WITHHOLDING PAY ●Late paychecks, March-April 2019: Nicholas Hatten did not pay staff wages for 33 days. Nicholas did not inform us that our check would be late until the day before payday, 4/4. We received no information as to when our wages would arrive for the entire month it was late. Staff had rent, bills, student loans, medical costs, groceries, car costs, and credit cards due that week with no means to pay them. This paycheck issue has severely impacted our health, our finances, and our families. Please see the following examples: ○Alex: When I told Nicholas on 4/4 that I had rent due that week, he told me to “just take a 30 day notice.” Due to not receiving my wages for two pay periods, I was unable to pay my rent and student loans on time, or refill my daily prescribed medication, which impacted my ability to work and my overall health. ○James: Due to not receiving my paycheck when I was supposed to, I was required to delay much needed dental care (two root canals) due to being unable to pay the fees. I have also had to put off paying my school fees as well as delay replacing my car’s transmission. As a result of not being paid, I have been enduring immense amounts of stress as well as enduring ongoing pain, which has taken a large toll on my physical health and is exacerbating my Syncope (fainting spells). ○Ben: As result of not being paid, I was forced to regress and borrow money without any certainty of when or if I will be able to pay my friends back. I had to request extensions for payments that were due, which required additional fees. I was no longer able to provide or aide my family with payments for my father who was in ICU and was costing 300 dollars a day. I had to sacrifice time with my uncle, who is currently in hospice. The late payments cost me time not that I was unable to spend with my family who needed my support. Prior to the checks being late I was unable to drive to my uncle’s house and pray with him in the morning. I was unable to visit my family and take care of my siblings so my mom can see my father in the hospital, nor I see him. There was so much uncertainty in regards to this time, when we would get paid, is there are reason Nicholas left for a week, was it because he knew we weren’t getting paid, there were so many questions, doubts and fears that plagued the mind, that sleep was impossible, focus was difficult, tension and stress was becoming more difficult to manage. ○Diana: ●Checks bouncing: Nicholas repeatedly gave the staff bad checks on payday with instructions not to deposit them until he said it was okay or else the checks would bounce (Feb-March 2018, 3 payment cycles). ●Unpaid “volunteer” hours: Nicholas frequently requires staff to participate in unpaid “volunteer time,” occasionally will not inform the staff that the project they were on was “volunteer time” until afterwards, or will become agitated if staff attempts to decline working unpaid “volunteer” projects. Examples: assigning Alex to the Pride Festival Committee (June-August 2018), sending James to the Transcend/Transverse Committee Meetings (2018), and forcing James to work before his shift started (Last incident 12/14/18). NEGLIGENCE ●Sending grant invoices late: This resulted in staff not getting paid for 33 days (see emails to Cullen). ●Disappearing after paycheck didn’t arrive: Without warning or instructions, Nicholas was absent for 4 work days (4/11, 4/12, 4/13, 4/15). Our paycheck had been late for 27 days when he stopped coming in, and we had no update on when we would see him or our wages for his entire absence. ●Failing to renew/pay insurance: On 4/12, Jonathan Lopez discovered that Nicholas had not renewed the center’s insurance. On 2/24, we took a field trip to San Francisco with 200 youth with no insurance. If anyone had been injured or lost during that trip, we would have been liable. ●Car accident with staff member: On 10/24, Nicholas rear-ended his car with Alex Lenzi in the passenger seat because he was not looking at the road. They were stopped at a light when Nicholas turned away from the wheel to ask Alex a question. He then accelerated into the car in front of him. Later Nicholas asked Alex to bear witness that it wasn’t his fault. ●Disappearing for the Youth Empowerment Summit (10/27): Nicholas did not show up for the 3 workshops he was scheduled to lead or buy the food he promised to get for the event, leaving staff to pay for it out of pocket. ●Disappearing for March for Equality (8/24): Nicholas was supposed to address the community members gathered to march to Pride as he does every year at 10am. His disappearance stalled the march for over 30 mins as staff tried to reach him and then ultimately restructure the event without him. ●Disappearing for quarterly parties: Nicholas often disappears for SJPC events without notifying staff or giving them instructions, such as at Youth Prom (3/30), Trans Day of Remembrance (11/20), and quarterly parties. ●Monthly Bills: Payments for various bills are constantly late, there have been multiple occurrences when our call box was not functional as a result of the bill being paid, or the center phone lines were disconnected. The website has been inaccessible because of non-payment. Zoom, Wufoo, nationbuilder, intuit for payroll have all been in accessible for non-payment. These are things that we need to function, to make us accessible to the community and our stakeholders. ●Disorganized Nicholas on multiple occasions have found checks that were sent to the center, that were dated back for months, that he randomly finds in his office. He has confessed that he doesn’t open mail to bills cause he assumes they are on autopay systems, and they could be notices of disconnection for non-payment. DISCRIMINATION ●Transphobic hiring comments about Tai’rance: In December, Nicholas met with Alex and Ernesto to discuss our receptionist candidates. We recently interviewed Tai’rance Kelly (AKA Chuckii) for the position on 12/13, and both felt he wasn’t a good fit for the organization due to some disparaging comments he had made about community members in the past. After we recommended not hiring him, Nicholas said he was glad we both reached the “same conclusion” as him. He then said taking hormones makes transgender people like Chuckii unstable, irrational, and angry, “like a woman on her period.” He said the last part while looking directly to Alex, someone who works while on their period. Both Alex and Ernesto feel his comments were transphobic and sexist, as if Nicholas believes transgender people and cis women are less fit to work than cisgender men like himself. It should be noted that there is currently a transgender man on staff, who takes hormones. ●Transphobia in the workplace: Nicholas is openly proud to have “two well-passing trans people” on staff, going so far as to compare the staff to other, less-passing individuals in the community. HARASSMENT ●Comments to James: ○During a weekly staff check-in on 8/7, wherein the staff must share how they are feeling that day and how other staff can support them, James informed staff that he was feeling anxious that day. Nicholas followed with: “Why aren’t you taking Xanax then?” When James responded that he does not like to take medication, Nicholas then said “Pop a xanax and deal with it.” This happened to be the anniversary of the day James’ sister died. ○Nicholas frequently refers to James as “boy” and “little boy” both in front of other staff as well as center clientele. ○When James located and established contact with two transgender healthcare providers in the area, Nicholas told James that he was not allowed to refer clients to these providers due to ‘already having Dr. Parsa’ to refer clients to, despite many client testimonies against Dr. Parsa for negligence, mistreatment, etc. When James tried to push back on this, James was then subject to retaliation from Nicholas, in the form of verbal abuse which ended with (verbatim): “Martin Luther King Jr. was a womanizer. People who do great things can sometimes be a bit of an asshole, you know, like me. 50 years down the line, Doctor Parsa will be remembered for founding the [sic] Gender Health Center. Unfortunately James, people like you, who have problems or issues with those people, like you and Doctor Parsa, will not be remembered.” It should be noted that directly following this, Doctor Parsa was presented an award during the center’s Pride Honors Brunch, which James was required to staff. ○Nicholas also has a history of making openly negative comments about various staff to other employees when the targeted staff member is not present, with James being a frequent target. ●Comments to Alex: Nicholas has kept Alex assigned to Women’s Group after they came out to him as non-binary. Nicholas also continues to call Alex “lady” after they told him the word gives them gender dysphoria (mental duress due to misgendering). When Alex first started coming to work without makeup, Nicholas frequently made comments about their appearance like “You look tired,” “You look pale,” and “You look sick.” ●Comments to Ben: Nicholas makes disparaging comments to Ben about his weight. He stated to Ben: “You look like you eat,” and during a meeting with the Foster Youth Stakeholder Committee, said: “Please don’t feed Ben.” He without hesitation makes comments like “I would hate to see how you live” and constantly asks “Didn’t your momma teach you...?” At one meeting he told staff that Ben should be “following [him] around with a pen and paper.” Nicholas has called Ben an “ass hole” for attending a meeting with Edison High school to discuss the climate surveys without him, but didn’t accept the calendar invite on his work email and Ben was accused of doing this intentionally. The meeting was at 8:30 am and has sent Ben by himself to attend a previous meeting to discuss the same subject at East Union High School. However I was to blame because he didn’t accept the calendar invite and sent the invitation to the wrong email address. The staff is constantly being sent emails including Ben are expected to know what he wants us to do with the information. Sometimes he wants the staff to respond on his behalf or sometimes he wants us to call that person and set up a meeting. ●Comments to intern(s): In a staff meeting on 10/8, when an intern told Nicholas that they don’t dress up for Halloween, Nicholas replied, “Were you touched as a kid?” (see HR report) HOSTILE ENVIRONMENT ●Nicholas Hatten has made it very clear to the staff that we “would want to keep the “ED happy.” 2/19 we had a staff training, where he exercised his authority. 2/26, Ben texted Nicholas that he was going to be late, because his family member had a heart attack and he had to accompany her via ambulance. Nicholas called Ben to his office where he was berated about the call-in policy of the center, even after explaining that calling was not a possibility, and continue to lecture Ben until he heard an apology. Ben was only 50 minutes late that day. There are many times that we are unaware if Nicholas Hatten will be coming into work; during the week of April 9-12, Nicholas was absent from work, with no statement to the staff upon when he would be returning. These are just some of the extreme examples of Nicholas abusing his power as the ED of the San Joaquin Pride Center. ●To the staff: There have been many instances in the workplace where he has belittled and made degrading comments towards many members of the staff. There is a history of mistreatment with the Nicholas and the staff as this is the second time, that we have had to discuss his treatment of those employed by the San Joaquin Pride Center. He creates situations in the workplace where is trying to pit us against each other. ●Event planning: Nicholas constantly registers us for events without telling us we are working them, and then provides us minimal information or preparation time. ●The staff are frequently subject to derogatory comments about their appearances regarding makeup (or lack thereof), clothing, hair, weight, etc. ●Nicholas has a well-established history of holding grudges towards staff as well as community members, going so far as to antagonize individuals enough to lead them to completely cut ties to the Pride Center, and in turn refuse to collaborate with Pride Center events. This has prevented the pride center from establishing new collaborations with other foundations, prevented new donors from donating, and ultimately prevent the Pride Center from receiving new opportunities. There has also been a long history of staff quitting their job at the center, the main reason being their mistreatment at the hands of the Executive Director. ANTAGONIZING YOUTH ●Predatory volunteer issue: During the Pride Festival (8/25/18), one of our male volunteers repeatedly made unwanted advances toward Gilbert Ruiz, who told Alex he felt very uncomfortable and anxious around him because of this. This volunteer later asked Alex for personal information about Gilbert, and when they told him Gilbert was much younger than him and he needed to back off, he said “Age is just a number.” At the next staff meeting, Alex reported this to Nicholas and said they would no longer consider this person for volunteer opportunities. Nicholas told Alex there wasn’t cause for that, and that older men hitting on young boys is just part of gay culture. He said Gilbert just needed to get used to it. Ernesto and Cymone were also present during this exchange. ●Pressuring youth: Nicholas pressured Gilbert and another youth to write their March for Equality speeches with his own words. While the youth were initially instructed to write their own speeches, every attempt they made was immediately shot down by Nicholas, and were then instructed to continue rewriting until the speeches were, for lack of a better term, Nicholas’ own speeches. The youth were belittled and aggravated to the point of tears, with Gilbert breaking down into tears once Nicholas left the room. ●Tokenzing youth: Frequently while event planning, Nicholas has made tokenizing comments such as “we need at least two blacks and a trans kid” in regards to recruiting youth participants.

ABUSE OF POWER ● Pressuring Pride Center staff to staff political events outside of the organization, including but not limited to; Pressuring staff to become a California Democratic Party Delegate because of a personal vendetta against another Delegate (December 2018), forcing staff to make food both during and after work hours for a fundraising event for a political candidate (November 2018), instructing staff to transport volunteers during work hours for an outside political event (October 2018). He continuously makes statements “that we would want to keep him happy,” and other passive aggressive threats that are similar to the staff. OTHER ● ● ● On 1/31, Nicholas changed Alex’s official starting time from 10am to 9:30am without notifying them, then tried to fault them for coming in “late” that day (see Alex’s email to HR) Nicholas reported Alex to HR for a “no call no show” despite Alex calling Ben to notify him of their sick leave before work started. Nicholas promised all full-time staff healthcare benefits starting in January 2019 that never happened. We were promised this at our date of hire.

Letter of No Confidence

April 23, 2019 To the San Joaquin Pride Center Executive Board: We, the staff and community members of the San Joaquin Pride Center, request that you listen to our grievances regarding the current state of our organization. First, we need to acknowledge that Nicholas Hatten has done well by founding SJPC as the first center of its kind and acknowledge all the work that he has started here. However, due to recent events, we have a great deal of concern in regards to the future of our organization if Nicholas continues to be the Executive Director of the San Joaquin Pride Center. Staff recently endured over a month without paychecks, from March 22 to April 18. Nicholas did not inform staff that our checks would be late until the day before payday. We received no date as to when we would be paid, other than Nicholas repeatedly saying “hopefully next week.” Nicholas was largely absent from the center during this time with minimal communication or explanation, but required all other staff to continue our normal work hours despite not knowing when (or if) we would be paid. We believe that SJPC’s finances, staff, interns, and the community it serves have suffered under its current leadership. There have been many questionable financial decisions over the last few years, which are more concerning when taking into account that our organization’s bank accounts are currently overdrawn and there was not enough money to cover staff’s payroll repeatedly. Staff are subject to a hostile work environment, chaotic management, and late or unpaid wages. SJPC has a low employee retention rate due to regular harassment and belittlement from Nicholas. He has a history of not being understanding when unexpected incidents occur, eg. a family member having a heart attack or employees having double pneumonia or a mental health crisis. Nicholas is not a fair employer and holds himself in higher regard and this higher regard is not conducive to a healthy employee relationship. The center’s LCSW and internships are a major component to the center’s work and mission, yet Ronda Shoemaker is often not paid for months for her work with us. This places our LCSW in a vulnerable status. The history of Nicholas’ hostile relationship with interns has been documented with HR. His mistreatment of our clinical team puts the center at risk with not meeting grant deliverables and strains our relationship and MOU’s with colleges that recommend our center for internships. The majority of our interns come from Arizona State and Stanislaus State. Currently we are the only internship opportunity available for MSW students in the Central Valley, and if we lose our relationships with these schools, the community and the center suffers. 

Nicholas has isolated potential and pre-existing community partners due to personal feuds. He has antagonized SJPC youth leaders, visitors, and clients, causing many community members to avoid the center. The original Pride Festival Committee has disbanded due to personal differences with Nicholas. Many local organizations refuse to collaborate with SJPC because of Nicholas’s reputation for mistreating other community leaders. In addition to being difficult to work with, Nicholas’ money mismanagement has ended some of our partnerships due to insufficient funds to compensate them. For a full list of grievances, please see the attached work incidents log, letters from community members, and HR reports. Budget mismanagement, late invoices, and unpaid wages have wrought instability on our organization and to staff’s lives. The future of all upcoming events is uncertain because SJPC does not have the funds to reserve venues, apply for permits, or buy insurance. It was recently discovered that SJPC was not insured during the last San Francisco field trip, which had 200 youth in attendance, all of whom SJPC was liable in the event that someone was lost or injured. Without the proper insurance, deposits, or financial stability, we cannot put on future events that are staples in our community, like the San Francisco trip, which satisfies key grant deliverables, and Pride, our biggest fundraiser of the year. The Stockton Pride Festival has proven to be profitable for the last two years. All funds spent on the project were made from entry fees, sponsorships, vendor fees, and beverages. Yet we are told there are no funds to secure a location for the event or book talent. This is a monumental event that requires $30,000 in funding that is currently 4 months away. This further begs the question in regards to the whereabouts of the center’s funds. To mend SJPC’s financial management issues, we ask the board to consider appointing a board treasurer to manage the center’s finances independently from the Executive Director. At our date of hire, full-time staff were promised healthcare benefits starting in January. These benefits have not been granted, despite the CA Reducing Disparities Project specifically allocating funds for it. We ask the board treasurer to establish a budget for full-time employee healthcare benefits by August 2019 before open enrollment begins. We also request an independent audit of SJPC’s financial records for the past 3 years to ensure budget transparency and enable accountability so our organization can thrive. Lastly, we ask that Nicholas Hatten choose to step down from his role as Executive Director for the benefit of the organization, its staff, and our community. We ask that the board give Nicholas an honorary position on the San Joaquin Pride Center board in recognition as the Founder of the Center. If Nicholas chooses not to step down, we urge the board to vote to have him replaced and to appoint an Interim Director and Operations Manager. We recommend Cymone Reyes and Jonathan Lopez for these positions for the following reasons: ●Cymone served as Interim Director for the AIDS Foundation twice and has worked for SJPC for five years. She is familiar with the staff, daily operations, and grant work. She has received her Bachelor's in Business Administration, has been serving the LGBTQ community for over 25 years, and is very well respected by her peers in philanthropic work. Cymone has expressed her commitment to the center and is invested in its future, and wants nothing more than to see the center to be successful. ●Jonathan has worked for SJPC for 5 years, 3 of those years as Outreach Director, and is currently an independent contractor for events. He is well-connected within the community and functions as the logistics expert of all center events and programs. The staff has noted and suggest him in acknowledgment of his commitment to the center and his applied leadership roles when executing center events. Thank you for your time and consideration. Signed, Benjamin Zamora Lead Outreach Director Alex Lenzi Youth Outreach Director James Patnaude Data Analyst Diana Contreras Outreach Assistant