NEW PORT RICHEY - For the eighth time in three years, Gulfside Regional Hospice has a new chief executive officer. Robert K. Fiske, 66, was named to the leadership post April 28.
Gulfside's attorney, Al Torrence, confirmed this week that Fiske's predecessor, Philip Wiechmann, was escorted out of the building while Fiske waited outside.
The management change has shaken employees, Torrence said.
"The staff is concerned, as they have the right to be," Torrence said. "Technically, the staff doesn't have a say in who manages the organization, but they experience the outcome of it."
Indeed, days after Wiechmann's termination, Gulfside's workers and volunteers petitioned the organization's key directors to resign, accusing them of embarrassing the organization and killing any chance for its success. They protested Wiechmann's firing, saying he raised Gulfside's revenues since his appointment in November, a point Torrence confirmed.
Wiechmann's attorney, David Linesch, said Wiechmann "did nothing but an exceptional job while there."
Neither attorney would describe the specific circumstance that led to the firing. Wiechmann declined to comment, as did John Judice, president of Gulfside's 12-member board of directors.
But Linesch said a "small handful of board members" turned against Wiechmann when he "brought to their attention matters they didn't want brought to their attention," Linesch said. "Every employee who works there signed the petition. I think that indicates it is not true that he was a poor performer."
Gulfside provides palliative care to people with terminal illnesses. The company served 516 patients in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2001, its tax records show. The nonprofit company employs "roughly 65" people, Fiske said.
Management turmoil has been Gulfside's hallmark for its entire 13-year history, according to the employees' petition.
Since March 2000, the organization has had eight CEOs, including two interim leaders. Two of the former CEOs - Terry Lee Kaly and Charlie Hobbs - were dismissed while they were struggling with life-threatening illnesses.
Hobbs, who was named CEO in February 2001, said that during his tenure he had cancer surgery and chemotherapy, then began to suffer from infection.
"I went home from work about 2:30 that afternoon" in February 2002, Hobbs said. "Al Torrence called me at home about 5:30 that evening and said I had been terminated.
"I had just gotten through talking to the doctor on the phone. He said go to the emergency room immediately. Then I was told I no longer had a job."
Hobbs said he wasn't allowed to clean out his desk. "I was allowed to go in and pick up a box of materials" company officials had gathered from his office, Hobbs said.
Hobbs and other former CEOs said their problems stemmed from "micromanagement" by board members.
"They were telling me who to fire, who not to keep, who could only work this many hours, that many hours," Hobbs said. "When I tried to tell them it can't be done that way, they went around me to some of the staff heads ... and wanted reports directly from the staff heads."
Torrence acknowledged that the organization has gone through "a stream of executives."
"The fact that there have been a lot of other directors either means the board has had bad luck or had expectations that are high and people didn't meet them," he said.
As for Wiechmann's being escorted out the door, Torrence said that when it comes to terminating executive-level employees, "it is usually wise to be sure there are no opportunities for anyone to act out."
Fiske, who is the Tampa senior consultant with Robert Half Management Resources Co., said Gulfside's board hired his company to manage the organization, and his company assigned him to the job. Fiske said Gulfside directors probably will decide by midsummer if they will continue with him as CEO or search for a different director.
Fiske came to Florida from Massachusetts, where he spent more than 40 years as an executive in various nonprofit organizations. For 33 years, he was an executive with the YMCA, helping with five capital campaigns to build new facilities.
That history will serve Gulfside, Fiske said, because it is "gearing up for a capital campaign to build new facilities."
He said he understands that employees are disconcerted by the management change, but doesn't think it will have "an overwhelmingly adverse or negative effect."
