Auckland Pride Festival board co-chair Megan Cunningham-Adams has frankly apologised for a Pride Executive Officer role not being advertised, and pledged transparency in the future. In an in-depth interview with GayNZ.com Daily News over community concerns about the appointment process, which came to light following the sudden resignation of Festival Director Julian Cook, Cunningham-Adams has made it clear the non-competitive process was a mistake. Megan Cunningham-Adams with inaugural co-chair Gresham Bradley at the opening of the first Auckland Pride Parade She’s explained the need for an Executive Officer type role was discussed in the first year of Pride, when there were three coordinators – one for the festival, one for the parade and one for sponsorship. She says they mooted an Executive Officer who could bring one line of reporting through to the board, so nothing fell through the cracks. “It was a hot topic of conversation right from day one,” she says. “It was always part of our discussions and our understandings as to how the organisation would move forward, was that we needed somebody to bridge the gap between the volunteer board and the directors, or coordinators as they were back then, who might only be employed for five or six months of the year.” Funds were allocated in the second year, but had to be withdrawn as the additional sponsorship needed wasn’t available. Cunningham-Adams says that year Julian Cook took on the EO and sponsorship roles, in addition to his Festival Director role, with a sponsorship commission as compensation for the extra work “to ensure he was adequately recompensed for the phenomenal work he was doing.” She says it wasn’t ideal and became rapidly apparent that Cook had enough to do as Festival Director without the added work. The Executive Officer position was put back into the budget for the third year. In May this year, then board member Linda Heavey created a proposal for the role, and it was circulated and approved, and some of the funding for it came from the Lotteries Commission. She then put herself forward from the role – and would obviously step down from the board if successful. “We were under some time constraints again and this is why we entered into a non-competitive process,” Cunningham-Adams says. “So I am happy to admit, or not happy to admit, that we did enter into a non-competitive process with Linda, and awarded her the contract via our usual board approval methods. That’s proved to be a really big mistake. And we’ve been held accountable for it on a number of occasions – in spectacular fashion at our AGM where our consultant members gave us, quite rightfully, quite a hard time about it. And we acknowledged that. I acknowledged that as the only co-chair left over from last year. So I will take the responsibility for that.” Cunningham-Adams says she hadn’t thought about the possibility it would become viewed as ‘jobs for board members’ situation, something which was raised at the AGM, and she has apologised for. “I acknowledged that I’d led the board in doing something that was not as transparent as the community might like. I apologised for it and I gave my personal word that it would never happen again.” While the board is not required to advertise roles, it will do so with the Executive Officer position next year – and any other roles which come up. Cunningham-Adams and her co-chair Daniel Mussett say they understand the community holds them to a high standard. “It was my naiveté, I guess,” Cunningham-Adams says. “I didn’t actually think anyone would be interested, it’s a really shitty job and it doesn’t pay very well. Having said that it will be advertised next year.” Both co-chairs are full of praise for the work Linda Heavey is doing in the role – and clarify that she is working far more than the ten hours a week GayNZ.com was led to believe. “None of this is Linda’s fault,” Cunningham-Adams says. “All she did is make a suggestion. I really want to be quite clear, if anybody wants to point a finger in the community at somebody to blame, that person’s me not Linda.” When it comes to the loss of Julian Cook as Festival Director, Cunningham-Adams and Mussett are both clear he’s done a fantastic job for Pride. “We are honoured to have had him as the founding Festival Director,” Cunningham-Adams says. “What he did in that first year was just phenomenal,” she says, adding it’s something that he has only built on since, “so we are disappointed to have lost him”. They are not willing to comment on the circumstances of his resignation, which they say are confidential, but Cunningham-Adams says they worked hard with him for five or six days “to see if there was anything we could do to make it work for all parties concerned”. Mussett adds “we did everything we possibly could to keep Julian. There were several conversations with him, with several different people. There was a group mediation session and formal mediation was offered as well. Unfortunately it wasn’t enough. Ultimately it was his decision, and ultimately he decided to move on. “What we can add to that, is because he has done such a bloody good job, the Pride Festival 2015 is actually shaping up really, really well. It’s shaping up really superbly. Under the circumstances, we’re really happy with the progress which has been made.” The search for a new Festival Director, which began last week, continues. There is a 'plan b' to run the event with extra hours from those already on board. When asked whether Cook’s departure will have any impact on the Festival itself, Cunningham-Adams says they are all going to have to work a bit harder. “Some of us are going to have to roll up our sleeves and get stuck in a little further, but we’ll know that we’ve succeeded when the community doesn’t know any difference at the end of the Festival. And that will be due to Julian’s scheduling, programming, the relationships that he’s built with people he’s invited to come back from previous years.” As for the lack of communication in the past week, Cunningham-Adams says she takes the blame. “I actually didn’t think it was a story. Julian handed his notice in, we’re very upset, we tried to retain him and he opted to leave,” explaining that’s why she made a Facebook comment that it was business as usual for Pride – because they were disappointed to lose Cook, but simply wanted to get on with the job. The co-chairs have made it clear the lines of communication with GayNZ.com will now remain open. We’ll publish a more detailed recounting of the interview with Megan Cunningham-Adams and Daniel Mussett tomorrow.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Tuesday, 18th November 2014 - 9:31pm