This past Tuesday, San Diego Pride Board of Directors dismissed Executive Director Ron DeHarte after he spoke out against the board voting to give Board Chair Phillip Princetta a $5,000 check for his community involvement. Board members are not to be compensated according to the organization’s bylaws.

Late Tuesday the Gay & Lesbian Times learned that Pride handed out more than $12,000 in bonuses to staff members, including deHarte, who also received a $5,000 bonus.

“Ron deHarte did a great job bringing San Diego Pride forward and bringing the staff forward and training staff correctly and the organization has grown and we are grateful for the time that he was with San Diego Pride … [but] there had been problems with Ron, a disparity between the board of directors and Ron and different board of directors over the last four years,” Princetta said, who wouldn’t elaborate on the “disparity.”

On being dismissed, deHarte said, “I think anybody standing back is going to think that this group [the board] continued to make poor decisions on behalf of San Diego Pride and the decision making process is clearly not one that is in the best interest of the community and my termination is just one more bad example.”

The dispute began with an Oct. 6 e-mail deHarte received from Treasurer Mike Karim: “‘The board has decided to issue $5,000 to Dr. Princetta in recognition of his service to the organization dating back to 2002,’” deHarte said. And this is the important point, he added, “it said that ‘this action will be documented in the minutes.’”

deHarte assumed that the action would be documented immediately, particularly in the board’s monthly meeting minutes, with supporting information to justify the board’s actions. It turns out that no information about Princetta’s gift was documented.

“If I was going to voice objection, I wanted to voice objection based off of an understanding of the facts of the decision making process that they followed,” deHarte said. “I needed documentation.”

According to Princetta, the board had voted to wave a bylaw against board members receiving financial compensation to give the $5,000 gift to him.

“It was for service that went above and beyond the call of duty and the board decided that they would provide this gift to me as a one time only thing,” Princetta said.

“The bylaws do provide for the fact that the board can waive any particular bylaw as long as it is not creating any infringement on federal or state statues. So obviously, we felt perfectly free to wave that particular bylaw, Secretary Carl Worrell said.

deHarte said he was not informed that the board had waved the bylaw until after he was dismissed. “I actually just heard about it from a reporter yesterday,” deHarte said.

“Anyways,” deHarte said, “I am not aware of that in anyone’s bylaws, nor San Diego Pride’s. It’s a frowned upon practice. Bylaws are in place because they are the rules, guide and law of the organization.”

With no mention of the transaction in the board’s October meeting minutes, deHarte thought it would be in the board’s November meeting minutes but that meeting was cancelled.

Meanwhile, two board members resigned in early December: Ebony Burnett and Secretary Romer De Los Santos II. Both Burnett and Santos cited the organization’s direction as a reason for stepping down, both deHarte and Princetta said.

When the board’s December meeting came around and deHarte received its minutes, he said it had one sentence about the board’s action in October: “It said, ‘There was an electronic vote taken to award Dr. Princetta $5,000.’”

At that point deHarte thought, “I’m not going to let it go on any further. I’m going to speak out against the action.”

deHarte attended the December board meeting and didn’t say anything but did request a “whistleblower meeting” with Karim the treasure the next morning on Dec. 17.

“I followed the steps that an employee is supposed to file when filing a grievance or complaint,” deHarte said. “So that’s the reasoning behind the specific steps I was taking.”

At the Dec. 17 meeting, deHarte told Karim about his concerns over Princetta’s $5,000 gift.

“I told him why I felt it was wrong and a violation of public trust,” deHarte said.

On the same day, deHarte met with Princetta and asked him to return the $5,000 and step down from the board.

“I came in to see if any checks needed to be signed and he asked me to step down from the organization, and I left stating that I would reflect on that request, and that I would take it to the remaining board of directors, and that I would get back to him,” Princetta said.

Princetta said he met with the board of directors and they decided that he would remain on the board and as its chair. Princetta then sent an e-mail on Dec. 29 to deHarte informing him of the board’s decision.

On Dec. 30, deHarte spoke with Prides accountant Lawrence Lichter and attorney Todd Stevens about the matter.

According to deHarte, both the attorney and accountant said that the boards actions were “‘wrong on every level’” and that “‘they’re going to be public perception issues, a loss of trust in the community’ and that ‘the money needs to be repaid and resignation is certainly in order.’”

Stevens was contacted for this story, but said that he was “not representing Pride on this issue” and “have no other comment to give.”

After deHarte sent an e-mail – one on Dec. 31 and again on Jan. 4 – to the board voicing his concerns and asking for the money to be returned and for Princetta to step down, the three remaining board members – Princetta, Karim and Worrell – entered Pride offices Jan. 4 and dismissed deHarte.

Worrell did the talking, deHarte said.

“He said Ron, ‘We’re here in response to your letter last night and here to inform you that effective immediately your services are no longer required by San Diego Pride. Remove your personal belongings, give us the key to the building and leave us your address to mail your last check,’” deHarte said. After grabbing his personal belongings, deHarte was escorted to the door by the board members.

When asked if deHarte’s dismissal had anything to do with speaking out against Princetta and the board, Worrell said, “No, we all appreciated what Ron has done as executive director. He’s done really good things for Pride and the community. [But] there have been issues of disparity on the organization, and you know it’s just the time to make the move.”

deHarte said he is not the only one against the board’s actions.

“Pride’s entire staff is sending word to the board on the fact that their absolutely against the fact that money could be mismanaged this way,” deHarte said.

Within 24 hours of the board’s dismissal of deHarte, two Pride staff members resigned: Production Assistant Jeffrey Redondo and Director of Development Ken St. Pierre.

“Ever since I knew about the gift to Princetta, I had to resign, Redondo said. “It’s against my principles and what I stand for.”

“And I believe Ron was fired for blowing the whistle,” Redondo added.

“I could not, in good conscience, continue to work for this organization under the leadership of the current board of directors,” St. Pierre said. “The board violated the trust of the community with the misuse of charitable funds by directing $5,000 into the pocket of the chair of the board.”

Like deHarte, St. Pierre also believes that Princetta should step down from the board.

“He should resign from the board, he should pay back the $5,000 and he should apologize to the people of San Diego for this tragic scandal,” St. Pierre said.

Ben Cartwright, who has volunteered for San Diego Pride for 11 years, said he believes Ron was fired for speaking out.

“That certainly smells like a violation of whistleblower policies and is illegal. It was certainly not handled correctly and the three board members look bad,” he said.

Cartwright said the feeling amongst many volunteers is anger.

“They are angry that the board violated their trust and faith in the organization. They give countless hours of their lives to this organization and this just feels like a slap in the face and betrayal to many of them,” Cartwright said.

Ben Orgovan, Pride’s parade setup coordinator, is another Pride volunteer who is upset over the boards’ actions.

“I think that Phillip taking a ‘gift’ of $5,000 is outrageous and completely against the spirit of the organization. I would never have donated any money to them if I thought it was just going in a board members pocket,” Orgovan said.

“As for Ron, I think that it is completely unfair for him to have been dismissed for raising concerns about such an obvious misuse of funds. He was just trying to look out for the organization,” he added.

Late Tuesday night, in an “open letter to the community” (pg. 27) the remaining San Diego LGBT Pride Board of Directors stated that Princetta would return the $5,000 back to the organization.

“As pure as the intention was behind it, the stipend paid to Philip Princetta will be paid back to San Diego LGBT Pride in full,” said the statement.

Additionally, Pride has handed out more than $12,000 in bonuses to staff members, including deHarte, who also received a $5,000 bonus almost the same week that Board Chair Princetta accepted his $5,000 gift. The three board members said that since deHarte has been Pride’s executive director, he has received more than $20,000 in bonuses.

Past Pride board member and City Commissioner Nicole Murray-Ramirez, who initially broke the story on GLTNewsNow.com, said the current dispute is “the saddest page in the history of Pride.”

“The three remaining board members have lost the complete confidence of our community. Mr. Princetta should return the $5,000 gift immediately,” Murray-Ramirez said, adding that Pride should also implement “a freeze to ensure that there are no bonuses or gifts to be given to officers during these difficult economic times.”

A half dozen other past Pride board members including Murray-Ramirez are organizing a town hall meeting to discuss the current dispute and future of San Diego Pride this Sunday, Jan. 10 at the San Diego LGBT Community Center at 6 p.m.