Funding for CPACS staff support and legal needs!

The courageous staff of CPACS needs our help! They are risking their lives and livelihoods to save the community they serve and love. They need our help now! Follow for more @savecpacs

Update from the staff:

During our Community Rally on the evening of Thursday, August 4, the CPACS Board of Directors refused to follow our demands and fired our CEO Jung Ha Kim. This act of retaliation unjustly removes a progressive and effective leader for the CPACS community, who maintains strong support from the majority of staff. The Board’s decision also effectively reinstates former CEO, Chaiwon Kim. Current and former staff consistently report a work environment wrought with toxicity under Chaiwon that negatively impacts staff and services to community members.

Earlier tonight at our community rally, CPACS staff detailed the mistreatment endured under Chaiwon Kim including racism, discrimination, inequality, nepotism, and conflicts of interest. Her wrongdoings have not only hurt staff, but have directly disadvantaged CPACS’ ability to maximize services to the community. This includes how she owns the buildings that CPACS Cosmo Health Center rents and has invested CPACS funds to renovate her personal property. Her manipulative property ownership is verified across public records.

The Board has continued to condone Chaiwon’s behavior through their inaction and now the firing of Dr. Jung Ha Kim, who has consistently brought up these concerns since last year.

Please read their letter:

Stand with us in our fight to stop corruption and save the Center for Pan Asian Community Services (CPACS). After a year of inaction, suppression, and deceit by the CPACS Board of Directors, CPACS staff have demanded the following:

1. Do NOT remove/terminate Jung Ha Kim as CEO of CPACS

2. Complete separation of CPACS and CPACS Cosmo Health Center with two separate Board of Directors

3. Remove CPACS Cosmo Community Health Center (CCHC) from CPACS Employer Identification Number (EIN)

4. Do NOT transfer any funds, assets, bank accounts, departments, and programs from CPACS to CCHC

5. Resignation of all current members from the Board of Directors of CPACS

With heavy hearts, we are informing our communities about improper conduct within CPACS and Cosmo Community Health Center (CCHC). As we attempt to uncover and correct these problems, please know that we are working tirelessly to amplify the voices of our communities that are often overlooked, underserved, and silenced.

It has become clear over the past year that the Board of Directors does not embody the spirit and mission of CPACS. The actions of the Board of Directors exemplify the systemic oppression of our communities that we work to dismantle. As leaders of our communities, we will not be complicit in their poor leadership, compromised judgment, and unethical behavior.

Our collective concerns have been ignited by the Board. Countless emails were sent with no response and lengthy meetings were concluded with no solutions. Instead of answering our pleas for leadership with a strong sense of courage, morality, and duty to the organization, the Board of Directors decided to actively silence our voices and assist in concealing unethical activities.

On May 27, 2021, the Board of Directors unanimously approved Dr. Jung Ha Kim as CEO of CPACS. July 1, 2021 marked Dr. Kim’s official start as CEO, and staff felt an immediate difference under her leadership - hopeful for the future, respected as people, and re-energized to support our communities. Despite positive changes and improved staff morale over the past year, the Board of Directors wasted time, energy, and money that could have been used to listen, learn, and act in the best interest of the organization.

Regardless of reports from numerous investigations conducted by third-party legal firms, the Board of Directors continues to label serious concerns as “only allegations” and have taken swift actions to remove dissenting Board members and CEO Jung Ha Kim. The Board of Directors have shown through their actions that they are not only incapable of making decisions in the best interest of the organization, but will go above and beyond to silence opposing voices. We are left with no other choice but to inform our communities of their failures to govern and their active role in cheating our staff and our communities.

One of the investigative reports unmasked the wrongdoing. In response, the Board hired yet another law firm to discredit the investigation; an investigation that the Board of Directors touted as being “in the best interest of the organization” in a town hall performance. In a span of three months, three investigations were conducted by three separate law firms. Although the scope and purpose were different, all three provide a glimpse of former CEO Chaiwon Kim’s tyrannical style of leadership built on dishonesty and toxicity. Staff have been silenced by isolating, gaslighting, and framing those that asked too many questions about finances or offered too much of their opinion.

Unsurprisingly, the Board of Directors exhibits these exact qualities and uses the same tactics to bully those that stand in their way. Board meetings are absent of any rules of decorum and the bylaws are weaponized to gaslight those that challenge the lack of process. Board meeting minutes were edited without Board approval to support narratives for the purported co-CEO structure and to fabricate Board motions that were never voted on. Without respect for a system of checks and balances, Board meetings have turned into a circus of screaming and shouting.

On July 19, 2022, the Board of Directors were provided an opportunity to hear directly from staff about their concerns. The Board of Directors have shown no willingness to engage staff in discussion or meet our demands. The Board of Directors have elected cowardice, incompetence, and inaction when we needed them to stand up for us and our communities.

The Board of Directors has given us no choice but to reveal to the public their disgraceful actions to be judged by our communities. We, the undersigned, hold the Board of Directors accountable for the consequences of their lies, inaction, and suppression.

Throughout the years, countless CPACS leaders have walked away in tears and silent protest with the understanding that exposing the wrongdoing of a few would jeopardize decades of hard work by staff and essential services for our communities.

WE, THE UNDERSIGNED, WILL NOT REMAIN SILENT.

Our dedication to our communities and our work were used against us to systematically isolate, silence, and remove dissenters or potential whistleblowers.

WE, THE UNDERSIGNED, WILL BREAK THE CYCLE.

THANK YOU!

@savecpacs