PEORIA, Ill. – One of the co-founders for a watchdog group focused on Peoria’s public television station WTVP says things are off to a good start with the new board chairman.

On Tuesday, 11 members of the Board of Directors with WTVP resigned, including Chairman Andrew Rand.  Eight new members replaced them, with MH Equipment Company CEO John Wieland selected as the new chairman.

The resignations come as questions have been raised concerning the financial spending that occurred under former president and CEO Lesley Matuszak and former finance director Lin McLaughlin.  WTVP acknowledged in December that “questionable, improper, or unauthorized” spending was approved under them.

The newly-formed group “Friends of 47” has about 50 members, with a goal of calling for more transparency changes with the Board of Directors.  One of their goals was to see the resignation of the, at the time, Board of Directors.

Co-founder Becky Doubleday tells WMBD’s “Greg and Dan” that one of Wieland’s first moves to apologize for the financial troubles was a step in the right direction.

“That is rare to hear an apology from someone at that level, and to express it with so much sincerity,” Doubleday said.  “So that was something that was very impressive.”

Doubleday says, even with the board shakeup, there’s still some appointments to be made.  She wants WTVP to be open about how the remaining appointments will be made, along with other concerns.

“What are the committees, what are the assignments going to be,” Doubleday said.  “We believe there’s been an issue with governance.  How’s that all going to be shorn up?  And those are the basic questions that we still have.”

Doubleday says there are planned meetings with Wieland to discuss some of the concerns that “Friends of 47” has moving forward.  She says one of the topics to be discussed is another goal of the group, the appointment of an Executive Director.