Amid financial issues, Pierce County AIDS agency lays off CEO, staff. CEO alleges racism
The Pierce County AIDS Foundation has laid off a majority of its staff and its CEO Ace Robinson, who was on paid administrative leave amid allegations of financial mismanagement at PCAF.
The Washington Department of Health has taken over PCAF’s client services after terminating the majority of PCAF’s funding earlier this month “based on serious concerns about the agency’s lack of capacity to provide adequate and appropriate client care,” the department said.
PCAF offered a variety of services to people living with HIV and AIDS through offices in Tacoma and Olympia, including food, housing, health care and other support. The PCAF website says it served individuals from Pierce, Thurston, Mason, and Lewis counties.
In a recent letter to the News Tribune, the PCAF Board of Directors said the nonprofit is facing “the most challenging moment of its 36-year history.”
“The Washington State Department of Health has terminated the majority of PCAF’s funding, citing various compliance issues that emerged under the previous CEO Ace Robinson,” the Oct. 19 letter said. “Because of this and other serious concerns related to his leadership of the organization, the PCAF Board removed him effective Oct. 13.”
Robinson told the News Tribune as of Friday that PCAF had not informed him of his removal and he plans to part with PCAF amicably. PCAF board president Will Wayburn told the News Tribune via email Monday that Robinson was sent a termination letter to both his personal email addresses on Oct. 13, and Robinson’s lawyer has also been sent a copy.
Robinson alleges anti-Black racism played a role in his treatment as CEO and said PCAF still owes him about $65,000, which Robinson said he loaned the organization in a good-faith effort to keep PCAF operating as it struggled to be reimbursed by the Washington Department of Health for months earlier this year. Robinson said the money was used to pay for rent, payroll, staff health insurance, client housing, client transportation and utilities.
Amid ongoing news coverage of issues at PCAF, Robinson said the situation has been “highly stressful” as a single dad to an infant. Robinson said he’s lost weight and hasn’t been able to spend much time with his child or take care of his emotional health.
“I will go down with the ship saying, ‘You will not find one item of evidence saying that I did something inappropriate,’” Robinson said. “The actions by the board president are paramount to character assassination.”
In late September a senior staffer filed a grievance against the board president for anti-Black animus, alleging among other issues that Wayburn “dismissed my concerns ... and seemed to favor recommendations from individuals with white privilege,” “made intimidating and insulting remarks,” had conflicts of interest and “a history of failing to adhere to the organization’s bylaws.”
Shortly after Robinson said he sent his own letter to the board bringing up similar concerns of discrimination and double standards from the board president and others, and said he was placed on administrative leave two days later.
Robinson also filed a complaint in late September against the director of the infectious disease program at DOH, alleging bullying and ethics violations, which he said might have played a role in his termination. In the complaint, obtained by The News Tribune, Robinson said the director met with members of the community “to devise a plan to oust me from my role as the Chief Executive Officer of a sub-grantee at Pierce County AIDS Foundation.” Mark Johnson, a public information officer for DOH said the department had no information or comment to provide regarding Robinson’s contentions on Tuesday.
“While we cannot speak to those claims, we can share that DOH strives to protect the lives of people living with HIV,” Johnson said via email. “This common goal drives all decisions made at the Pierce County AIDS Foundation.”
Since June, Robinson said, there has been a series of Black board members resigning for similar reasons. The News Tribune was able to contact two of the five Robinson said had resigned.
Deondre Moore, who was on the board for about five months, said he resigned effective immediately when the board put Robinson on paid leave.
“I could no longer be part of an organization that seemed to be on a witch hunt against this Black leader that is extremely [well] respected in this field,” Moore told the News Tribune via text.
In a resignation letter June 30 obtained by The News Tribune, board president-elect Russell Campbell, who is Black, said his resignation was tied to recent events related to how the PCAF board handled staff complaints and concerns, as well as tension and “disrespectful and harmful” actions by some staff, including some white staff lacking confidence in Robinson’s ability to manage PCAF.
Robinson said he inherited a lot of work when he came on as CEO in July 2022 and almost quit last fall “upon finding out the full fiscal and programmatic situation at PCAF, but I stuck it out” because he believed in the organization’s mission to help those living with HIV and AIDS, he said.
“PCAF strongly disputes Mr. Robinson’s allegations but has no further comment in light of pending litigation,” Wayburn said in an email to the News Tribune on Monday.
Wayburn said he remains the president of the PCAF board, and PCAF’s interim executive director is now Brenda Kiner, who has served as PCAF’s chief administrative officer since June, according to her LinkedIn profile.
Department of Health takes over
The Department of Health has taken over responsibility for all PCAF clients and ended its contracts with PCAF “based on serious concerns about the agency’s lack of capacity to provide adequate and appropriate client care for all individuals on their caseload,” which includes about 682 people, Johnson said.
DOH has hired 12 temporary case managers, two case management supervisors, two housing staff and two peer navigators, some of whom are former PCAF staff, Johnson said.
Due to budgetary constraints, the PCAF board “made the heartbreaking decision to lay off the majority of the remaining PCAF employees,” according to the board letter sent to The News Tribune on Oct. 19.
Wayburn told The News Tribune at the time he could not comment on how many employees were laid off or what it would mean for future hours and services offered by PCAF. He said the board would issue additional statements in the future. In August, The News Tribune reported about 45 people worked in the agency’s Tacoma and Olympia offices.
The DOH plans to find new providers “who can meet the grant and contract requirements to provide these services” and transition services to them “in less than 12 months,” according to Johnson. It is possible PCAF could be that agency, “but only once certain conditions have been met,” DOH said.
“PCAF staff have been tireless, dedicated workers for years in the fight against HIV/AIDS, and the Board deeply appreciates their service,” the PCAF board letter said. “A small team remains, tasked with addressing the compliance issues raised by DOH, securing additional funding sources, and creating a plan for PCAF to restore client services in the future.”
A nonprofit in turmoil
On Oct. 11, an LGBTQ youth center in Tacoma filed a lawsuit against PCAF, alleging PCAF misappropriated over $200,000 from it in a breach of contract. The Oasis Youth Center serves about 430 youth and served over 1,000 youth pre-pandemic.
Earlier this month the Washington Department of Health canceled two contracts with PCAF in a rare move, citing financial and administrative issues. A week prior to that The News Tribune reported that PCAF placed its CEO on paid administrative leave “as the Board conducts an inquiry into personnel matters.”
In August The News Tribune reported PCAF was having issues receiving funding from the Department of Heath for a variety of services it offers to residents living with HIV/AIDS in the South Sound region.
Four employees told The News Tribune in August they believe they were fired in retaliation for expressing concerns about financial mismanagement and a toxic workplace to nonprofit leadership and PCAF’s board. At that time, Wayburn said the board was “completely supportive” of Robinson and his strategic plan and said a recent audit found no financial irregularities at PCAF.
The “PCAF board and remaining staff are committed to dealing with the current crisis and finding ways to rebuild and regain the trust of clients, funders and community partners,” the board said in its letter Oct. 19. “We are determined to draw on the strength and support of those who believe, as we do, that 36 years dedicated to working on behalf of those affected by HIV/AIDS can and will lead to many more years of service. We ask for your support as we continue to move forward.”
Clients in crisis
Robinson said what keeps him up at night is that “the communities who have had the worst health outcomes will continue to have the worst health outcomes.”
“I didn’t come here to maintain the status quo,” he said, noting that PCAF was seeing an increase in demand from people priced out of living in Seattle and King County. “The clients who are doing decently well, they’re going to continue to do decently well. The clients who don’t trust the medical care system are going to trust it less.”
Hugo Cruz-Moro moved to Tacoma with his husband in late 2021 after living in King County. A long-term survivor who is HIV positive, Cruz-Moro said PCAF was the only agency in town offering related case management.
Since PCAF’s service transition to the DOH, Cruz-Moro said, he’s had to “chase after my case manager to make sure that my insurance is going to be in place” during open enrollment.
“I’m a pretty self-sufficient, self-advocating client. The HIV hasn’t traumatized me mentally that I know, so I can pretty much navigate the system,” he said. “A lot of clients at PCAF are there because they really have lots of trauma to deal with. Some of them have precarious housing situations, they’re seniors … I’ve had close encounters with my insurance or a disability being in jeopardy and … for those people that are older and have more trauma, I can imagine it’s a very, very horrible place to be put in for any amount of time.”
Cruz-Moro served on the PCAF Community Advisory Committee and as an artist volunteered to teach community art classes at PCAF. The agency offered regular movie nights, lunches, holiday celebrations, picnics and retreats, until the funding started to disappear, he said. People often made friends at those events, Cruz-Moro said.
“A place of socializing is very important for people who are already stigmatized. The place to socialize has gone,” he said. “Community-wise, it’s destroyed a facility that people have counted on for 35 years or more.”
For many of PCAF’s clients, broken trust will be a “major” issue in years to come, Cruz-Moro said.
“I’ve met plenty of clients there. A lot of them are really strong people ... but a couple of them are real vulnerable people,” he said. “A good amount of people are vulnerable just from the get-go. There are a lot of people that are very untrusting, so something like this would set people over the edge. I had a lot of difficult nights dealing with my anger.”
This story was originally published October 31, 2023 at 5:00 AM.
