Bias charges hit St. Louis manager

As suit nears trial, ex-employees say Wente discriminated racially

Originally published in Current, Nov. 30, 1992
By John Wilner

A lawsuit against KWMU General Manager Patricia Wente claims she unfairly dismissed an African-American employee, and paints a picture of Wente as a tyrannical administrator.

Winifred Sullivan claims she lost her part-time job as a news announcer at the station because she is black, and that Wente has a history of racially motivated harassment and ethnic slurs. Sullivan says that Wente harassed two other African-American women at the St. Louis station until both quit, and that she tried unsuccessfully to replace the only other African-American working at the station.

The picture of Wente contrasts with that of the energetic young manager and former CPB official who has been elected by her peers to the NPR Board. The charges coincide with the period in which KWMU streamlined its programming — reducing an eclectic mix of programs to concentrate on news/information and classical music.

An equally unflattering portrait of Wente emerged in a November 1991 St. Louis magazine article, which detailed allegations of Wente's abuse of employees, Machiavellian management tactics, and racist and anti-Semitic remarks. In the article, Wente said the charges come from disgruntled employees who lost their jobs as part of the consolidation and professionalization process she was hired to undertake at KWMU, which is licensed to the University of Missouri at St. Louis (UMSL).

Sullivan's suit further contends that two African-American women who served under Wente at CPB before Wente came to KWMU in August 1989 also quit after being racially harassed, and that Wente also tried to undermine her supervisor at CPB, who also was black.

Sullivan v. Curators of the University of Missouri is scheduled to come to trial in U.S. District Court after Dec. 7.

Wednesday night massacre

Sullivan was among 19 part-time staff members who lost their jobs after Wente issued a memo June 6, 1990, informing them that, "[i]n keeping with the University procedures, all departments are required to terminate part-time employees on Aug. 31'' of that year. Wente added that KWMU was revising the part-time positions and would post a list of new positions for which former part-time employees could apply.

But St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Joe Pollack later confirmed that UMSL policy merely required departments to evaluate part-time positions, not automatically terminate them. Wente's attorney, Dudley McCarter, said that all part-time employees at the station are on one-year appointments that expire on Aug. 31, and that Wente wrote the memo as a courtesy to part-time staffers to let them know that their appointments might not be renewed.

Sullivan had worked at KWMU as a part-time announcer for three-and-a-half years — first as a volunteer for 18 months, and then as a paid staff member for two years — when Wente issued the memo.

In July 1990, she and seven other part-time staff members wrote their own memo to Wente's boss, UMSL Dean of Arts and Science E. Terrence Jones, questioning the basis for what they said was “mass termination.'' The so-called "Memo Eight'' said they understood the need for restructuring, but that "the manner in which it is being conducted is ill-conceived and mean-spirited,'' and "only serves to further deteriorate the extremely low morale that has existed since Patricia Wente became general manager.''

They requested a meeting with Jones to discuss the termination and other grievances relating to KWMU. Several of those who attended the meeting with Jones agreed that nothing changed as a result of their discussion with him, or with UMSL Chancellor Blanche Touhill. A university representative later issued a statement expressing support for Wente.

Sullivan applied for a newly posted announcer position in August, but was told in a letter that her qualifications did "not match the needs we have for this position.'' She says that KWMU subsequently hired a white woman from outside the station with no paid radio experience to fill the position. In fact, none of the Memo Eight was rehired for the new part-time positions. McCarter denied this had anything to do with their memo or the meeting with Jones.

On Sept. 18, 1990, Sullivan filed a complaint against KWMU with the Missouri Commission on Human Rights, and asked that it also be filed with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Later that month she filed a civil suit seeking reinstatement in her position, back pay (estimated at somewhat over $12,000), punitive damages (her original lawyer asked for $500,000, but she expects between $10,000 and $20,000), legal fees (currently around $25,000), and no gag as part of the settlement.

Blacks, lies and audiotape

Henrietta Dowling-Jones, the first of Wente's African-American assistants at CPB to quit, declined to comment on her relationship with Wente. Her replacement, Ingrid Watkins, who is also black, flew to St. Louis Aug. 1 to give a deposition on behalf of Winifred Sullivan.

Her testimony included her seven-page CPB resignation letter, in which she accuses Wente of "lies, deception, . . . and unprofessionalism . . . beyond my wildest imagination'' and says that "the harassment, abuse and uncompromising conditions in which I was expected to work'' were "intolerable.''

"It is evident to me that Patty<th>.<th>.<th>.<th>had a problem relating to me as she did with my predecessor and I feel the problem was a racial one. She has a problem relating to blacks in general,'' Watkins wrote.

Watkins' resignation letter was written to Wente's African-American supervisor, Augustine Dempsey, who gave a telephone deposition on Sullivan's behalf earlier this month. Dempsey could not be reached for comment.

Monica van Hook, the first African-American woman to quit after Wente arrived at KWMU, gave a deposition to McCarter in which she denied that she quit because Wente harassed her, and said that she did not feel that any of Wente's actions were racially motivated. But Paeton Tipton, the second black woman to quit, and others say that van Hook complained to them about Wente before she quit. And Tipton offered her own complaints about Wente in a deposition to Sullivan's attorney.

Several sources also said that Wente offered News Director Bernie Hayes' position to Cathy Lohr, an NPR freelancer who uses KWMU facilities to file her stories, but that Lohr declined the offer.

Hayes said he has heard other people complain that Wente is racist, but that she has always treated him "with reverence.''

“I'm a bitch, but I'm a good bitch''

The November 1991 St. Louis Magazine article, written by Joe Bargmann, ran under the startling headline, "I'm a bitch, but I'm a good bitch'' — a quote from Wente herself. It reported that she had decimated KWMU's staff, savaged underlings and made offensive remarks about minorities.

The article also said the station was doing poorly under Wente's management=that support from underwriters declined in the first two years of Wente's stewardship, and that average quarter-hour ratings had steadily declined in the same period. It said membership was down, which a KWMU official disputed in the article.

According to station press releases, the situation has improved since Bargmann wrote his article. KWMU's fall 1991 fund drive raised a record amount of money, and its summer 1992 Arbitron ratings were the highest in the station's history. The fall 1992 fund drive, however, had to be extended by two days to meets its goal.

Sullivan's suit notes that Wente did not hire any African-Americans at CPB, and that she hired only one black part-time employee in her first 2.5 years at KWMU—after Sullivan had filed her suit. The station hired five black UMSL students in January 1992, and promoted an African-American news intern to membership assistant in June, and then to membership manager two weeks ago. Sullivan says these recent actions are in response to her suit, and the negative publicity it has generated.

The University of Missouri (UMO) system has been generally criticized for its limited minority presence. St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Susan Thomson wrote a series of articles that showed that blacks and other minorities are underrepresented among UMO students and faculty. University officials told Thomson they are taking steps to remedy the deficiencies.

McCarter told Current that the national average for public radio stations is 1.93 full and part-time minority employees, and that with four African-American employees, KWMU is at twice the national average. He denied that any of them were hired because of Sullivan's lawsuit or the attendant publicity.

The most recent resignation occurred just last month, when the president of Friends of KWMU Inc., Fran Leve, chose to voice her objections rather than simply allowing her term to expire six months hence. In a letter to UMSL Chancellor Touhill, Leve likened Wente to Capt. Queeg in "The Caine Mutiny.'' Wente "perceives every suggestion and every offer of help as a personal threat,'' Leve wrote.