BlogWood: MT Archives

Banned in Tampa: Vicki Santa just makes shit up

I finally got a chance to catch the WMNF newscast from this past Friday. Mitch Perry did a story on a press conference at the station held by the Straight Talk people, and he included part of a short interview with me.

In response to one of his questions, I mentioned that I was still waiting for a written response to a written grievance which I had filed with the station in November in response to my firing.

Mitch, being a fair minded reporter, asked station manager Vicki Santa to respond. Her response boiled down to an assertion that she had tried to schedule a meeting with me, because that’s the way she handles grievances.

Well, that may be the way she handles things, or she may just be making this shit up as she goes (much more likely, in my opinion), but the weakly worded WMNF grievance policy specifically says that a written grievance should be answered with a written response.

In other words, she is completely ignoring the very rules which she is using to fire Connie Burton and myself and perhaps others in the future.

See, when things are put in writing, misunderstandings are much less likely. Memories of meetings with verbal exchanges can and do vary, with different participants often recalling completely different meanings and nuances, or worse.

Still, many people have asked my why I didn’t meet with her and why I didn’t reapply to host my show. (The reappilication process occurs every two years. Every program host must reapply. This was happening about the same time I was fired.)

Vicki put severe restrictions on her proposed meeting time. I was unable to schedule a meeting with her and a volunteer rep who would act as a neutral observer - 2 volunteer committee members both said that they could not take time off work to meet at the times that Vicki indicated were available. I would have had to take time off to meet too, in order to accommodate her extremely limited availability.

I entertained and subsequently rejected the expensive notion of hiring a lawyer to accompany me, mostly due to financial considerations.

The grievance procedure calls for a written response from her - not a meeting. I was following the grievance procedure. She was attempting an end run. I did not trust her motives, and I remain highly suspicious of MNF staff today, especially with the current Straight Talk situation. I was not willing to meet with her without at least a neutral observer to document what was said.

Why should I have bothered to re-apply for my show? Program director Randy Wynne had already let it be publicly known that he had lost all confidence in me as a programmer, and he is the sole decision maker. He was certainly not about to put me back on the air. He is under no obligation to justify his whimsical programming decisions, and, indeed, he rarely, if ever, does bother to justify any of his programming related decisions. I am still suspended - an open ended suspension that has never been lifted. Does this punishment really fit my crime? I seriously doubt it, but I don't know, since official charges were never indicated in writing.

Bottom line - Vicki wanted me out, so did Randy - I don't have the time or resources or energy to fight paid staff over a volunteer position - it was obvious that my "career" at MNF was over - a meeting would have accomplished nothing.

Vicki knows all of this, and this is the way she handles problems - she delays to the point of frustration and hopes that the aggrieved parties will simply give up. (This is not the first time that Vicki handled a rather serious situation involving me by simply delaying until I gave up. The last incident involved a paid staff member destroying station property - property paid for through donations and volunteer labor.) Again, the longer she delays, the more it costs me, a volunteer, time and money, both of which are in rather short supply right now.

Why didn't Vicki give me a written response when it became apparent that we would not be able to meet? Why was I left to glean whatever information I could from news reports rather than receive a written summary of charges from Randy? Why did Randy's story keep changing as I brought up new points? (Perhaps the charges were never put in writing specifically so that Randy could continue to change his story?) At first, it was just one song, then it morphed into a problem with my entire show. At one point, he even mentioned “the n word” (listen to the linked newscast story from November) - what did that have to do with anything?

The ball was left in Vicki's court. She is the one who did not follow up, and her lack of action speaks volumes: by not even providing me with the simple courtesy of a letter, she says that I am not important enough to bother with. If I had unlimited resources, I would still be fighting her on this, and I would eventually prevail, since my firing was obviously arbitrary and Randy's enforcement of the FCC guidelines remains spotty at best, especially as concerns his own morning show. (Randy has aired expletives on at least 3 separate occasions in the past few weeks. Does Randy seek himself out and inform himself that he aired an obscenity and then decide whether or not to suspend himself?)

Reading Connie's grievance, I was struck by the parallels in our cases. Both longtime programmers. Both doing the same kind of politically controversial show that we've always done. Both fired verbally for vague reasons. Neither of us was ever counseled ahead of time - no warnings or other indications that we were skating on thin ice. Connie has been butting heads with management for years. I have had a vague sense that Vicki has had a personal problem with me for at least a year - nothing concrete, just little indications that she doesn't trust or like me.

So, we face a situation where the MNF staff enforces rules against programmers who they don’t like and ignores those same rules whenever it is convenient for them to do so. A lawyer would have a field day with this arbitrary and capricious use of power.

In the meantime, MorningWood is gone - another programmer was awarded that time slot, and I have essentially stopped pursuing my case due to the frustration of trying to wring a response out of Vicki as well as a realistic observation that even if I were to "win" this fight that I would remain a programmer without a show - a Pyrrhic victory at best.

More about my suspension from WMNF