As guests approached the doors of the Festival of Trees fundraiser Friday evening at Maceli’s, they were offered a small flyer.
“Demand leadership that puts children first,” the card read, followed by a claim that O’Connell Children’s Shelter’s Executive Director Gina Meier-Hummel and Chief Operating Officer Torrez Dawson are “failing to uphold the values” of the nonprofit organization, which operates five residential youth homes in Douglas County.
Reactions to the small group of O’Connell residential staff, union workers and supporters handing out flyers on the sidewalk were mixed.
Behind the glass doors, dressed-up O’Connell donors, board members and supporters mingled among food, drinks and holiday glitz in preparation for O’Connell’s primary annual fundraiser, the Festival of Trees auction party.
Outside, the tension was palpable in the cold air.
“We’re getting comments like, ‘We’re with O’Connell. We know what’s going on.’ You know, angry kind of thing, and they don’t know what’s going on,” said Margaret Harris, O’Connell care coordination manager and licensed registered nurse.
Voicing concerns over administrative bloat and the need for better working conditions, pay and training at O’Connell, Harris and other residential staff filed for union election in November.
Now known as the United Advocates for Residential Foster Care, the group has focused its sights on Meier-Hummel and Dawson — O’Connell’s top leaders — and they’re applying pressure to the organization’s board members.
The group emailed a letter Monday to the board calling attention to “serious issues of mismanagement and disregard for the well-being of our youth and staff by” Meier-Hummel and Dawson. They wrote executives had made unilateral decisions that “have placed the lives and well-being of the children at risk” and “have fostered a work environment riddled with division and hostility.”
“They have sown discord among staff, undermining morale and collaboration,” the group said in the letter, which was co-signed by Payton Smith, union organizer for International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 304.
They wrote that decisions by Meier-Hummel and Dawson had led to “exploitation” of staff-to-youth ratios, unqualified and under-trained staff, inadequate safety training for crisis situations, the use of unpaid college interns in lieu of trained and adequately paid staff, and the overuse of salaried staff while underusing hourly staff.
They’ve also accused Meier-Hummel and Dawson of placing youth with extreme behaviors alongside long-term residents, the “marginalization and inadequate care of LGBTQ+ youth,” and the “unjust firing” of a “dedicated and beloved” former director, whom they describe as an advocate for LGBTQ+ youth.
In a follow-up text, an employee described Meier-Hummel’s and Dawson’s management decisions as “egregious” and tantamount to “using youth as commodities” and increasingly so, they said, since union organizers had filed for election in mid-November. When pressed for specific examples, the employee cited a rushed placement of a child with suicidal behavior recently but said HIPAA laws prevented them from disclosing further details.
When asked Friday evening whether the public should have concerns that foster children under O’Connell’s care were in danger or neglect, employees said that’s not the crux of their message.
“No, our message isn’t that the children are necessarily in danger,” said Dyre Plunkett, house manager. “The long-term residents that we currently have in the houses are doing much better than we’ve had in recent months, but there’s a constant push to increase numbers. You know, ‘heads in beds’ again.”
Plunkett said conditions for the children weren’t inadequate “at the moment.”
“But the leadership, the working conditions for the staff, it’s a hostile work environment. 100 percent,” he said.
We reached out to Meier-Hummel and Dawson on Friday for their reactions to the group’s claims. Only Meier-Hummel had responded by publication time.
“I have been working in this sector at the local and state level for over thirty years,” Meier-Hummel wrote. “I have committed my life to the safety and wellbeing of children and families. Torrez and I care deeply about all youth in our care as well as all Shelter staff. These allegations are false.”
We sent an email Thursday to O’Connell’s 11 board members asking what they were doing to ensure the efficacy and solvency of the organization in light of the claims made in the letter and what measures the board was taking to hold Meier-Hummel and Dawson accountable.
“Our executive team has a long and respected history of ethical, responsible, fair and appropriate treatment of our staff and all the children and families we serve,” the board said in an email Saturday. “While we respect all of our team members and their right to have opinions and make choices that they believe are in their best interest, we have to put families and children first.”
The board acknowledged receipt of the group’s letter.
“We take these allegations seriously, just as we take our job overseeing the Shelter seriously,” they wrote. “We cannot further comment on internal staff issues at this time.”
The board said it believed in the organization’s mission and was dedicated to facing a variety of challenges, including “limited public funding, and a finite pool of trained and experienced staff” and that the board, as well as O’Connell’s executive leadership, were “deeply and fully committed” to creating an environment of trust and respect, promoting the open exchange of information and ideas, and fostering integrity and teamwork.
“The O’Connell Children’s Shelter Board of Directors and our leadership are dedicated to helping our staff members grow and work together to benefit those we serve,” the board wrote. “This includes continuously developing measures to ensure that our team adheres to all state and federal regulations, create a safe environment for clients and staff, and provides the highest caliber of service to children and families. We know that our experienced leadership is committed to the best interests of youth and that the decisions they make are a result of this commitment.”
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Tricia Masenthin (she/her), equity reporter, can be reached at tmasenthin (at) lawrencekstimes (dot) com. Read more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.
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