Mismanaged Cap Public Radio Employees Seeking to Unionize

In October the Globe reported on Sacramento’s public radio station Capital Public Radio (CapRadio), a NPR affiliate, when it laid off 12% of its staff and canceled four shows because of “ongoing financial issues.”

Those “ongoing financial issues” stem from the “$3.3 million in outstanding bills CapRadio did not pay from the 2022-23 and 2021-22 fiscal years,” and this:

“CapRadio announced the layoffs the same day the board approved the budget for the 2023-24 fiscal year, two months after the year began. Of the $21 million in expected revenue, at least $5 million are one-time funds, according to information Board Treasurer Bena Arao presented during the public meeting Wednesday. Operating expenses are projected at $19.2 million, an increase of 8% compared to the prior year.”

The California State University Chancellor’s office turned up “numerous instances of financial mismanagement at the Sacramento-based NPR member station.”

And, a dozen Capital Public Radio board members resigned immediately including the current board chair and officers, clearly hoping no one would notice. “What about the fiduciary responsibility of the CapRadio Board members? When you join a board of directors, you also accept fiduciary responsibility,” the Globe asked.

Now, the remaining employees of CapRadio will unionize, which they claim is a result of the mismanagement of the public radio station.

“The broadcast employees of CapRadio and North State Public Radio are seeking union representation at a time where the stations are struggling with the financial strains lingering from the pandemic and some now-questionable management decisions,” the BizJournal just reported Friday.

“Unions are monopoly institutions that raise wages through collective bargaining, not productivity improvements,” the Hoover Institution at Stanford University warns. “The ensuing higher labor costs, higher costs of negotiating collective bargaining agreements, and higher labor market uncertainty all undercut the gains to union workers just as they magnify losses to nonunion employers, as well as to the shareholders, suppliers, and customers of these unionized firms.”

In other words, unionizing is the wrong move as Cap Public Radio struggles to overcome and recover from its gross mismanagement.

The audit performed by CSU Sacramento found “poor recordkeeping in several areas, a lack of management oversight, a lack of accounting and financial knowledge during the audit period, and a need to enhance several processes,” and “important financial records were not maintained.”

Unauthorized loans,  accepting donations to an unauthorized endowment fund, the decision to move operations from the campus to downtown Sacramento, improper contracts…  it’s a mess.