LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) — The highest govt of Lansing’s largest homeless shelter was fired Friday as workers rallied in his help.
Ryan Kunzelman, now the previous CEO and president of Holy Cross Companies, was knowledgeable he was terminated by letter. The letter was signed by Kathleen Klaus, an lawyer from the Southfield-based Maddin Hauser regulation agency. Klaus represents the Board of Administrators of Holy Cross Companies.
“Dear Ryan,” Klaus’ letter started. “Your employment is terminated, effective immediately.”
A photograph of the letter given to Ryan Kunzelman informing him of his termination. The picture has been edited to take away the telephone numbers of the lawyer. (Courtesy Ryan Kunzelman/WLNS)
No motive was offered for Kunzelman’s termination, and he tells 6 Information he nonetheless has not been informed particularly why he was terminated. And he might by no means get a particular clarification as Michigan is an at-will employment state. Meaning an employer can hearth you for authorized causes, at any time.
Whether or not or not his termination is authorized might in the end be fought out in court docket proceedings. Kunzelman has led the workers of Holy Cross Companies, which incorporates the New Hope Shelter on Larch St. in Lansing, in a pushback towards a brand new directive he and others say requires them to discriminate towards LGBTQIA+ folks and unwed moms.
Holy Cross, nevertheless, says they seem to be a non secular group and have a non secular exemption because it involves discrimination based mostly on their strongly held non secular beliefs. Klaus mentioned that is hypothetical, although, as a result of Holy Cross doesn’t discriminate.
Authorized saber-rattling
Klaus’s letter concludes with this paragraph:
“Holy Cross Services will take all necessary action, including filing suit, to protect its reputation and operations from any effort on your part to slander it and harm its relationships with its partners, employees and the community. If you have not already retained an attorney, we strongly advise that you consider retaining one now.”
Kunzelman tells 6 Information that within the intervening week and a half, because the board’s edict was distributed and the pushback started, the Board has created a finances line merchandise of over $300,000 to implement its declare to non secular beliefs and defend itself from authorized motion that will come from companions, funding businesses or staff.
Mark Dotson is a professor of regulation at Cooley Regulation College. He reviewed the termination letter for six Information.
“What they’re trying to do is to get him to shut up,” Dotson tells 6 Information. “The threat of litigation is a common method to do so — especially with a letter coming from an attorney. It is rare that a letter will be as express in saying that you should lawyer up. That’s implicit by the threat of litigation. I don’t know if I have ever seen that. I don’t know if they are the verge of filing a lawsuit. It might be them saying we know who we are dealing with and we’ll fight fire with fire.”
However submitting a slander lawsuit and succeeding in court docket is a tricky authorized hill to beat Dotson says.
“You can’t get damages that are solely based on your embarrassment,” he says of slander lawsuits involving companies. “You have to show the community somehow thought less of you and you have to prove that the community thought less caused economic damages to your organization.”
On prime of proving precise damages, Dotson says, the enterprise cannot recoup lawyer charges and prices related to the lawsuit, even when the enterprise succeeds.
“They’ll have to incur attorney fees, attorney costs. Are you going to be willing to prosecute this thing on principle?” he says. “I don’t see, at least right now, a lot of financial harm that has been said by him already.”
Assist for Kunzelman
Kunzelman’s former colleagues are standing by him and their stand towards the brand new board directive. They protested in entrance of New Hope Shelter Friday because the board deliberated its choice on Kunzelman’s future.
“Ryan has made such an impact and his support and leadership has been profound for each and every single one of us,” says Sara Gilbert, an worker of the company.
Gilbert continued, warning the management of the group that workers are ready to proceed to push again towards what they deem as a discriminatory coverage directive.
Greater than a dozen Holy Cross workers members protested the board of administrators over LGBTQIA+ promotion occasions./ WLNS
“We are here to serve the participants at Holy Cross and to ensure that families and children are safe across Michigan,” she says, “and we will make sure that is still the message we spread.”
Klaus, the lawyer for Holy Cross, says the group is dedicated to serving to everybody. However it will not take part in delight occasions — which workers says had been an enormous recruiting location for foster mother and father.
“You can give someone a home and you can feed them and you can give them all their basic needs,” Klaus tells 6 Information. “That doesn’t mean you have to go to a political rally with them.”
New management, new messaging
Late Friday afternoon, staff of Holy Cross Companies have been knowledgeable by letter the Board of Administrators had appointed interim management.
Holy Cross Companies has appointed former Chief Govt Officer Sharon Berkobien as interim president of the group. Steve Adamcyzk, chief infrastructure and compliance officer has been appointed because the interim CEO.
Staff who shared the letter with 6 Information identified the messaging on the backside of the letter.
Holy Cross Companies Founding, 76 yeas [sic] in the past, was developed in partnership with the Knights of Columbus, the Catholic Church, and the Brothers of the Holy Cross. These organizations have supported Holy Cross Companies to develop the roots that hold us regular. Our Catholic Judeo/Christian heritage is mirrored in our identify, demonstrating our deep appreciation for our origins and the religion that upholds our mission.
The mission of Holy Cross Companies is to offer hope, promote change and assist folks stay free, wholesome, and productive lives.
Closing assertion on letter to Holy Cross Staff November 15, 2024
That addendum displays language Kunzelman was ordered by the Board of Administrators to distribute to the workers of Holy Cross on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024.
Kunzelman mentioned the Board desires workers to cease participating the LGBTQIA+ group by now not recruiting at delight occasions, requiring folks within the LGBTQIA+ group who wish to foster a baby to undergo a board evaluate, and never buying any objects that will affirm a transgender baby’s identification.
“How do I say I am going to care for this individual’s mental health if I then say ‘Well but you shouldn’t be that?’” Kunzelman mentioned.
Lawyer Kate Klaus mentioned the letter was despatched to remind those that Holy Cross is a faith-based group.
“We are required, mandated by our religion, to open our services to everybody. Holy Cross Services will not advertise its services at Pride Day for example. That has nothing to do with whether or not we will help people in need because we will help everybody in need,” Klaus mentioned.
Kunzelman mentioned the group just isn’t faith-based, although.
“Holy Cross Services, while rooted in Catholic history is not in policy or practice a religious organization, and therefore does not have the protections of religious freedoms,” Kunzelman mentioned.
Holy Cross Companies despatched 6 Information its present bylaws. They usually do indicate the group is faith-based.
A display screen seize of the bylaws mission of Holy Cross Companies. (WLNS)
Nonetheless, the mission described within the group’s federal tax filings has a wholly completely different mission clarification.
Screenshot of the 2022 Federal 990 tax return submitting with the IRS by Holy Cross Companies, Inc. describing the company’s mission. (WLNS)
Whether or not the group is, in truth, a faith-based group as lawyer Klaus argues, or not, which Kunzelman has argued, might find yourself litigated within the courts.
Kunzelman has additionally doubled down on his stance. He launched a follow-up assertion late Friday afternoon.
“I am at peace with the decisions I have made to defend all in our community because I am following my strongly held religious beliefs,” he wrote in a textual content to six Information.
Take a look at message from Ryan Kunzelman, former CEO of Holy Cross Companies, about his termination Friday. The assertion preceded a photograph of the letter of his termination. (WLNS)
The Metropolis of Lansing is rigorously monitoring the scenario, says Metropolis Spokesman Scott Bean.
“Holy Cross is contracted to provide a variety of services to our unhoused community, helping those most in need in Lansing,” Beans says in an emailed assertion. “We expect they will continue to do so without discrimination, per the contracts.”
