Reporter sheds light on firing

BY ERIC LINDBERG
DAILY SOUND STAFF WRITER
Former News-Press reporter Anna Davison testified today in the federal hearing on alleged labor law violations facing the Santa Barbara News-Press, shedding light on the circumstances surrounding her termination from the newspaper earlier this year.
Attorneys for the National Labor Relations Board and the Teamsters union allege that News-Press management illegally lowered her performance evaluation scores and fired her due to her union affiliation.
News-Press associate editor Scott Steepleton testified earlier that he fired Davison (pictured) due to biased reporting and other performance-related issues.

NLRB attorney Steve Wyllie started by questioning Davison on the resignation of editor-in-chief Jerry Roberts and other top editors on July 6, 2006, asking her what she did in the aftermath of the walkouts.
“Things were in disarray,” Davison said. She said she decided to help run the city desk along with another reporter. She testified that she managed that section for several days until editorial page editor Travis Armstrong took over as head of the newsroom. Steepleton, on vacation at the time, later assumed that position.
Later that year, Steepleton approached Davison about taking a night editing position. Davison said she heard other managers were being considered for bonuses, so she told Steepleton she would think about it.
Davison said Charles Bucher, an editor who she had approached about getting a bonus, told her that he had brought up the issue with Armstrong, who said he didn’t feel she deserved a bonus. She never spoke with Steepleton about the night editing position again until it came up in her performance evaluation in December.
Steepleton testified that language in that evaluation referring to Davison not taking the editing position played in to his decision to fire the reporter. Davison said that she met with Steepleton to tell him she felt the evaluation was not “factually accurate.”
She asked Steepleton if he had considered her help with editing responsibilities following the July resignations and testified that he told her he was aware of that fact. No mention of her editing or an award she received earlier in the year had been mentioned in her evaluation, Davison testified.
“I got upset and I told him I felt ... all the people who stuck around and helped put out the paper were particularly heroic,” Davison said, adding that she had never been thanked. She said Steepleton told her he would not consider changing the evaluation.
Shortly after her discussion with Steepleton over the evaluation, Davison said she approached then-assistant city editor Bob Guiliano to discuss the document.
“It was pretty bad, and I wondered what I could do to rectify the situation,” Davison said.
She said Guiliano seemed surprised by the evaluation and told her he wanted to help her improve by setting goals and meeting weekly to discuss her progress. Davison said he later told her that Steepleton told him not to set goals or meet with her.
Davison also discussed a conversation with Yolanda Apodaca, saying the News-Press human resources director seemed surprised when she glanced through Davison’s evaluation.
“At several points, she said ‘Wow,’” Davison testified.
Davison said she asked Apodaca if the newsroom evaluation scores had been compared to other departments of the newspaper to see if they were balanced. Apodaca said they had not, turning to her computer to pull something up on the screen, Davison said.
Apodaca then said “Oh my God, I see what you mean,” Davison testified.
Wyllie then directed Davison’s attention to an article she wrote about a construction project on two blocks of lower State Street in January 2007, an article Steepleton characterized during his testimony as biased and a factor in his decision to fire the reporter.
Davison explained how she had been assigned to cover the city of Santa Barbara a few days prior to writing the story. She testified that while browsing a community forum on January 9, she found a mention of the project, which involved removing tiles from the sidewalk of the 400 and 500 blocks of State Street and necessitated the removal of about 50 mature trees from the same area.
Davison said she planned to focus her story on the tile removal — they were slippery and city officials were concerned they might result in injury — and not the tree removal. After walking to the area on State Street, Davison said she talked to at least six people in the area about the project, asking them about the project, the tiles and the tree removal.
None of them responded that they were upset about the trees being removed, Davison said, adding that one woman told her that she was glad the trees wouldn’t be dropping leaves and material on the sidewalk any longer.
However, Davison testified that she knew Santa Barbarans cared about their trees and that she returned to the office and attempted to call officials at Santa Barbara Beautiful and Santa Barbara Botanic Garden. However, they did not answer or call back, she said.
She then looked in the News-Press archives for other possible sources of opposition, but earlier tree-removal stories only quoted people passing by the projects, Davison said.
She testified that she also called Mayor Marty Blum as well as Marshall Rose from the Downtown Organization, the group planning the project. She started writing the story, envisioning a short article that would appear on the inside pages of the News-Press, she said.
When she heard that editors might want to hold it over the weekend and place it on the front page, Davison said she fleshed the story out, adding detail and quotes to make it longer and more in-depth. Davison testified she turned the story in by the 5 p.m. deadline on January 9. She also asked Guiliano if the story was acceptable, she said, and Guiliano responded that it was fine.
After the story ran on January 12, Davison said Guiliano approached her, explaining that News-Press owner and copublisher Wendy McCaw was upset over the story and had told him that it had too many quotes from Mayor Blum and that she wanted Davison to receive a written reprimand.
“I said I thought it was a bit ridiculous for me to be in trouble for quoting the mayor of the city,” Davison said.
She testified that Guiliano told her he didn’t feel it was biased, but that she should try to find people in opposition to the tree removal to show good faith. After calling the Botanic Garden again, Davison said an official there told her that the project had not been a big controversy and that it had gone through an extensive approval process. Davison later noted that Armstrong had mentioned in an editorial that there had not been an outcry against the project.
Davison testified that Guiliano showed her an e-mail he sent to McCaw stating “Her story was weak ... as we agreed in telling both sides.” Upset over that language, Davison said she asked Guiliano for an explanation and that he told her he was trying to offer McCaw a concession.
News-Press attorney Barry Cappello started his cross examination by questioning Davison on her knowledge of language in the Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics dealing with presenting all sides of a story, to which she responded that she had such knowledge.
Cappello then focused on why Davison did not quote the editorial stance of the News-Press, which had printed at least two editorials voicing strong opposition to the tree removal. Davison said she generally would not quote the editorial stance of any paper and that it was not a standard practice to do so at the News-Press.
Cappello then presented a News-Press article written by Barry McManigal in which McManigal quoted Santa Barbara Independent columnist and writer Nick Welsh. Judge William Kocol did not allow questioning on that subject, explaining to Cappello that Welsh’s opinion did not reflect the editorial stance of the Independent.
Cappello then asked Davison why she did not ask editorial page editor Travis Armstrong for sources, perhaps authors of letters to the editor in opposition to the tree removal. Davison testified that was also not a standard practice and that she preferred to keep a separation between the editorial page and the news section.
Cappello suggested that perhaps Davison had anger toward Armstrong due to his position on the unionization effort and that affected her decision not to ask him for sources, which she denied.
“I wanted to do my own reporting,” Davison said.
Cappello also asked Davison if she had approached McCaw or copublisher Arthur von Weisenberger for sources in that story. Davison said that was not a standard practice and that both McCaw and von Weisenberger were usually not in the office or available by phone or e-mail.
Cappello then directed Davison’s attention to language in her article that stated the trees had been cut down “to the chagrin of some locals,” asking her what she meant by that statement. Davison said that referred to the position of the News-Press editorial board.
Under further questioning by Cappello, Davison pointed out union supporters in several photographs of union rallies, including Dennis Moran, Nora Wallace and Maria Zate, agreeing that they are still employed at the News-Press.
Cappello also asked her about a public letter with her name at the bottom that contained language he described as denigrating McCaw. Davison said she did not recall writing or authorizing the use of her name, but later told Judge Kocol that she had a general agreement with other fired reporters concerning the use of her name on public statements.
During his cross examination, the defense attorney also brought forward an article by Davison in 2004 with scribbling on it stating “very biased,” among other comments, that he identified as written by McCaw. However, without a foundation that McCaw had written or passed along that information to newsroom editors, Judge Kocol did not allow questioning on those comments.
Former News-Press life section editor Andrea Huebner will take the stand tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. at the Bankruptcy Court building on State Street.