Lafayette Seeks To Preempt Recall

KENSINGTON, Md. - In an unusual peremptory challenge, the chairman of Lafayette FCU told members 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.

At press time, members had yet to submit the recall application. In a letter to members, Lafayette Chairman Arnold Rosenthal said the petition, which has more than 750 signatures, "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' requests, 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."

The Lafayette Chairman called on members who believe they have been misled 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."