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After two years at Light Work as the digital services and lab manager, Walker Blackwell decided he was done working with Jeffrey Hoone, executive director of the nonprofit photography organization.

“(I) didn’t want to work with or deal with Jeff. Plain and simple,” he said in a written statement to The Daily Orange.

After 41 years at Light Work, Jeffrey Hoone retired from his role as the executive director this summer, said Sarah Scalese, senior associate vice president for university communications at Syracuse University. He also retired from his role as the executive director of the Coalition of Museum and Art Centers at the university, which he helped form in 2004.

Hoone’s retirement comes a month after an Artnet article featured claims that Hoone awarded himself substantial bonuses and that SU investigated Light Work’s workplace culture. Hoone said he retired due to the impact of working remotely during COVID-19 and the “distractions” caused by the allegations against him.

Scalese confirmed to The D.O. that Hoone received an estimate of $300,000 in bonuses over his 41 years at the organization. Light Work’s board of directors approved Hoone’s annual bonuses.

Former Light Work board member Lisa Jong-Soon Goodlin said she regrets trusting Hoone and not fulfilling her job as a board member by not questioning his actions.

“He has continued to deny that he did anything wrong or unethical. He has also repeatedly says that the board signed off on all details of the budgets,” Jong-Soon Goodlin said in a Twitter thread in July. “While technically true, it is also true that the board had a long and trusting relationship with him over many years and did not have a history of managing any aspect of his leadership.”

In June 2019, the board learned that Hoone had been taking additional perquisites from the organization, without the knowledge or approval of the board of directors. The board also learned that the ED had been paying himself bonuses. Actually writing himself checks.

— Lisa Goodlin (@lisagoodlin) July 11, 2021

On Nov. 18, 2020, the board held two votes, one to remove Hoone from his position of executive director and another to have Jong-Soon Goodlin resign from the board, according to Light Work’s board meeting minutes. The motion to remove Hoone, proposed by Jong-Soon Goodlin, did not pass — Jong-Soon Goodlin voted to remove him, and three other board members, Vernon Burnett, Mike Greenlar and Glen Lewis, voted to keep him in his role.

Burnett then proposed a motion to remove Jong-Soon Goodlin from her role after she refused to resign, which the meeting minutes say passed. Three people, Jong-Soon Goodlin, Burnett and Greenlar, voted to remove Jong-Soon Goodlin from the board, according to the minutes. Lewis abstained from voting, the minutes read.

Jong-Soon Goodlin, however, said that she did not vote herself off of the board. She said that she abstained, Burnett and Greenlar voted yes, and Lewis voted no. Former Light Work board of directors member Neelika Jayawardane also said that this was an error in the board’s minutes.

“Obviously, I did not vote myself off the board,” Jong-Soon Goodlin said. “I was shocked that the issue was even brought up for a vote.”

She added that she has reached out to Dan Boardman, the current director of Light Work, asking him to correct the minutes. Boardman did not provide comments to The D.O.

Jayawardane said she resigned in August 2020 because of Hoone’s leadership and Light Work’s “unwillingness to recognise and shift everyday racist and other unethical practices.”

In regard to Light Work’s financials, she said Hoone shared with the board a summary of the budget each year without line items specifically noting the bonuses, vehicle and other perks he received.

Jong-Soon Goodlin said the bonuses and perks were included in a line in the budget labeled “contract fees.” The board signed off every year on all the budgets Hoone presented to them without questioning the “contract fees,” which were included in Light Work’s budget and IRS 990 filings, and what it contained, Jayawardane said.

Jong-Soon Goodlin said after the board recognized the amount of the bonuses it had approved, Hoone tried to persuade her and others that the bonus amounts were based on years of service. But because there were fluctuations in the amount of bonuses Hoone received, she said the amount of each bonus was “arbitrary.” All staff members received bonuses, Hoone said.

A staff member brought to the attention of the board that Hoone was paying for items and services with Light Work funds in June 2019 that the board didn’t realize they had approved, Jong-Soon Goodlin said. The board should have done a better job at recognizing these costs, she said, but Hoone could have been more transparent as the board was “primarily made up of artists, not lawyers or accountants.”

Jayawardane said that the new understanding of what the “contract fees” entailed drew attention to how much Hoone allotted himself in bonuses, she said, and it seemed Hoone’s bonuses increased noticeably over the span of a decade.

Hoone gave a presentation to explain the budgetary decisions during a board meeting on Nov. 22, 2019, after concerns arose regarding his bonuses and the vehicle leased through Light Work. At a board meeting on June 19, 2019, the board decided that they needed more time to review Hoone’s Executive Director’s Agreement, which allotted him the Light Work vehicle and its maintenance costs. The Artnet article came out two years later in July 2021.

“I’d like to start by apologizing for not making the board more aware of the payments made to myself and the staff. It was a mistake on my part, and I take responsibility for that oversight,” Hoone said in his presentation on Nov. 22, 2019. “It is my hope that even with that oversight, when we have all the facts, we will conclude that what was done was fair, and we can move forward.”

In a board meeting on July 29, 2020, the board approved each staff member would be awarded a minimum of $500 per year of service and a maximum of $10,000 in bonuses. In 2019, however, there was not a $10,000 cap, Hoone said. He received $18,470 in bonuses in 2019, according to Light Work Visual Studios’ IRS 990 filings.

“In a meeting I had with board President Lisa Goodlin (in September 2019), she accused me of unethical behavior regarding the bonuses. I took great exception to that allegation and expressed a good deal of anger towards her,” Hoone said. “For all intents and purposes, that ended our professional relationship.”

Jayawardane said she wondered why the board had not asked for detailed budget sheets in which expenses were broken down and explained. She stated that Jong-Soon Goodlin and other existing board members felt responsible as board members for not identifying and correcting these irregularities.

“In Light Work’s case, the board’s deep level of trust in Hoone’s ethical leadership — coupled with what Hoone presented as his invaluable contributions and presence — meant that it may have seemed unnecessary to ask him for detailed budgets,” Jayawardane said in her resignation letter to Light Work.

Unsustainable environment

Phil Block and Tom Bryan founded Light Work in 1972, and today the organization has two parts: Light Work Lab and Light Work Visual Studies Inc. Since its founding, Light Work Lab, formerly called Community Darkrooms, has supported SU students, faculty and staff to create independent photo projects in an established photography lab, Hoone said. A year later in 1973, the creation of the nonprofit Light Work Visual Studies Inc. allowed for financial and artistic support for the projects being created in Light Work Lab. Hoone joined Light Work in 1980, replacing Block as an assistant director. He then became the director of the organization in 1982 and the executive director of Light Work in 2005.

While SU pays all staff salaries and covers facility and overall costs for both Light Work Lab and Light Work Visual Studios, the latter — which is a 501(c)(3) organization — funds the artist-in-residence program and Contact Sheet Magazine, Scalese said. The two entities have separate budgets, and all bonuses are paid from the 501(c)(3) by the Light Work board, she said.

Megan Thompson | Design Editor

Blackwell, who worked at Light Work from 2013 to 2015, balanced the finances at the Light Work Lab during his time with the organization. While working with a $500,000 annual budget that included everyone’s salaries, Blackwell said he feared Hoone would interfere with the budget he had carefully curated by using money for items and services outside of Blackwell’s plan.

“The decisions that he made were fairly opaque,” Blackwell said. “So when they affected staff members negatively, people there didn’t necessarily look at them with a neutral eye in that if $10,000 was taken out of the budget that used to be for art moving expenses and then was put towards a personal car so he could get home or maybe travel to New York or something. Because nothing was spelled out and there was such bad blood between him and the staff, I think everybody was looking into it as the worst case scenario.”

Additionally, Hoone said Jong-Soon Goodlin sent written complaints and accusations to SU alleging he fostered a tense work environment and received an estimate of $300,000 in bonuses. An independent audit of the organization conducted from December 2020 to February 2021 reviewed Light Work’s financials between 2017 and 2021, Scalese said in a written statement. The audit found that the bonus payments had been disclosed every year in Light Work’s 990 financial statements.

“I was always accountable to the board and gave them full programmatic and financial reports at every board meeting,” Hoone said. “It is more accurate to say that some members of the board got complacent with Light Work’s success and didn’t pay very close attention to the budget because Light Work was very successful at fundraising and managing its budget.”

Rachel Fein-Smolinski, Light Work’s digital services coordinator from May 2017 to July 2019, said she also had to work a part-time teaching job at SU and an artist position in addition to her full-time Light Work role. She said her job at Light Work was unsustainable not only because of the low pay, but also because of the environment.

Blackwell said despite Hoone’s dedication to developing the organization, the allegations have deeply impacted Light Work’s image.

“He’s very charming in that way and that’s his strength, and that’s always been the reason why Light Work has existed in a kind of bubble of financial security,” Blackwell said. “And it just falls apart when someone like me or someone who also has strong opinions and thoughts asks questions or pushes or has ideas.”

Call for accountability

About three months after Jayawardane and Jong-Soon Goodlin voiced concerns about Hoone, he requested a meeting with Jong-Soon Goodlin. During the meeting, which took place in September 2019, Hoone threatened the existence of the organization, saying to Jong-Soon Goodlin that he could dissolve the organization if and when he wanted to, Jong-Soon Goodlin said.

“I would not term my concerns and record keeping as ‘accusations’ but as a call to responsibility and accountability,” Jayawardane said in a statement to The D.O. “Hoone used the term ‘accusations,’ indicating that any critique was a result of personal bias, not that it was a critique of structural imbalances of power, failings of management or because of unconscious biases affecting crucial decisions.”

Hoone said in a statement to The D.O. that Jong-Soon Goodlin’s statement that he threatened the existence of the organization is “false and outrageous.” He cited the four endowment funds worth over $2 million and the $400,000 in the organization’s cash reserve when he retired, saying he was responsible for this financial support.

Hoone received $41,000 in bonuses from the 501(c)(3) between the years 2017-21, Scalese said. Hoone’s bonuses amounted to a little over $50,000 between 2015-19, according to Light Work Visual Studios’ IRS 990 filings.

Hoone said in a statement that the bonus and “contract fees” he received throughout his career was just over $7,000 a year. If Hoone received a bonus of $7,000 each year for the 41 years he worked at Light Work, the total would amount to $287,000.

“The use of the $300,000 figure is meant to be sensational, derogatory and misleading,” Hoone said. “In reality, it is the approximate amount of bonuses or contract fees that I received throughout my entire 41-year career in a leadership position at Light Work.”

Light Work Visual Studios’ IRS 990 forms show that Hoone received a total of nearly $120,000 in bonuses from the organization and related organizations from 2001-19. In the last seven years of this 19-year period, Hoone received over half this total of bonuses. Between 2017-19 alone, he received $37,030 in bonuses.

SU’s audit of the nonprofit revealed hoone received 41,000 in bonus payments from 2015 to 2020 Lilli Iannella | Staff Writer

Without including Hoone, the average amount of bonuses received among Light Work employees from 2001-19 was $3,704 per year. Including Hoone, the average rises to $4,707.

"Whilst other employees, too, had received bonuses … Hoone's bonuses, were, by far, the most substantial,” Jayawardane said in her resignation letter to Light Work.

Shane Lavalette, who took over Hannah Frieser’s position as director at Light Work, received about $47,000 in bonuses between 2012-19, while Frieser, who took over Hoone’s role as director in 2005, received around $32,000 in bonuses between 2004-12, as listed in Light Work Visual Studios’ IRS 990 filings. Burnett, a current board member who also served as lab manager and customer service manager, received almost $19,000 in bonuses during a nine-year period. Gary Hesse, who served as an associate director, received $1,500 during a one-year period.

Lilli Iannella | Staff Writer

Jayawardane said the gap between the highest-paid and lowest-paid employee salaries was “unconscionable for a nonprofit,” and this discrepancy in salary seemed to parallel Hoone’s power and authority over that of other employees’ decision-making capacity. In a statement to The D.O., she described how the comparison between a part-time worker’s salary and Hoone’s bonuses alone was the “biggest red flag.”

“Those who worked part time earned such a pittance that it was embarrassing to see how close the executive director’s bonuses alone came to the part-time employee’s full salary,” Jayawardane said.

In a board meeting on July 29, 2020, Light Work board members passed a motion for the organization to work with SU to realign all staff salaries.

Hoone specified the inequities in the salaries of three specific staff members. He explained how Dan Boardman, a new lab manager in 2019 for the organization, was paid more than Anneka Herre, who had been Light Work’s urban video project director since 2011, while Boardman also made $10,000 less than Mary Lee Hodgens, a new associate director in 2013 with more responsibility and 25 years of experience. He also exclaimed how Cjala Surratt, who was promoted to communications coordinator in 2019, and Ryan Krueger, a new digital services coordinator in 2019, made slightly less than Julie Herman, who was promoted to customer services manager in 2013 and held equal responsibilities.

Jayawardane also said on top of his salary and bonuses, Hoone received perks such as gasoline, a satellite radio service and a cell phone service. Though these amenities were for his own use, they were paid for using money from Light Work, Jayawardane said.

Hoone said these funds align with what is on the Executive Director’s Agreement, which was signed in 2012 and then again in 2017 by him and Jong-Soon Goodlin. The agreement states that Hoone would receive a vehicle paid for by Light Work in addition to that vehicle’s registration, maintenance and insurance. Additionally, on Nov. 22, 2019, Hoone presented to the board that the satellite radio service had initially come with the car, causing him to think of it as a maintenance feature covered by Light Work. Therefore, he renewed the radio for $200 per year. In regard to the cell phone service, he said it is “common practice” for the university to provide cell phones to select employees.

Fazal Sheikh, a former artist-in-residence at Light Work in 1993 and a photographer who documents marginalized groups around the world, said his experience at Light Work was one of the “single most heartening encounter(s) (he has) experienced in the 30 years that (he has) been working as an artist.”

Sheikh said he found the Light Work staff to be welcoming, supportive and collaborative, and they welcomed him into an environment that felt family-like. He was shocked by the accusations against Hoone in the Artnet piece, and he said even though he didn’t know the financial happenings of Light Work, he has always respected Hoone and the way the organization operated.

“That sort of rancor and division is far from anything that I have experienced either in my encounters with Jeff Hoone or with the dedicated staff, many of whom remain for many years at the organization and who focus great attention upon all who pass through those doors,” Sheikh said.

Jayawardane said the deep friendships created within Light Work’s network may have encouraged members to remain silent to unethical leadership actions. She said when questioned by the board about the bonuses and additional perks, Hoone presented his experience, expertise and extensive list of connections to philanthropists who support Light Work as reasoning to why he deserved the bonuses and perks.

Jayawardane’s resignation letter from Aug. 30, 2020 also said Hoone made himself the center of Light Work and created an organization that needed him to survive.

“Hoone's ability to maintain information crucial to the organisation's future survival was not only central to positioning himself as indispensable, it was also important for fashioning a problematically hierarchical power structure in the organisation's management and day-to-day operations,” Jayawardane said.

Photo illustration by Lucy Messineo-Witt

Published on December 2, 2021 at 4:41 am

Contact Sydney: sabergan@syr.edu