VANCOUVER, Wash. — Columbia Credit Union, the $725 million credit union that almost became a bank in 2003 has voted to expel seven of its members who helped organize the effort to keep it a credit union.
In letters to the Save Columbia Credit Union organization, which they founded, and to individual members which included two board members and three supervisory members, the credit union said that they had injured the credit union by publishing an advertisement in a local paper drawing public attention to what Save CCU believed were negative ways Columbia's board had sought to change Columbia's voting procedures.
Cathryn Chudy and Kathryn Edgecomb lost their seats on Columbia's board of directors and were expelled from the credit union Aug. 15 for causing damage because of the advertisement, according to notices that were sent and which Save CCU has posted on its Web site.
Chudy and Edgecomb were also expelled for asking a judge to stop the other members of Columbia's board from blocking their access to corporate records and altering meeting minutes.
Lloyd Marbet, Bob Winterburn and Gene Yarnell also lost their positions on the supervisory committee and were expelled from the credit union. Robert Tice, who is part of the Save Columbia Credit Union watchdog group, but not serving on any credit union board, was also expelled and there were no documents related to his conversion posted.
The credit union has largely denied comment about its actions.
Save CCU said that Columbia adopted a revision to its bylaws on Aug. 15 which enabled it specifically to act against them by adding a sixth item to the list of “for cause” reasons that can be used to expel a member from the credit union.
Save CCU contended this means that a majority of CCU's board can expel any credit union member for any reason as long as in their “opinion” the member is adverse to the “best interests of the Credit Union.”
It also allows a majority of the board to expel directors and supervisory committee members without having to call a special membership meeting to present their justifications to a vote of the membership.
Relations between Save CCU and Columbia have been rocky, ironically, since shortly after the CU backed off from being a bank and some Save CCU members were elected to the CU's board and supervisory committee. Three of the board members elected, Duane Bequette, Steve Straub and John Bcucholz, resigned their membership in Save CCU. Two of them, Straub and Bequette, have been part of the board that opposed their previous allies, with Bequette chairing the board which removed them.
Some of the five members removed have already planned to seek reinstatement. –[email protected]
Complete your profile to continue reading and get FREE access to CUTimes.com, part of your ALM digital membership.
Your access to unlimited CUTimes.com content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking credit union news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Weekly Shared Accounts podcast featuring exclusive interviews with industry leaders
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical coverage of the commercial real estate and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, GlobeSt.com and ThinkAdvisor.com
Already have an account? Sign In Now
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
