Failed CU Convert Lafayette FCU Seeks to Preempt Board Recall

KENSINGTON, Md. – In an unusual peremptory challenge, the chairman of Lafayette FCU told members yesterday that a petition drive waged by members angry over the credit union’s ill-fated conversion to savings bank is riddled with falsehoods and inaccuracies and should be dismissed. The rare missive comes even before members have submitted their application calling for a vote on the recall of the board for its support of the failed bank bid. In a letter to members, Lafayette Chairman Arnold Rosenthal said the petition, which has collected more than 750 names, “is a maneuver being perpetrated by about one dozen individuals out of approximately 17,000 members.” Rosenthal claims that the $330 million credit union met all of the opponents request, including meeting with them and sharing access to “any and all documents that they requested.” He claims the petitioners refused repeated Invitations to meet and discuss their grievances and continued with “their sham petition.” He also insisted that many members signed the petition under false and misleading; and that non-member solicit petitions. The Lafayette Chairman called on members who believe they have been mislead into signing the petition to contact the credit union so they can challenge the validity of the petition. Scott Steins, one of the leaders of the petition drive, was incredulous. “He’s really reaching,” Steins told The Credit Union Journal. “It’s up to the members to make up their minds at a special meeting. That’s the whole purpose of calling a special meeting.” Steins said his group has collected the necessary signatures to force a special meeting under the credit union’s bylaws and they are preparing to submit to the credit union.