning.
“Our union was left with little choice but to file an unfair labor practice charge against Community Action Duluth,” Loeffler-Kemp said during the news conference. “We look forward to this matter being investigated by the National Labor Relations Board, the unfair labor practices addressed, the employees made whole, the contract respected and CAD leadership being held accountable to our community values.
“We want it to be a strong, healthy organization that helps our neighbors in need,” Loeffler-Kemp said as he choked up. “And a good place to work.”
Asked if staff were afraid of future retaliation, Wieland said, “We’re very fearful. But we’re doing what’s right for the community.”