Minnesota Public Radio is demonstrating, in my opinion, one approach to addressing unacceptable behavior conducted by its employees/contractors. You may recall that two months ago one of MPR's "rock stars", Garrison Keillor, was fired for "sexually inappropriate incidents conducted over a period of years". PS, I view a nonprofit rock star as someone who has an offering that produces a big following and generates lots of monies for the nonprofit).
It remains unclear why this action by MPR didn't come sooner (like way back when this was first inappropriateness first occasioned) but perhaps that is another lesson the MPR board and all the nonprofit boards who are now audience to this activity, must discern and "right".
Meanwhile though, as reported in the Wall Street Journal, the President of MPR yesterday released an explanation about their firing Mr. Keillor.
In a 2,000-word letter to members and listeners, MPR President Jon McTaggart said the former host of “A Prairie Home Companion” had been accused by a former female colleague of dozens of sexually inappropriate incidents over a period of years. The firing, he said, “was “a painful decision, one that we did not make lightly.
Mr. McTaggart’s letter said the company began an independent investigation after receiving a 12-page letter from the attorney with details of the alleged incidents, “including excerpts of emails and written messages, requests for sexual contact and explicit descriptions of sexual communications and touching.”
MPR said Mr. Keillor was notified of the investigation and was given the opportunity to respond to allegations with his attorney present before the nonprofit made the decision to terminate him. MPR also said Mr. Keillor and his attorneys refused multiple requests for access to his computer, emails and text messages for the investigation.
“If the full 12-page letter or even a detailed summary of the alleged incidents were to be made public, we believe that would clarify why MPR ended its business relationship with Garrison and correct the misunderstandings and misinformation about the decision,” Mr. McTaggart wrote, adding that MPR won’t release the letter to protect the privacy of those involved.
In addition to the investigation led by an outside law firm, MPR said it began mediation discussions between Mr. Keillor and “the other parties involved in this matter” earlier this month but those “have not produced the final settlements we had hoped for.”
MPR also defended itself for taking months to disclose new information, saying it was “restrained in telling our story until we had the benefit of the facts from the outside investigation and had participated in the mediation process.”
Good process? Please share.