On Feb. 9, WTVP-TV 47 was notified by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting that the agency will conduct a financial audit of the operation covering the last three years.
Four days later, the reconstituted board approved five new members. In alphabetical order, they are:
Emily Galligan of Morton, a partner at the Peoria office of Heyl Royster Voelker & Allen, a former board member for Destiny for Women Health Clinic, and a former adjunct professor at Bradley;
Kevin Hicks, a Eureka College graduate and teacher at Metamora high school who serves on the board at Peoria Players and has written a novel and dozens of plays;
Robert Senneff, president and CEO of Graham Health System based in Canton, is a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives who previously held comparable posts at medical centers in Princeton and DeWitt, Ill., Davenport and Hillsboro, Kan. His service also includes being on an audit committee at the Mid-America National Bank, plus Carl Sandburg College Foundation, Illinois Hospital Association finance committee and others;
Jessica Tilton earned a B.S. and M.S from Bradley, where she also taught for two years before pursuing a medical degree at Southern Illinois University. An advocate with several groups promoting organ donations, Tilton also was Miss Illinois 2023; and
Chet Tomczyk, who retired from decades in public and educational TV at the local, national and global levels. President and CEO of WTVP for 18 years, and its Director of Development for two years, he’s consulted with clients including the Smithsonian Institution, Great Plains National Television Library, and the U.S. Department of Defense, and serves as a Notary/Auditor for the Catholic Diocese of Peoria.
Chris Anderson, co-chair of the Friends of 47 citizens group trying to help put the station on the right footing, said he’s hopeful.
“I am optimistic that the current leadership can turn this situation around,” he told The Community Word. “There are a lot of good people at the station whose work makes our community better, and the sustainability of that work depends on senior leadership at the station. They need to get this right.”
John Wieland, a financially successful businessman installed as board chair in January, has said WTVP could be helped by a foundation that will contribute more than $1 million over the next three years to help the station. However, Wieland — an active philanthropist who leads such an organization (His First Foundation) — won’t reveal the source of the pledged donation, which is reportedly conditioned on receiving CPB funding.
“We wonder: Where is that money coming from?” said Friends of 47 co-chair Becky Doubleday.
Meanwhile, Wieland told the board that the station has received many applications for WTVP’s next president/CEO, but Doubleday said she also wonders about the process for hiring and selecting board members.
“How were they picked? she asked. “Who decided? What criteria is used?”
Wieland has said that he personally chose the first round of new board members, seated Jan. 16, but Doubleday said running a public-broadcasting service is unique.
“This is not a private company,” she said. “Such a public [enterprise] has a greater responsibility to have a board truly representative of the community and staff interests. This is the people’s station. They need grassroots listener support, not just the well-to-do.
“Also, leadership said they were going to amend the bylaws,” she added. “What do they want to change? Will there be open discussion?”
There’s too much secrecy, Friends of 47 says.
“The lack of information is still frustrating,” Anderson said. “I understand the position the current leadership is under given the pending investigations and so on, [but] transparency and accountability are very important given the breach of trust and fiduciary responsibility of the previous board. It seems that the station is moving in the right direction, although they are far from being out of financial peril.”