A Timeline of the “Deficit”

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How KRC leadership transitioned over time

  • Late 1990s Dae Joong (DJ) Yoon Becomes Executive Director
  • Early 2000’s Inbo Sim takes on the Executive Director role for two years while DJ is away
  • 2014 DJ Becomes NAKASEC Executive Director. Hee Joo Yoon Becomes KRC Executive Director and DJ Becomes KRC President
  • 2015 Hee Joo Yoon resigns and Jenny Seon Becomes Interim Executive Director
  • 2015-2018 Senior leadership at KRC start coordinating in a structure that would later evolve into the “Executive Team”. This included at the time: DJ Yoon, Jenny Seon, Jongran Kim, Healy Ko, Yongho Kim
  • July 2018: Jonathan Paik (JP) becomes Executive Director. JP re-organizes Executive Team of JP, Jenny, DJ, Jungwoo, Yongho to share workload and leadership
  • Fall 2018: DJ goes on sabbatical, visiting migrant rights activists abroad
  • June 2019: DJ returns from Sabbatical

(We have excluded some short-lived transitional arrangements)

2019 “Financial Crisis” Timeline

  • 2016: KRC re-structures its Quickbooks records. (No surviving files from previous years were given to Financial Manager)
  • July 2018: Yongho takes on the role of leading Finance & Administration Department.
  • Late 2018: JP requests improvements to KRC’s expense tracking system to its CPA
  • January 2019: Based on the CPA’s inexperienced understanding of the request, KRC’s accounting system is partially modified, producing incorrect financial reports. This process is thoroughly documented in the independent financial analyst’s written report for KRC, “Understanding KRC’s 2019 accounting change”.
  • June 2019: DJ discovers that the financial reports are wrong. He also finds a $200k+ deficit.
  • July 2019: DJ, Inbo, and the Executive Team (JP, Jenny, Yongho) discuss together a revised budget and fundraising plan that covers the deficit, following DJ’s accounting method. For details on this process and what each side claimed, refer to Yongho’s October 25 personal statement.
  • Late August 2019: KRC Exec Team agrees to leave together in December, after “solving” the deficit
  • 8/23: Exec Team submits a revised budget with no deficit (using DJ’s accounting system) to DJ and Inbo.
  • 8/24: KRC Board Meeting takes place. Board requests major personnel cut scenarios from the Exec Team.
  • 8/30: Exec Team submits multiple plans to Board
  • Early September 2019: Staff learn that a layoff plan is being discussed. Concerned Staff start gathering, including Nara Kim and Jenny Seon. Concerned Staff also learn that DJ is focusing the layoffs on the Civic/Organizing Team, because “we can find them other jobs most easily” (DJ)
  • 9/3: Three staff resign
  • 9/10: Board and KRC All-Hands Meeting disclosing the budget deficit of $280k. Refer to Yongho’s personal statement. Concerned Staff deliver letter demanding independent financial investigation.
  • 9/20: Yongho joins Concerned Staff
  • 9/24: Responding to Concerned Staff demands, Board convenes a Staff-Exec Team-Board Joint Working Group to discuss the budget and solutions. The group starts meeting every week.
  • 9/24: Concerned Staff approach Board HR Committee with workplace complaint about DJ, demanding his resignation. The HR Committee only gives a lukewarm response, and say that they will consider it.
  • 9/30: One staff submits resignation (Effective October 16)
  • 9/30: Youngran sends an email to all staff: “An Opinion on the Budget Crisis”, in which she claims that the person(s) who created the deficit needs to take responsibility, and raises the issues that there are discriminatory practices based on age, gender, and education level.
  • 9/30: Exec Team Responds to Youngran’s Email, clarifying that the Exec Team is taking full responsibility and trying to solve the deficit, and that an official complaint must be filed to investigate claims of wage or other discrimination.
  • 10/1: Concerned Staff submit complaint package with 11 individual, signed letters to DJ and the Board, asking for his resignation by October 3, and ask for meeting, but he does not show up. Board starts investigation on the complaints against DJ.
  • 10/2: DJ emails all staff telling them that he has been asked to resign and that he will be away from the office during the investigation.
  • Early October: Board-Staff Working Group appoints two Financial Analysts to analyze the scope of the deficit and its root causes
  • 10/16: Youngran’s group files a Complaint Statement demanding DJ to be reinstated, Exec Team to be removed from finance role, Yongho to be removed from Crenshaw role. Board follows up by adding the investigation to also look into Exec Team
  • 10/16 11pm: DJ emails to Youngran’s group saying that he agrees with them that it’s actually the Exec Team who should be removed from KRC
  • 10/18: Concerned staff collect union petitions, and union is voluntarily recognized by Executive Director Jonathan Paik.
  • 10/23: Youngran sends protest email to board and staff about union
  • 10/24: Youngran sends emails claiming that the union is invalid
  • 10/24: Concerned Staff send email Why KRC Decided to Unionize in English, and then About the Union Process (restricted to eligible employers only – in other words, staff excluding JP, Jenny, DJ, Yongho) in English and Korean
  • 10/25: Yongho issues a personal statement on the budget situation and why DJ should leave KRC: A Powerful Movement Requires Marathon Runners
  • 10/29: Staff-Board-Exec Joint Working Group hears the financial report by the two external financial analysts. The analysts share a powerpoint presentation and the written “Understanding KRC’s 2019 accounting change” report in English and Korean. After hearing from the analysts that there is no deficit, DJ argues that the deficit exists given other factors.
  • 10/30 Yongho submits resignation (Effective November 19)
  • 11/4:
    • 9:30am JP circulates draft resignation letter to Executive Team. Yongho points out that JP forgot to edit his title in the sentence “Please accept this letter as notice of my resignation from my position as Director of Digital at the Korean Resource Center.”
    • 11:30am Youngran’s group organizes rally and press conference in front of Crenshaw demanding JP’s resignation, and distributes press releases. DJ tells the media that he also feels responsibility, and will resign as board president. At the rally, protesters hold signs that read:
      • “Age Discrimination, Wage Discrimination, GO OUT!”
      • “Management Looking Down on Services Must Step Down”
      • “Executive Director Not Interested in Immigrant Rights, Go Away!”
      • “Step down, Jonathan Paik!”
      • “Executive Director discriminating first generation women, repent!”
      • “The IAMWA Union is in cahoots with management. We anger!”
      • “No corporate union. No division union. No Jonathan Paik”
      • “Union for who! Not for management. Yes for workers!”
    • 12:10pm JP submits resignation letter (Effective November 18)
Korea Daily’s Front Page article covering the rally by Youngran’s group
  • 11/5
    • Yongho changes resignation effective date to 11/6
    • JP changes resignation effective date to 11/5
    • Jenny Seon submits resignation (effective date pending responsible completion of training for time-sensitive immigration cases)
    • Executive Team releases statement that they are resigning, joined by 18 others
  • 11/6
    • Korean media reports that DJ changed his mind on the resignation and will “serve KRC as a simple soldier” (백의종군)
    • Youngran Kim is promoted to top decision maker role – a quasi Interim Executive Director
    • DJ obsesses over the names of staff leaving, trying to find information about it. At the same time, he interviews with Korean media telling that besides some commotion due to Executive Team departures, everything is fine.
  • 11/7: Union Supporter staff go public and releases statement.
  • 11/8
    • 7:00am After Yongho’s complaint about DJ’s prosecutory tactics, Board writes “There is no retaliatory intent whatsoever, we are requesting information only because there was a media announcement saying two thirds of the staff are leaving. We only need to know how much time you need and we as a Board will be especially careful that there are NO negative repercussions to those who give KRC notice.” They also wrote “On the personnel front, please do not communicate directly with DJ anymore. He will not be in a supervisory role over any staff. He has, in fact, been advised that his role will be limited to tasks that this Board requests of him. Therefore, please do not email or communicate with DJ about any KRC business.”
    • Pro-DJ staff and board create an atmosphere of terror against staff preparing to leave.
    • 4:00pm Jenny Seon is unlaterally terminated effective November 8th, and no longer allowed in the office.
  • 11/11: Management tells the entire Immigration Legal Services Team to work from home, except for the one person who was supportive of DJ. There are signs that DJ may be instructing Youngran Kim’s every move, and possibly writing her all-staff notification emails, as evident in the use of words, phrasing, and literary style.
  • 11/12: Yongho Kim releases second press statement along with media coverage correction requests.
  • 11/15 A final wave of 11 staff resign from KRC