Nearly 300 community members attended a town hall meeting at the LGBT Center Sunday evening to air opinions over a $5,000 check given to Pride Board President Phillip Princetta, the dismissal of Executive Director Ron deHarte and the resignation of two staff, Jeff Redondo and Ken St. Pierre. (The three remaining Pride board members and deHarte did not attend the meeting.)
Community leaders Stephen Whitburn (standing) and Joyce Marieb facilitated last night’s meeting.
Those in attendance were read the Pride mission, vision and value statement followed by a brief overview of the legal structure of non-profit organizations generally and Pride specifically. Ben Cartwright, representing a large number of volunteers and ambassadors, reported that they had met and discussed the events of the past week. Their statement called for the three-member board of directors to step down, that Princetta return the check (which he has) and the staffers be returned to their positions. Volunteers cannot support this year’s Pride event unless these steps take place.
Former board member Judy Schaim read a statement of past board members calling for an independent audit of Pride’s finances which the group would like to see published, the appointment of a five-member interim board (including three women), reinstate a female co-chair and to begin conducting regular town hall meetings. After over an hour of opinions shared by the community, an effort was made to adopt a consensus of the assembled body. The group voted overwhelmingly that there is no confidence in the present three-member board, calling on them to resign. There were mixed results calling for the reinstatement of the two staff members who resigned and whether the executive director should be rehired.
