Ousted Equality Illinois political director Rick Garcia continues to fight back against his firing from the agency he co-founded.
Last week, in interviews with Windy City Times, EI CEO Bernard Cherkasov and board leaders Dalila Fridi and Jeremy Gottschalk said that the firing of Rick Garcia was not a sudden event. According to them, it was the culmination of a series of conversations and discussions internal to the organization.
This past weekend, Garcia spoke to WCT from Miami, where he is on vacation, and emphatically denied that version of events. He also speculated on reasons why events unfolded as they did.
Windy City Times: So, could you address the claims made by Bernard Cherkasov and some members of the board of directors that the process that resulted in your firing had been going on for a year prior to that.
Rick Garcia: That is an absolute lie. I knew nothing, that they were displeased with my performance, until, I guess, the end of July. I knew about this three months ago. And the other part that I think is important is that I was told that after 90 days there would be a review. There was no review. After they squeezed the blood out of me for the civil-union bill Bernard just called me and terminated me. So there was no review and no reason given for my termination. And I think those are very important points and the most important point is that this was not a board decision. The board rubber-stamped what he said. This reminds me of the former Soviet Union; the bosses tell you what to do and everybody gets in line and goes along with and doesn't question it. And I think that is sad. It's sad; it saddens me and disgusts me at the same time. There was no board meeting; there was no discussion of this. He tried to be clever about wording it: "Well they all knew this was a possibility." Well, you know a lot of things are a possibility. A possibility is I could get hit by a CTA bus.
There was no board meeting, it was not a board decision; he made it with that cabal of Dalila and Jeremy and himself and no one else participated in it. I did not participate in it.
WCT: And what did they say to you [regarding the review]?
Rick Garcia: Bernard, who, before had nothing to say to me, said that he had talked to every board member about me. He was disturbed that I had been publicly critical of our partner organization. And, basically I find out that Howard Brown [Health Center] has complained about my criticism of them and the way that I handled their financial crisis in the beginning. So he was livid, livid that I had quotes in the press that Howard Brown should have transparency. It's a community organization that serves this community … that I have a right to know what is going on there and that Howard Brown. This is what really got me into trouble, that Howard Brown was acting like our own little Vatican. They battened down the hatches, become mute, didn't say a word.
The other thing was that he wanted me in the office 40 hours a week; he said I wasn't in the office enough. And frankly, you know, how do I do stay in the office when I have to be in Frankfort or go to Aurora to talk to the state rep? He said, "I don't want to tie you to your desk but you need to be in the office more."
And [he also said] I shouldn't bring embarrassment to the organization at any time, in any way. And I said, "What is that about?" And he said, "Well, some of your quotes are embarrassing. People have complained that you have embarrassing quotes." So, I wasn't supposed to criticize anybody else, [and] I was supposed to spend more time in the office. Then he said, "We will review you in 90 days, and decide what to do after that." So, I was off for a month; I took the month of July off and went back in August and have just been working and basically working the civil-unions bill, working on getting Gov. [Pat] Quinn elected. [I was] called in on the 16th of December and was told, "This is not working out. I am terminating you."
I was to give a talk that evening, on the civil-unions bill at the Center on Halsted, at 6 o'clock , and he called me in at 5 o'clock and said, "This is not working out, and we are going in a new direction and I am terminating you right now." And I thought that was curious, considering it's worked out for me and for this community successfully for 20 years and the direction that we've been going has been, I think, the right direction for the state of Illinois and a winning direction, and you're the one who's been here for two years, so if it ain't working out why don't you go found your own organization? I didn't say that to him but that's exactly what I thought and that's what I think now. Honey, if it isn't working out, who isn't it working out for? It's working out for me. And it's working out not only for me but it's working out for our community.
WCT: What was Jeremy Gottschalk's role in this as the president of the board?
Rick Garcia: From what I can tell, his role is to parrot to the board what Bernard writes. So Bernard will write a memo and Jeremy will send it out under his name. … The second to the last memo board members got was, "Rick is back, things seem to be working out, and we'll have a review in 90 days" or something like that. Then the next memo that the board gets from Jeremy is: "Bernard has informed me that he terminated Rick Garcia at 5 o'clock today, as you all know," and then some people complained that "we don't know anything about this, we didn't meet about this." Then he writes a clarifying letter in which he claimed that he had talked to every board member and Jeremy claims he had talked to every board member about Rick, and in 90 days there was going to be a review and one of the options at the end of that review was that he would be terminated. And all the board members said, "It isn't saying we're going to terminate him in 90 days; it says we're going to review the situation in 90 days."
So Bernard reviewed the situation, fired me and then told the board. And then Bernard tells the board to follow the Howard Brown principle—shut your mouth, don't say a word, don't gossip, don't even talk among yourselves, if you have any questions direct them directly to Bernard, not to Jeremy. Let's not have a board meeting; direct them to Bernard if you have any questions about the situation.
So I don't think there was an opportunity for the board to discuss this. I know of no opportunity and I've talked to a number of board members that know of no opportunity, and some of them told me they didn't participate in any of this.
WCT: As you may know, Dalila Fridi has gone on the record to say they gave you a letter, and that this process began a year ago.
Rick Garcia: Dalila and Jeremy and Bernard may have had conversations among themselves about me, but no one told me.
WCT: So you're saying: If there was a process, it was not a process that necessarily involved you as well.
Rick Garcia: There absolutely may have been a process, but it certainly did not involve me because I was told nothing about it until three months ago.
WCT: Have you heard from anyone from the board? We know that some did not sign on to a brief statement sent out by Gottschalk.
Rick Garcia: What I'm hearing is that as a board they did not talk about it; it was stressed on them, it was announced. They got an e-mail at about 5:30 saying that "Bernard has fired Rick at five." And, by the way, Christina Kahrl is on the list of signers but I don't know that she ultimately signed. I think that she was duped because she called me immediately and said, "No one talked to me about this." It's my sense that most of those signers may have signed on just because they thought it would keep the peace. I don't know; this is just my assumption because all of them are good-hearted people and they want to do the right thing, and I think that the president of the board and the CEO said, "We had to do this and this is what we have to say." I think they decided that one.
WCT: Did they bring up the civil-unions bill, in relation to your firing?
Rick Garcia: Absolutely not. It was like I had nothing to do with the civil unions bill. They didn't even mention it. In one of the memos that was sent three months ago to the board from Jeremy, it outlined the things that Bernard had noted about me. One of them was, "Rick has alienated key legislators and to such an extent that it may jeopardize it." I love that I have a copy of the memo even though I'm not supposed to see it—that's how we play politics in Chicago. I didn't get it from friends because I wouldn't jeopardize them; I got it from people I wouldn't expect would give it to me [looks for it, can't find it in his briefcase]. Anyway it was that I jeopardized the civil unions bill because my speaking out to the press about the bill upset some legislators. But I wasn't saying anything different than [Rep.] Greg Harris. I'm not defending myself, I don't need to defend myself. Honey, I won.
If I've alienated legislators, number one, how was it that I was able to work with our lobbyists and others to get the necessary votes? And how is it that I'm able to stick my head in the governor's office and the mayor's office or [Cook County Board President] Tony Preckwinkle's office and say, "Oh, can I have a minute of your time?" If I'm so alienating to legislators, why have I served on two governors' transition teams and Tony Preckwinkle's transition team? So that's just bogus, and they tell it to people who don't know any better.
The other thing Bernard said is that I have offended our partners and made embarrassing statements to the press and I said, "What do you mean, offending our partners?" [He responded that it was] "when you commented on the financial situation at Howard Brown and you should not have done that." He was really, really angry. I mean, this wasn't just, "Oh, Rick why did you do it, or oh, Rick, you really shouldn't have." He was mad—that was the maddest I've ever seen him.
Those were the criticisms three months ago. I think that I've done my job well over the last three months, since August when I came back and, boom, I'm out of there, summarily called in and "bye." You pass one of the most significant pieces of legislation in Illinois history for the lesbian and gay community, and they say goodbye to you.
WCT: We heard from people like June LaTrobe, for instance, that certain communities, like the trans community, were taking your expulsion very seriously. What are you hearing about and from those communities?
Rick Garcia: I've had this outpouring of support from many people throughout our state. Downstate folks and here—and especially the trans community. And I think the reason is that when HRC [Human Rights Campaign] threw the trans community under the bus by taking gender identity out of ENDA, I was one of the first 10 activists in this country to speak out against them. And I've always stood with the trans community. I've fought hard to make sure that our state law included gender identity so they know that I am a strong ally.
Bernard is enamored with the Human Rights Campaign and partners with the Human Rights Campaign, and that alienated—talk about who's alienating who—that alienated a number of transgender people who are still biting and bitter about how HRC treated them. And the only reason these people have remained faithful to us is they knew that Rick was there and Rick would protect their interest. [LaTrobe was one of the four people who showed up for a protest in support of Garcia Dec. 23.] I think that's why there's a huge outpouring among transgender folks who are uncomfortable with the direction Equality Illinois was moving in, sucking up to HRC.
WCT: Has anyone from the board or others in EI reached out to you?
Rick Garcia: I have absolutely no clue; I have an understanding that our board and, I believe even staff have been directed not to talk to me or engage with me. That's what I've been told. I don't know for sure but they have not engaged me at all. I will tell you this: If I was in the board's position or the CEO's position, I would be highly embarrassed at how miserably this whole situation was handled and I would be ashamed, ashamed at the duplicity and the mendacity surrounding this whole issue.
WCT: What interest do [you think] the national organizations like HRC have any in all of this?
Rick Garcia: I do not know what is behind my firing at that exact time. … But what has been suggested to me, particularly by leaders of other state organizations, is the influence that some of the national organizations such as HRC want to have on statewide organizations. [WCT has not obtained any separate confirmation about this, and the publication is in contact with national organizations.] And they've always had a problem with Illinois; we don't deal with them, we will not have anything to do with them. And now we have a CEO who is enamored with Washington, D.C., and enamored with national partners and wants to suck up to them at every opportunity he can get. HRC people despise me and I despise them. And, you know, I think that that may play into this.
Other state leaders who I've talked to this week have suggested those national funding groups and organizations see Illinois as a state that just passed civil unions. And that we're ripe for the picking. The problem from my point of view, and Bernard knows this, is that, as I say, when those national organizations come into the state they ruin [local organizations]. Talk to Fair Wisconsin, talk to a number of organizations. The most important thing is they lose, they lose on our issues.
I don't really know if that's the underlying reason for my termination now, but I think it resonates that they announce that we're terminating Rick Garcia and in the same breath we're getting a state equality grant of a $100,000 for our "new direction." We've had the same direction for the past 20 years—we have been successful for the past 20 years—and now all of a sudden we have a new CEO and we need a new direction?
WCT: With regard to that, where will Equality Illinois go after civil unions? Some people might say, "You've got what you wanted—why should the organization exist?"
Rick Garcia: When I was there, I outlined very clearly our path and where we were going and how to get there. And our path is towards marriage equality. Right now, I read that we have this new direction, I don't know what is this new direction that we're going in. I do know that we get another fundraiser [letter] which was sent out just yesterday talking about how our state is being targeted by the far-right wing to overturn the civil-union bill. The civil-union bill hasn't even been signed yet, you know, the governor could die in a plane crash and it may not be signed. … I know what my plan of action was for the organization, and given my 20-year history of setting out a plan and successfully executing that plan, I think I know better than brand-new folks who have no experience coming in and saying we're going in a new direction today. Hallelujah.
WCT: What [do you think] is Bernard's Cherkasov's interest with national organizations?
Rick Garcia: I think he likes the perceived prestige. I think he's always running off to D.C. for something or another. And the other thing is, instead of keeping his eyes on the prize, he keeps his eyes on the dollars. And by the way, that's not a criticism; that is his job. And I think that he does it well. The problem is he doesn't like what I call my side of the house, and the way I carry on my side of the house is that I'm fine with him sucking up to national organizations and I'm fine with him bringing in all the money he can. That's a good thing. But he has to understand that we have political work to do. This is not a social club where we stand around and smile, and shake hands and go to cocktail parties and black-tie dinners. That's part of it but that's not all of it. And we are about success and winning and I do not know what he is about. Except hobnobbing and trying to be somebody.
WCT: Who else has spoken in your support or reached out to you?
Rick Garcia: I have a zillion e-mails and messages on my Facebook page. I've heard from Gery Chico, Ald. [Edward] Burke, James Meeks, Carol Ronen, people from downstate Illinois, people from the suburbs, PFLAG people. … I mean, it amazes me, the number of people and the diversity of people. I mean, trans people, Republicans, Democrats, suburban downstate and they all express shock and/or anger or "What in the hell is going on?" They're very, very angry at what has happened to me.
WCT: In terms of the timing, you had been at the White House the day before [for a holiday party]? Was there something that happened there that might have affected EI's decision?
Rick Garcia: Yes. When I was at the White House, I spoke with President Obama and Mrs. Obama, and the president congratulated me on the great work on the passage of the civil-unions bill in Illinois, and there was a big hug. While I was talking to him, I did say, "Mr. President, would you please free [former Illinois Gov.] George Ryan and let him go home?" And that was the lead item in the Michael Sneed's column the next day [in the Chicago Sun-Times], the day I was fired. I don't know what the connection could be but there are some who have called and said, "I think it was that George Ryan piece."
I think that Bernard did not want me to be the face or the spokesman for the organization, and I wasn't speaking for the organization there, but the reality is that when Rick Garcia opens his mouth, he's not just Rick Garcia, he is Equality Illinois. And I think that was part of the problem, that when I spoke out, Bernard thought I was speaking for the whole organization. And that was very problematic for him because he wants to be the face and he wants to be the voice. And I've always been the face and I've always been the voice. Frankly, I have the face and I have that voice. And the experience. And you know what? I will continue to have it.
WCT: Could you address the rumors that you weren't paid for your work during the last three years?
Rick Garcia: In the beginning I was paid nothing, for the first three or four years, and then I started to get a small stipend. Then, probably about six years ago, I started making a reasonable salary, but I never had benefits until about six or seven years ago. At the time of my termination, I was making $72,000 with benefits.
WCT: How did you support yourself in the first few years?
Rick Garcia: I wrote letters to religious organizations of nuns to ask for grant money. And every now and then I'd work at a coffee shop that was comparable to Starbucks. I would come in to the coffee shop and work a little bit and then take off and then run down to the county building because we were working on a gay-rights ordinance there, and then come back and put my apron on over my suit. Because that's how I
Please see www.windycitymediagroup.com/gay/lesbian/news/ARTICLE.php for continuation of story
