Election Mismanagement

First Basin Credit Union management has announced that they have suspended the election on their proposal to convert our credit union to a bank.

This is the United States. They cannot simply shut down the election if they aren’t getting the result they want.

Our Board of Directors and executives have already spent over half a million dollars of the credit union’s money, by their own estimate, to prepare and advertise for this election. That money ultimately belongs to us, the member-owners. They have spent our money:

• Hiring lawyers in Washington D.C. to tell us how to vote.
• Sending 6 mailings to every member.
• Paying people in Houston to call us at home and tell us how to vote.

After all that time and money spent, now they are pulling the plug just days before the results of the election are released? That is mismanagement, and it smells fishy.

The members have spoken, and we deserve to be heard—not silenced. The board must:

• Release the results of the election.
• Release complete information on how much of the credit union’s money has been spent on this proposal.

Instead of gracefully accepting defeat, the CEO has instead blamed the decision to suspend elections on the many members like myself who want to keep our credit union. If Mr. Culpepper is confused about our reasons for opposing this conversion, he can simply visit our website, www.SaveFirstBasin.com. We stand by what we have said, and are dedicated to giving other members the facts.

If the Board is not willing to represent the members, they should step down, or the members will go about replacing them.

-Armando Rodriguez