WASHINGTON Chip Filson’s petition drive for the NCUA Board has apparently fallen far short of its goal of 100,000 signatures, with just 5,344 people signing on as of this morning.
Filson, who owns credit union consultants Callahan & Associates, said during CUNA’s Government Affairs Conference last month he hoped to get 100,000 people to sign a petition urging President Obama to name an individual “who understands cooperatives” to the current vacancy on the three-member NCUA Board and concurrently declared his own candidacy for the position. He said he hoped to gather 100,000 names on a petition by March 26.
Filson, who served as director of NCUA’s Office of Examination and Insurance in the 1980’s, has clashed in recent years with the NCUA Board, specifically over its handling of the corporate credit unions, while Filson represented several of the corporates on behalf of Callahan’s. He has also criticized NCUA’s handling of several troubled big credit unions, including NCUA’s takeover of Arrowhead Central CU.
At a press conference prior at CUNA's GAC, Filson said, "I think there is widespread concern among credit unions for the way the NCUA board has acted for the past four or five years. I think there is a feeling that not only are we out of alignment, we are not responding to the opportunities that credit unions have to make their impact more widely known.”
Filson’s petition drive was seen as quixotic by credit union leaders who cite the traditional method of winning Presidential nomination to the NCUA Board or other federal agencies, that is cultivating political connections among White House officials or members of Congress to champion your nomination.
The drive to get an individual experienced in cooperatives nominated to the NCUA Board also comes at a time when all recent NCUA Board members have long experience in credit unions/cooperatives. NCUA Chairman Debbie Matz, for example, is serving her second term on the Board, sandwiched by experienced as a credit union executive; Mike Fryzel had more than 30 years experience as both a credit union attorney and a state regulator; and recent NCUA Board member Gigi Hyland spent her entire career in credit unions.
A spokesman for Filson said acknowledged the 100,000 name-goal will not be reached but said they expect to continue to collect names.
