Court Ruling Delays Controversial Members Meeting At Erstwhile CU Convert

VANCOUVER, Wash. -- The board of Columbia CU agreed last week to indefinitely postpone its annual meeting scheduled for later this month while it reviews last week's appeals court ruling in a case brought challenging its ill-fated conversion to mutual savings bank three years ago. The state appeals court dismissed most of the challenges brought by dissident members of the $720 million credit union, but revived a debate over the board's term limits, and sent the matter back to the lower court for a hearing. The term limits issue could affect one incumbent running in the 30-day elections that are scheduled to culminate at the annual meeting. The dissident group, Save Columbia CU, had asserted that at least four incumbent members of the 2004 board were disqualified from running for reelection because of nine-year term limits bylaw they approved in 1999. But the directors claimed the terms limits only took affect when the bylaw was approved, and all terms served before then did not count against the limits.