Turmoil At GMHC

Earlier this week the Gay Men's Health Crisis issued a press release noting that CEO Marjorie Hill was stepping down. The notice didn't seem particularly newsworthy, so I didn't mention it here. However today DNAinfo reports that there may be more to the story than a routine change in leadership.

Sources within the organization said GMHC chairman Mickey Rolfe and the board ousted Hill amid accusations that she had harmed the decades-old organization by costing it millions of dollars in grants, losing dozens of talented staffers through layoffs and using an acidic management style. "We couldn't keep a CEO there who had such a contemptuous relationship to staff and clients," said one insider, who asked for anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation. Hill did not respond to requests for comment. The executive's problems at GMHC, which provides health and social services to HIV-positive people and organizes the city's annual AIDS Walk, began to come to a head in July, when staff learned Hill would take a paid three-month sabbatical — just one week after many staffers had their salaries slashed, sources said. Hill, who was paid more than $230,000 in 2012, according to tax documents, departed as staffers were seething about the news their salaries would be cut and their annual health care costs would rise by $1,000, sources said.

A commenter on the above-linked article argues that Hill's salary doesn't seem out of a line for an organization of GMHC's size. Whatever the other issues may have been, I'd agree on that point. ACT UP New York is cheering her departure on their Twitter account.