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Notice of Termination from Access SF

This is to let you know that Zane Blaney has terminated my employment from SFCTC / Access SF effective immediately (2006 January 10 @ 1:50 p.m.). Anyone wishing to contact me can send email to me , or call me at home at (415)614-9102. As far as I am aware, I am not banned from Access SF, so I am once again available to volunteer for shows. Please feel free to contact me if you are in need of a volunteer who is knowledgeable in all aspects of Access SF production. Well, the first time I showed up at the studio to volunteer on a show, Zane infomed me I was banned.Zane infomed me I was banned from the facilities.

I was a volunteer at Access SF for a couple years prior to beginning my employment. I have volunteered on many of your shows, and earned Volunteer of the Month. When I was offered a job, Zane expressed hesitation that my friendship with producers would conflict with my obligation to follow and enforce the policies and procedures. I never saw a conflict, since the policies and procedures are published, and we all had to sign a statement of compliance that we read, understood, and would abide by them.

Since Zane terminated my employment, I am now free to discuss what's really going on at Access SF. In recent months, Zane has placed me in a very uncomfortable position of having to enforce the published policies and procedures, as well as unwritten Zane edicts, or be faced with insubordination. Other employees have not had that obligation. I've been setup to appear to be arbitrary and discriminatory.

It got worst recently, as Zane had unjustifiably forced Tom Barkett out of Access SF (that a whole story in itself), I was obligated to fill in and train Tom's replacement. One of the first things I was told to do was to cancel any show with more than the four allowed repeats, late tapes, or no shows. This in itself did not pose a problem to me, since it is as per the written Access SF Policies and Procedures. The list of canceled shows was made solely by the database logs, without regard to any other factor. The list of canceled shows included personal friends, and even a SFCTC board member. My issue, was that these rules were never enforced to the letter in the past, and Tom had a history of bending over backwards by sending warning letters to producers prior to taking any actions. Some of the cancel shows had previously received written warnings from Tom, and the policies and procedures do not dictate that Access SF is obligated to send any warnings. I asked Zane that prior to taking any such action, he send, or allow me to send notice that the policies and procedures were to be enforced. Zane refused to send any such notice and would not allow me to do so. Zane finally sent this notice out two months later on January 26, 2006. To many producers receiving cancellation notices, it was a complete surprise. It shouldn't have been so dramatic, as most every producer is eligible to attend the next timeslot selection meeting and reapply for a timeslot. In the cancellation notices I sent out via email, I quoted the policies and procedures and invited each producer to attend the next timeslot selection meeting. I personally called any producer without an email address, or whose email bounced.

Some producers contested their cancellation. I personally reviewed the original logs with any producer who felt the database may have been incorrect. Often the original logs not only supported the cancellation, but showed additional repeats, late tapes, or no-shows that were never posted to the database. Unfortunately, one producer whose show wasn't even canceled, took it upon himself to steal the log book from the lobby. This log book contained privileged information on all shows and isn't even made available for public viewing. This producer selectively used items out of context to incite other producers to believe that shows were being canceled based on race, gender, sexual orientation, and show content. That assertion was absolutely false, but some producers believed it. Many were accusing me personally of being a racist.

When Zane forced Tom out, we were not prepared to do the November 26th timeslot selection meeting, as we were struggling to just keep up with the programming and frequent equipment failures. We postponed the November 26th meeting until December 19th. This left only one week, over the Christmas holiday, to process the playback applications and timeslot assignments by the scheduled December 26th meeting. Then the cancellation notices went out on December 1st, so now we were expecting (and had) twice as many people at the December 19th meeting than we ever had previously. I was faced with processing twice as many playback applications in 1/4 the time.

We are obligated (by the Access SF Policies and Procedures and the SFCTC Grant Agreement with the City and Country of San Francisco) to ensure that every show be produced by a San Francisco resident, who has been to a recent orientation meeting, signed the statement of compliance that they have read and understood the policies and procedures, and are an Access SF member in good standing. A photocopy of a current photo ID and a photocopy of proof of residency is required with each playback application. Documents which may be in Access SF files can not be referenced for this purpose as people move. I found a few shows belonging to people who no longer live in San Francisco. Access SF, Cable Channel 29, is owned by the people of San Francisco, and SFCTC operates it for the City and is obligated to ensure that all shows on the channel belong to current residents of San Francisco. Given we had merely one week to process twice as many applications in 1/4 the time, it was imperative that we enforce the requirement that all documentation be provided with the completed playback application. Again, this is not a new rule, but it wasn't uniformly enforced in the past. I asked Zane to notify producers that we would be enforcing this rule and he would not. I overstepped my authority by sending email to those we were expecting to attend, including producers of expiring and canceled shows, letting them know we needed those documents with the playback applications. As late as 5 minutes before we opened the doors to the December 19th timeslot selection meeting, Zane told us that we must have the completed playback application with the photocopy of the photo ID and the photocopy of (a separate) proof of residency, before granting a timeslot. I posted notices in the lobby and meeting room, and I made repeated announcements as people arrived.

Sam Long (Tom Barkett's replacement as Program Coordinator, who I was training) and I were both sick that evening. In fact I was sick the prior week and throughout the next week, but felt obligated to get though the meeting so producers could get their shows back on the air. I was confronted with a very unruly group of angry producers, many of whom felt slighted for having their shows canceled. Some attendees were not even there for a timeslot, but were there merely to disrupt the meeting. There was considerable heckling, even from a SFCTC board member. Most of this was directed at me personally, for doing nothing more than doing my job and following the policies, procedures, rules, and edicts, as directed by Zane. When the meeting started, and the first playback application was rejected due to not having the necessary documents, Zane announced that everyone had until the next evening at 6:00 p.m. to turn in their documents. That wasn't a bad move as it gave us some breathing room. Even then, the heckling continued throughout the meeting.

By Wednesday afternoon, we had finished reviewing the playback applications and came up with a list of those that were not completed or were missing the required documentation. This list was reviewed with Zane, and he instructed me to reject them and continue processing to completed playback applications. I personally called each of those producers and explained why their applications were rejected and I invited them to the next timeslot selection meeting on Monday, December 26th. There was no time available to hold up processing the other applications or to do rework for anyone bringing in documents past the deadline. We had a significant amount of work to do to prepare for the next meeting days away, and both Sam and I were sick. These producers, who ignored my emails reminding them to bring the documents, who ignored my announcements at the meeting, and ignored Zane's statement that the documents were due the next evening, started coming to the station with their documents days later and demanding their timeslot assignments. I know that in their mind, it would only take a few moments to accept the documents, but what they would not accept was that it would take hours and days to reprocess all of the updates that had to be done prior to the next timeslot selection meeting on December 26th. All they needed to do was come to the meeting then and reapply for a timeslot. What I didn't know, was that Zane was telling people to bring the documents down when they could and they would get their timeslots. Sam and I were both struggling to process all of this work from December 19th, and prepare for the meeting on December 26th, while keeping up with the daily demands of programming playback, while sick, over a holiday week.

I was following Zane's directions, and it started to suspect that I was being setup and undermined. Producers were mad at me, and even other staff members were mad at me, but Zane would not disclose to anyone that I was following his directives. I repeatedly asked Zane to clear the air, but he ignored my pleas. He had set me up to look like a bad guy for arbitrarily enforcing policies and procedures that historically were not enforced, and he was smelling like a rose for granting people waivers that he knew full well that we were unable to honor. People were confronting me at work and in public settings telling me what an awful person I am. My response was simply that they should discuss their concerns with Zane. I, as a staff member, was only performing my assigned tasks, in the prescribed manner, as directed by Zane. I did not have discretion to ignore the policies and procedures or grant waivers.

In desperation, I wrote a confidential letter to the SFCTC Board of Directors asking for help dealing with my grievances. Although Zane is the Executive Director, the Board of Directors has oversight responsibility for all management, including employment and programming issues. I was hoping that the board would direct Zane to respond to my pleas or mediate the grievances. Within hours, I received a short note from the board president informing me that Zane has the full confidence of the board and they will not get involved. When Zane terminated me this afternoon, he stated his reason was that he couldn't trust me because I appealed to the board for help.

For the record let me state that until my termination, I supported Zane's management. Any concerns on my part were voiced in a constructive manner to Zane either privately, or when solicited at staff meetings. I don't believe, as some do, station operations should be as it was in the old days at Folsom, where people could pretty much do as they please. There's just too much investment in equipment, too much competition for resources, and significant technical challenges to let producers and volunteers do as they please, when they please, as they please. I truly believe there's a need for written policies and procedures that are fair, are understood, and are enforced in an even-handed manner.

I had repeatedly urged Zane to hold a monthly Executive Director Report live call-in show, where Zane could proactively explain what SFCTC was doing to benefit the producers and community, and he could interact with the public by taking calls by phone. I repeatedly urged Zane to communicate via email with regular informational updates. Zane repeatedly expressed he has no desire to deal with issues producers may have.

I had some issues with oral management edicts, that were publicly unknown much less understood, that I was told to enforce. I had some issues with equipment donated to Access SF for the producers use, that producers are not allowed to use. I had some issues with equipment purchased by Access SF with public funds that producers are not allowed to use. I tried to work from within the organization to address those concerns, and was subjected to abusive, retaliatory, discriminatory actions, and public ridicule for my efforts. I continue to believe in public access television and I'm proud for being able to contribute what I could to benefit the producers.

To those of you that take issue with Zane's management, I say stop complaining and become more constructive. Everyone at Access SF, volunteers, producers, staff, and management are obligated to abide by the published Access SF Policies and Procedures. SFCTC, employees, management, and board are bound by the SFCTC Bylaws, as well as the SFCTC Grant Agreement with the City and Country of San Francisco. When you have a compliant, state it in a constructive manner in writing to Zane Blaney. Zane is obligated to respond. Don't complain to the staff, as they are not in a position to change anything. Whenever a staff person has stated an issue (John Sanchez, Tom Barkett, Michael Faklis), Zane terminated them, either by constructive termination as he did with John and Tom, or outright wrongful termination as he did to me this afternoon. If you are not satisfied with Zane's response, appeal constructively and in writing to the Board programming committee (for programming issues) or the full board (for management issues). They cannot fire you as Zane fired me. Most board meetings are open to the public. The next board program committee meeting is scheduled for January 31st at 6:00 p.m.. The next full board meeting is scheduled for February 13th at 6:00 p.m.. Most board documentation and minutes are available for viewing by any resident as per the city's sunshine ordinances. And finally, remember that SFCTC manages the Access SF facilities for the residents of San Francisco as chartered by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

To those of you that have no problem with Zane Blaney, please open your eyes. Read the exposés I'm posting on the Reform Access SF web site. Read the Access SF Policies and Procedures, the SFCTC Bylaws, and the SFCTC Grant Agreement with the City and Country of San Francisco. Use the San Francisco Sunshine Ordinance and get the truth first-hand. Zane's miss-management affects every resident of San Francisco who wants to express themselves through public access television as well as those who want to be exposed to public access programming.

Questions/Comments?