\nReportero SDUN<\/p>\n
![\"Community](\"https:\/\/sduptownnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/deHarte_150dpi.jpg\" "\\"deHarte_150dpi\\"")
<\/a>Approximately 200 community members attended a town hall meeting Jan. 10 at Hillcrest\u2019s LGBT Center to voice concerns about the San Diego LGBT Pride organization\u2019s leadership. <\/p>\n
Many in attendance \u2013 some of whom were former board members and volunteers \u2013 called for the board\u2019s resignation and increased accountability in the organization\u2019s procedures.<\/p>\n
The gathering was the result of Executive Director Ron deHarte\u2019s firing earlier this month over a Pride board decision in an October closed meeting to pay its chairman, Philip Princetta, a $5,000 stipend even though Pride\u2019s bylaws state that no board member can be compensated for service.<\/p>\n
DeHarte said he was terminated for accusing the board of misappropriating the funds, while Princetta argued the firing was due to deHarte\u2019s long-term opposition to the board. Two staff members resigned in protest of the firing.<\/p>\n
Princetta, who was not at the board meeting where the stipend was discussed, has since returned the $5,000 to the organization and the board has issued an apology statement.<\/p>\n
Two board members have resigned since the October decision, including one who voted against it. The three remaining Pride board members were not at the Jan. 10 town hall.<\/p>\n
\u201cI no longer have faith in our leadership, and I believe that the community is with me on that; they no longer have faith in the leadership as well,\u201d said Ken St. Pierre, Pride\u2019s former director of development. St. Pierre resigned after deHarte was fired because he said he felt uncomfortable fundraising for Pride under the current board. The firing and resignations left the organization with three full-time and two part-time employees.<\/p>\n
Many of the town hall attendees said the financial blunder was reason for the board not to be trusted by the community that supports it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that this gift \u2026 is a symptom of a greater lack of accountability and transparency to the community that has been evident in the Pride organization for at least the last year,\u201d former Uptown Planner Alex Sachs said. \u201cPride is ours and we need to have a Pride that we can trust, we need to have a Pride that\u2019s transparent and is responsible and explains to the community what they\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Former board members at the meeting requested a formal and independent audit of Pride\u2019s books and business procedures, publication of the audit results, appointment of at least five new board members and public notice of open meetings with time for public comment.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe board under Philip Princetta\u2019s leadership over the past couple of years has destroyed the integrity of the LGBT Pride organization,\u201d said Wendy Sue Biegeleisen, a 1987-89 board member. \u201cThere have been way too many times when the bylaws, which were set up to guide and represent the mission of [Pride], have been waived or disregarded to suit the whims of Philip and the board.\u201d<\/p>\n
A group of volunteers led by Pride Ambassador and crew coordinator Ben Cartwright called for the immediate resignation of Pride\u2019s current board, reinstatement of deHarte and the other two staffers, appointment of an interim board to rebuild the organization and the establishment of public board meetings.<\/p>\n
At the close of the town hall, the community was polled by a show of hands, resulting in a nearly unanimous vote of no confidence in Pride\u2019s board and a call for its resignation.<\/p>\n
Cartwright said that while it was great to see such passion and interest at the town hall, he felt that a lot of the community was under the impression that their opinions would force the board to resign. However, because Pride is an independent non-profit organization with its own governance structure, the community has no authority to do so.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can do all the voting we want \u2013 all it does is send a message,\u201d Cartwright said. \u201cI came out of the meeting feeling like nothing was accomplished. I had hoped to see the community put together some sort of action plan, something along the lines of what are we as a community going to do to help Pride continue to succeed. Several volunteers and donors, regardless of what happens, will have a bad taste about Pride and not come back to the organization.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pride spokesman Frank Sabatini said volunteer support has not diminished.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince the town hall meeting we\u2019ve been receiving a lot of positive responses from volunteers offering their time and services for this summer\u2019s event and other pre-events that are on the schedule as well,\u201d Sabatini said.<\/p>\n
San Diego Pride is hosting a conference for Consolidated Association of Pride Inc. this weekend and has also begun fleshing out details for its 36th annual festival and parade in July. Volunteer Coordinator Cheli Mohamed has been organizing and communicating with several potential event volunteers, which Sabatini said is typical during this time of year.<\/p>\n
The board\u2019s top priority, he said last week, is the CAPI conference in Mission Valley, where more than 200 representatives from Pride organizations around the nation are meeting. The staff and board of directors expect the event to run smoothly, he said.<\/p>\n
The organization is also accepting applications for a new executive director and will be expanding the board at the end of January. He said the current three board members will finish their terms, two of which end in August and the other in 2011.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe CAPI conference is the priority today, and the formal [board of directors] application packets will be available pretty much right after the conference,\u201d Sabatini said. \u201cThat is certainly going to be the next line of business.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added that Pride is taking all of the community\u2019s concerns seriously and will aspire to expand the board with gender parity and diversity.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery applicant will be reviewed,\u201d Sabatini said. \u201cThere are no requirements to serve on the board in regards to residency or property or business ownership. We continue striving for broad and diverse board representation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hoping to further their desire for change, Cartwright\u2019s volunteer coalition sent an e-mail to Princetta, requesting a meeting between the board, staff and volunteers.
\n\u201cThe current board is moving forward business as usual, and we definitely want to have a meeting with them so our volunteers can make the choice whether to continue volunteering for the organization and to find out how we can best serve the organization in its current form,\u201d Cartwright said. As of press time, they had not received a response.<\/p>\n
San Diego LGBT Pride was founded in 1974. In addition to the annual Pride festival and parade, the organization offers an array of programs to support the area\u2019s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Community calls for resignations as Pride returns to \u2018business as usual\u2019 by David Harvey SDUN Reporter Approximately 200 community members attended a town hall meeting Jan. 10 at Hillcrest\u2019s LGBT Center to voice concerns about the San Diego LGBT Pride organization\u2019s leadership. Many in attendance \u2013 some of whom were former board members and volunteers […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":243139,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Community calls for resignations as Pride returns to \u2018business as usual\u2019","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11551,11593,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-243140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-no-images","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243140\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}