Group wants meeting over Red Cross cuts

Members of the Red Cross Kalispell Leadership Council want a fact-finding meeting with the state board and state Chief Executive Officer Rod Kopp about impending job cuts at the Kalispell Service Center.

The only two paid staff members in the Kalispell Red Cross office are losing their jobs at the end of March as part of statewide cost-cutting measures by Red Cross.

John Donoghue, a member of the council, said the council requested that the meeting be held no later than March 16. The resolution passed by the council asks that Montana's congressional delegation, county leaders and emergency service directors and members of the media receive invitations.

"We'll provide the facility and open it to all governmental units and the public," Donoghue said. "We want to get a better understanding of this with people who are not biased."

The resolution refers to the leadership council's "overwhelming challenge to restore credibility to the Red Cross service delivery capability" with no paid staff remaining at the service center.

Donoghue said the local board also wants "a simple severance package" for Director Gayle Wilhelm and Program Specialist Bernadette Larson rather than simply their pay earned as of their last day of March 28.

He expressed his shock over the short notice and apparent lack of concern for the two employees.

"It's just unholy," Donoghue said.

The local board members weren't the only ones concerned about the Red Cross restructuring made public last week.

Flathead County Emergency Services Director Mark Peck said the unexpected action shocked disaster professionals in the four counties served by the Kalispell office.

Peck said he couldn't envision how the office can maintain its large disaster response role with only volunteers.

"The two paid staff are well overworked," Peck said.

He pointed out that the loss of Wilhelm and Larson affects the Flathead's disaster plans as well as those of his counterparts in Lincoln, Sanders and Lake counties.

"I wish this problem had been brought forward to emergency services earlier rather than having it dropped on us," he said. "We could have helped with fundraising."

Peck said the Red Cross serves several vital roles, such as setting up victim shelters during disasters. He asked what this area would do, for example, if a flood such as the one in 1964 should occur.

He said state emergency officials also were caught by surprise when the job cuts became public.

"The Red Cross is one of those things - you don't need them until you need them," he said. "There's no way volunteers can fulfill at the level of paid staff."

Peck and the Kalispell Leadership Council met Friday to brainstorm ways to save the two staff positions. He said the group discussed seeking donations as a stopgap measure to keep the office going for 90 days during which they would work to find permanent support.

Peck said he called Kopp after that meeting to present the idea. But he said Kopp's response was that he believed the state board's decision was final.

On Monday, however, Kopp said he had checked with the Western Region Red Cross about the possibility. He then sent an e-mail saying that he and state board members were open to a proposal of short-term funding for the Kalispell office as long as it included commitments of sustainable funding for the long term.

Karen Davison, chairwoman of the leadership council, confirmed that she had received the e-mail Monday from Kopp. She said his long-term commitments provision amounts to a rejection of the 90-day extension plan.

The whole idea of delaying the layoffs was to gain time to come up with long-term funding.

"We can't come up with the long term until we come up with the short term," she said.

The latest restructuring followed a similar action a little more than a year ago in which Kalispell was made one of four new regions with Wilhelm as the director over an area that included Missoula. Information provided at the time said the move eliminated 5 1/2 positions in Missoula, Butte, Great Falls and Helena.

The newest cost cutting dropped an additional four full-time positions including one in Billings, one shared between Helena and Great Falls and the two in Kalispell. Other streamlining included reducing office size along with outsourcing accounting functions and some Red Cross services.

Although Kopp was hired in October 2006 with a mission of reversing declining revenues, financial problems continued, although he said some new strategies such as telemarketing were promising.

He said some direct-mail efforts had paid off in Missoula.

"We're actually doing pretty well," he said - but not well enough to stop the hemorrhaging.

For the past five years, the Montana Red Cross has tapped its reserves because of declines in contributions and an increase in disasters such as last summer's forest fires.

Kopp said the possibility of the office staff cuts was not made public earlier out of consideration for the employees. He said the state board approved the restructuring Feb. 25.

He called it a painful but necessary move.

Kopp said he remains confident that volunteers, the historic lifeblood of the Red Cross, can keep the Kalispell office open. In a phone call before the latest resolution, Kopp said he would meet either by conference call or face-to-face with Kalispell officials next week to discuss their concerns.

Davison said the leadership council has many questions for Kopp, including how he plans to keep the office operating after March 28.

"We're just up in the air now," she said.

In a letter sent Feb. 27, Kopp said the Red Cross would "work to sustain a presence in Kalispell, Billings and Helena through all-volunteer offices."

Paid staffers remain in Great Falls, Missoula and Bozeman.

Reporter Candace Chase may be reached at 758-4436 or by e-mail at cchase@dailyinterlake.com.