Kaiser quits Sonoma County Alliance over group’s racial insensitivity

Health care giant Kaiser Permanente has pulled out of the Sonoma County Alliance, a high-powered business and civic coalition, in the aftermath of a statement by the group’s former president widely viewed as disparaging the Black Lives Matter movement.

The pullout by a high-profile employer is the latest aftershock over a letter the Alliance’s former President Doug Hilberman wrote a week ago for posting on its website that began with the phrase “ALL lives matter,” and criticized the vandalism of downtown businesses including his own Santa Rosa architectural firm AXIA Architects during recent protests against police brutality and racial injustice.

The phrase is viewed as belittling or dismissive to the Black Lives Matter movement’s efforts to end systemic racism that has devalued the lives of Black people. Last weekend, Hilberman abruptly resigned from the group.

Tarek Salaway, senior vice president and area manager for Kaiser Permanente’s Marin-Sonoma service area, sent word Thursday afternoon via email to some fellow staff and leaders of unions representing a portion of the company’s workers.

“We have removed ourselves from involvement with the SCA board until Kaiser Permanente can see that real progress has been made with tangible results in the areas of equity and inclusion,” Salaway wrote. “Additionally, we made clear our vision and expectation that SCA transforms to more closely resemble the makeup of all of our community and to ensure an ongoing focus on diversity, inclusion and equity. We have been working to separate ourselves over the past few days, and am sharing this update announcement with you now.”

Judy James, regional public affairs director for Kaiser, has resigned as a member of the Alliance’s board of directors. A Kaiser spokeswoman said Friday James was not aware of Hilberman’s letter before it was posted to the group’s website and confirmed her resignation from the group’s board. The ex-president’s letter has been deleted from the site.

In addition to James, there have been other members of the group’s board and executive committee who have left in the blowback over the controversy, which has fueled many complaints that the board lacks enough people of color or women.

Brian Ling, executive director of the Alliance, said Friday in an email that the group’s membership cancellations the past week represent less than 10% of its overall total.

“They should really demonstrate that they really give a sh--,” said Sonoma County Supervisor Shirlee Zane, a member of the Sonoma County Alliance and one who has been endorsed for office by the group. “Nobody has bothered to do that.”

On Thursday, the group sent an email to its members announcing former president from 2015, Marlene Soiland, will expand her leadership role until a new president is selected. The organization also will assemble task forces to address diversity and the composition of its board and members.

Ling said in his email that no one on the board saw Hilberman’s letter before it was posted online. Ling said he posted the letter to the group’s website after he and Hilberman had a discussion about its contents.

When asked by a Press Democrat reporter if he tried to dissuade Hilberman from the controversial posting, Ling said: “Doug and I discussed it prior to posting.”