WASHINGTON – Two former NCUA Board members have been removed from consideration for the vacancy on the three-member panel, but one other, Yolanda Wheat, who served on the Board from 1996 through 2001, has emerged as a candidate.
Meantime, former NCUA Board member Geoff Bacino has been notified by the Obama administration he is no longer in the running for the seat, and former member David Chatfield has removed his name from consideration.
Wheat’s tenure, which was marked by regular infighting with then-Chairman Norm D’Amours, ended in scandal when a departing President Bill Clinton appointed her chairman of the Board in January 2001, after which she hired four jobless Clinton employees to high-paying NCUA jobs and gave her personal assistant a $50,000 raise. The personnel moves caught the attention of the incoming Bush administration, which immediately removed Wheat from the chairman’s role and appointed as chairman Dennis Dollar, who immediately reversed the personnel hires.
The vacancy on the board was created by last month’s expiration of the six-year term for Rodney Hood, who is continuing to serve on the Board as a holdover until a successor is seated.
