Our story so far:
Aug. 10: Something stinks at Haven Humane
Aug. 20: Haven Humane Society, hell in a handbasket, Part 2
Aug. 29: Norm Ryan and wife insist he’s innocent, Part 3
Aug. 29: Police case summary re: Norm Ryan
Sept. 23: Norm Ryan goes to court
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Joel Warner, Haven Humane Society’s former director, is hard pressed to say flattering things about Yvonne Preston, the board member he says created such an uncomfortable workplace that he prematurely retired from the animal shelter he was hired to help.
Warner’s negative characterization of Preston agrees with a host of Haven insiders, donors and supporters I spoke with over the last few months who said Haven’s troubles began in earnest the day Preston walked into the Redding animal shelter a little more than two years ago.
Of course, Preston is just one person on Haven’s board, with just one vote. Her fellow board members share leadership responsibility for Haven’s decisions, tone, administrative philosophy and degrees of public transparency.
Two exceptions
As of this report, Ray John, Haven’s new director, and Monty Hight, Haven’s newest board member who joined last month, have not been asked to sign confidentiality statements. Both men say they value transparency and hope for an open relationship between Haven, which receives public monies, and the public. We’ll address that more in an upcoming story.
Enough credit/blame to go around
While Haven board members may not be directly culpable for everything that’s caused the decline in public trust at Haven in the last few years, those things have happened under the board’s watch, even if passively, by going along with the decisions, or by failing to challenge or question them.
Blame and credit falls at the board’s feet, whether we’re talking about:
• Haven’s perplexing refusal to make board minutes public
• A policy that required the majority of board members and employees to swear to secrecy
• An unwillingness to release information about public day-to-day financial records
• The allowance of Haven endorsements of such traditionally unorthodox, un-animal-shelter practices as hog-harnessing contests and/or dog-weight-pulling events
• High Haven staff turnover; by some figures more than 20 Haven people left the shelter within a few months
• A new no-kill direction, sometimes resulting in ill animals crammed in cages, or relaxed pet adoption and fostering standards
Current Haven Humane Society board
Ray John, CEO
Vickie Marler, chair
Yvonne Preston, vice chair
Nadine Bailey, treasurer
Dr. Jean Huang
Wanda Agostini
Stewart Altemus
Melissa Hunt
Heather Evans
Monty Hight
Peggy McDannold
Two takes on Preston
Although the board comprises the above members, Preston seems a key figure at Haven changes during the last couple of years. While one camp of Haven insiders and supporters cast Preston as the scapegoat and manipulative villain, another praises her as the shelter’s brilliant savior.
Some middle ground would be helpful.
Roger Janis, past Haven board member, and Nadine Bailey, present Haven board treasurer and self-described friend of Preston (Bailey’s also a field representative for Sen. Sam Aanested, R-Grass Valley), speak highly of Preston. They say she assumed a stressful leadership position at the animal shelter in the midst of emotional upheaval following Norm Ryan’s resignation and subsequent arrest for allegedly stealing Haven funds.
Janis and Bailey said Preston made some tough, sometimes unpopular-yet-crucial decisions at Haven for the welfare of its animals, supporters and workers.
Although Warner does not share Bailey and Janis’ glowing perception of Preston, he understands how a person could arrive at those conclusions.
It’s with some irony that Warner, 68, recalls the first time he saw Preston, a pretty, 30-something, confident north-state newcomer. She was married to Willie Preston, a field representative for Doug LaMalfa.
Yvonne Preston seemed a good catch as a potential board member.
“I can’t believe I’m saying this now but I’m the one who asked her to come on the board,” Warner said in a phone interview from his home in Washington.
“She said she wanted to volunteer. She said she had lots of connections. She said she had money and was willing to put her money where her mouth was,” Warner said.
“You have to understand, when you’re looking for people on a board, that’s exactly the kind of person you want.”
Preston did put her money where her mouth was. That very day she handed Warner a check for $1,000. That cinched it for Warner.
By July of 2006 Preston was on the board. She soon moved up to vice chair, poised as the shelter’s chair when then-chair Janis announced his impending resignation.
“From there, things started going downhill,” Warner said.
He said Preston soon began finding fault with his suggestions, such as when he located a vacant thrift store space in south Redding after Haven’s store in the downtown Mall failed because it wasn’t making enough money. That’s about the time that Janis, then the board chair, announced he’d soon bow out.
“I knew Yvonne was going to be president, and that it was time to leave,” Warner said. “I figured I’d just go, instead of jumping up and down and upsetting the apple cart,” he said.
Warner resigned in May 2007.
A few months ago, after Warner heard about Haven’s troubles (see links, above), he expressed a willingness to return temporarily to help stabilize the shelter, but under one condition. He said Preston — now the board’s vice-chair — would have to go, something he doubted was possible.
“I don’t think the board would ever go for it,” Warner said.
Pants on fire
On a personal note, twice Preston has given me information that clashed wildly with versions of the same stories by her board chair and current animal shelter director, respectively.
Both incidents took place in late July. First, I asked Preston whether she was still unpaid for her work as interim CEO since Ryan’s departure.
“I’m a volunteer,” she said. “I get no money at all.”
I asked how she managed to work for nothing.
“It’s a great organization and we do a lot of rewarding work,” she said. “I look forward to coming to work every day.”
I got an entirely different answer from Vickie Marler, Haven’s board chair, when I asked if Preston worked as interim CEO for free. Actually, said Marler, Haven’s board decided to pay Yvonne after all, retroactively to when Ryan left. (Wouldn’t disclose the amount.)
“The board felt it fair that she be compensated,” Marler said.
A few days later, Preston was overheard at Haven telling someone she worked as interim CEO for no money, strictly as a volunteer.
Second, Preston claimed she had nothing to do with bringing Ray John, Haven’s current director, to Haven. This conversation happened when I’d called Preston to confirm the appointment of a new director. I’d heard from an insider that the board had already selected John.
“I don’t know anything about this,” Preston said.
“Nothing?” I asked.
“No, nothing” Preston said. “I’m the CEO! I don’t know anything about this!”
The next week John was hired as Haven’s director.
A few days later I spoke with John. (We’ve known each other professionally for years.)
He was forthcoming about how he’d become Haven’s director.
“I was recruited,” he said.
“By whom?” I asked.
“Yvonne Preston,” he said.
Who is Yvonne Preston?
Who is this young, energetic woman who walked into Haven’s lobby, handed over a check for $1,000, joined Haven’s board in July 2006, rose to vice chair, then board chair, then interim CEO, and most recently settled back to vice chair?
Shasta County real estate records show that in July of 2004 Preston — Yvonne D. Meyers — bought a house in Gold Hills for $545,000. (That house has been for sale for nearly a year now, and the last time I checked it was listed at $579,000.)
But earlier, February 2004 news stories reported Preston — then Yvonne Meyers — a Sutter County small-business owner, was the first alternate to the Sutter County Central Committee for Assemblyman Doug LaMalfa, R-Richvale, and the chair of the Sutter County ’04 Bush/Cheney campaign, one of 58 Californians to hold one of those special regional appointments.
By January of 2005 she’d married Willie Preston, the former chair of the Lincoln City ’04 Bush/Cheney campaign, and district director for Assemblyman Doug LaMalfa.
The couple arranged a Washington, D.C., honeymoon where they attended President George Bush’s inauguration and the Democracy Ball.
The backbone’s connected to the rib bone
At 24, Willie Preston was Lincoln’s mayor while he commuted to Chico for his work with Assemblyman Bernie Richter. Willie Preston chairs the Shasta County Taxpayers Association.
It is a small world after all, because Yvonne Preston chose her friend Nadine Bailey, field representative for Aanested, as a Haven Humane Society board member, and Bailey is now Haven’s treasurer. When asked why Preston picked her for the board, Bailey said Preston was especially interested in her fund-raising abilities, which would be much needed when the time came to build a bigger, newer animal shelter.
As an aside, coincidentally, as we reported here last week, the county wants to build its new animal shelter beside Haven Humane Society on Eastside Road in Redding.
For what it’s worth, Aanested and LaMalfa get low marks from PAW PAC, California’s Political Action Committee for Animals.
Fast forward to 2007, when then-46-year-old Norm Ryan of Long Beach moved to Redding with his wife, Cheri, and the couple’s four sons. Ryan was a Long Beach forensic accountant who organized a plan to slash the city’s utility tax. He failed at his attempts to win a Long Beach City Council seat, and likewise, wasn’t selected for a mayoral position he’d wanted. Although he made it onto the board of the Water Replenishment of Southern California, he was not re-elected in 2006.
According to one Haven Humane Society board member, Willie Preston and Ryan first met at a San Diego conference a few years ago where they exchanged business cards, an encounter that opened the door to Ryan’s entrance to Redding.
In 2007, at the recommendation of Willie Preston and Rick Bosetti, Redding City Council member, Ryan applied for a job as the city of Redding treasurer. The city rejected Ryan and chose someone else. Later, Bosetti appointed Ryan to a city committee charged with looking at ways to pay for a new police station. Ryan eventually quit, disgruntled and frustrated.
Finally, in the spring of 2007, Ryan applied for and was hired as Haven’s CEO, a decision that nearly everyone at Haven, including board members, eventually came to regret, or at least that’s what they say now.
Ryan lasted almost a year in that position before he resigned. Preston immediately took charge. On June 18, nine days later, Ryan was charged with stealing almost $1,400 from Haven. Specific allegations include: charging a personal trip to San Francisco to his business credit card, and for reimbursing himself for a flight to Chicago. In August he pleaded not guilty in Shasta County Superior Court to five felonies, including embezzlement by a public officer, identity theft and grand theft.
Meanwhile, Ryan goes to court this week on those charges. He maintains his innocence and says the truth will come out during his trial.
To paraphrase one board member’s hypothetical question: “Did we make a mistake when we chose Norm Ryan? No shit, Sherlock.”
Check back for the conclusion of the Haven series, including a message from Ray John, the shelter’s director of almost three months, who’ll talk about Haven’s future.
Also, stay tuned for reports on Ryan in court this week.
