And to all a happy Sunday!
:Danny
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Tim Huet <easytospell@sbcglobal.net>
Date: Sun, Dec 1, 2013 at 3:31 AM
Subject: from Tim Huet; URGENT info and help needed
To: "tim@arizmendi.coop" <tim@arizmendi.coop>
{This is a matter of great urgency for what-should-be a democratic organization that can do great good for its community. I apologize for the mix of personal and work email addresses, especially if you got duplicate messages. I'm trying to get this message out to members of the Cooperative Development Center Federal Credit Union before Tuesday's meeting; I'm writing you as people who hopefully know me as someone who has dedicated myself to building democratic organizations and would not do the things that certain people in power are accusing me of. Please feel encouraged to forward this message on to any friends you know who might be members of the credit union to assist the effort to fight this assault on democracy.}
Hello. I have started to receive enquires from friends and worried credit union members regarding the action of the credit union’s Supervisory Committee to suspend Tye Kirk, Mike Leung, and myself. Let me begin by saying that I believe the suspensions reflect a grave governance crisis for the credit union, but I also believe the credit union is financially secure. My primary interest continues to be to revive the credit union as a democratic institution and have it serve its community/members well, even if other parties wish to engage in factional warfare and divert resources that could better serve the members.I will provide a brief response to the charges here because past experience indicates I might not be given a fair opportunity to respond to charges in the meeting. Though fair process would involve an unbiased investigation, the Supervisory Committee did not even interview me before issuing its charges and suspension. The allegations are that Tye, Mike, and I…
· “Attempted to hold one or more Board meetings without giving notice to the other directors”
· “At improper meetings attempted to remove two legally seated directors…”
We never endeavored to remove other board directors. We endeavored to have timely legal elections as part of the 2013 annual meeting. I tried everything I could to inform Board Chair Garrett and Vice Chair Shabaka the bylaws called for their terms to end with the next annual meeting unless re-elected at that meeting.
The reason the election could not happen on the meeting date Mr. Shabaka proposed (11/1/13) was because Mr. Garrett, as Board Chair, did not fulfill his legal duty of appointing a Nominating Committee with a sufficient period to seek out qualified candidates. It would be understandable if Mr. Garrett simply forgot that his maximum three-year term was coming to an end (though two annual meetings without an election in a row should never happen in a credit union with three-year terms). But his failure to take appropriate action/responsibility once notified of his lapse is entirely another matter. Instead of seeking guidance and approval from the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) about how we could carry out an election with the greatest haste and least waste of member resources, Mr. Garrett and Mr. Shabaka kept pushing toward an early annual meeting without elections…and apparently stayed on the board without being re-elected. So we had a 2013 “annual meeting” with no elections or substantial opportunity for the members to give input, at the cost of thousands of members’ dollars; and now we will apparently have an extra annual meeting/election in early 2014 (likely costing thousands more of the members’ dollars). Yet the Supervisory Committee (primarily charged with making sure members’ funds are not wasted) ignored this violation.
We tried to organize a meeting of the board within seven days of the annual meeting as the bylaws would appear to require; the bylaws require this meeting primarily to elect new officers (presumably because an election would have happened and there might be occasion/need for a change of officers). There was an effort to reach every board member and the one possible time that Mr. Shabaka, Mr. Leung, Mr. Kirk and I could make was arrived at, with the hope that Mr. Garrett would be able to find a way to fulfill this obligation under the bylaws. But when Mr. Garrett was called and asked about time in the remaining day to meet the bylaw obligation, he would not listen or engage in a cooperative effort to fulfill our obligation; he instead hung up on the caller. Though I expect Mr. Garrett will have more opportunities to speak for himself, he apparently objected that only he as the Chair could call a meeting (not true). But the real issue was that a meeting was required the bylaws; he was responsible as anyone to understand the bylaw requirements; and particularly if he was the only one who could call the meeting he would be the person most responsible for making sure not to violate that bylaw…but he wouldn’t want to have a meeting where he wouldn’t be eligible to be elected to a one-year officer term when he was beyond his election term and it could not be presumed he would be re-elected. So another actual bylaw violation – failure to have the meeting within seven days – due to Mr. Garrett’s inaction and obstruction.
Yet the Supervisory Committee again ignored this in favor of suspending directors trying to work out bylaws that would comply with NCUA regulations, allow for lawful elections, etc. (the bylaws supposedly adopted by the previous board, including Ms. Pitrie of the Supervisory Committee, proved to be a jumble of contradictions that could not possibly have been approved by the NCUA).
This is despite the Supervisory Committee’s claim that it “takes seriously your, and each of our members’ rights, to vote on the composition of your Board.” The Supervisory Committee is required by law to let the members decide on approving suspension and reinstatement…and only if members show up December 3rd (Ed Roberts Campus, above Ashby BART, 3075 Adeline; 6 p.m.) who care about democracy will a fair process and result be assured.
Thanking you for your consideration,
Tim Huet