August 22, 2003 (Backstage.com)
The Restore Respect website—which belongs to the slate aligned with 
Melissa Gilbert, the current president—states, “The majority of your current board is from the ranks of the Restore Respect candidates. They’ve lowered the SAG deficit by 4 million dollars.”
“Basically, the implementation of the governance proposals that created the costs savings to the union is what’s responsible for lowering of the deficit,” Kent McCord said on Monday. “Some of those recommendations were contained in the Towers Perrin report, which goes back quite a ways. The implementation by Bob Pisano and Francesca Hickson—to rein in the red ink the union was bleeding -- most of that implementation was done under the previous administration.”
[Gordon] Drake called Restore Respect’s taking credit for the deficit drop “inaccurate and a misconstruence of facts? They’re trying to steal thunder from the last seated board that assembled the governance plan. The savings are a result of the governance plan, and not the actions of the current seated board.”
SAG named Pisano its national executive director-chief executive officer in September 2001, when Daniels was still president. The guild’s national board approved the new governance plan in October, with Daniels still in office. Hickson was named SAG’s deputy national executive director for administration and chief financial officer at the end of October. At the time, Gilbert was a candidate for the presidency. She was elected that November.
All three current presidential candidates seem to agree that Pisano and Hickson’s efforts have led to a deficit reduction. But Gilbert stands by her contention that the present board of directors had led the deficit-lowering effort.
“I think that set us in the proper direction,” Gilbert told Back Stage on Tuesday, speaking of the previous board’s approval of the governance plan. “You can set policy all you want, but the present board implemented it. The implementation of all this happened in the last two years, with this board.”
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EMC editorial comment: Although, President Gilbert does deserve praise for following through and implementing the work of the previous administration. Her unwillingness to share the credit with others is somewhat analogous to the lady that whacks the battleship with a bottle of champagne and then when it’s afloat gloats “Hey, look what I did!”
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