SAN JOSE, Calif. – Dissident members of Technology CU don’t plan to stop at last week’s overwhelming defeat of the referendum to convert the credit union giant to a bank and are now aiming to remove the board of directors and management who led the failed conversion.
“We want to get rid of the board, the supervisory committee and the management,” said Paul Popescu, one of the dissident members who led the opposition to the $1.6 billion credit union’s bank bid, the biggest ever for a credit union.
The historic conversion was defeated by a wide margin, 77% of 17,000 voting members opposed the bank bid.
Meantime, a hearing in state court over whether the dissidents should gain access to a list of the credit union’s 69,000 members was postponed until this Thursday and Popescu said they hope the court will help them to communicate with the rest of the membership in their efforts to recall the board. Initial plans call for the dissident group to launch a petition drive to hold a special meeting where the issue of recalling the board will be aired.
The credit union’s bylaws require that 3% of members, about 2,100, signed a petition for a special meeting. “We are confident if we are allowed to communicate with all of the members we can get that,” Popescu told the Credit Union Journal Saturday. Popescu, who said he will be a candidate for a new board, which he said would remove the supervisory committee and eventually credit union management, who launched the bank effort.
“We’re continuing to look at a number of possibilities,” said Carlos Rodriguez, another member of the dissident group, adding that include a board recall initiative; the the voluntary resignation or retirement of current members. “Certainly a recall is on the table,” he said.
“Ultimately, we want a board that represents the members,” stated Rodriguez.
He said his group wants a full accounting of the failed conversion, which credit unions officials said earlier had cost $1.5 million.
The credit union giant, one of the largest in California, was chartered in 1960 to serve employees of Fairchild Camera and Instrument Semiconductor Division and now serves 1,000 select groups throughout Silicon Valley and six surrounding counties.
