Former Center board member Richard Woulfe, a bisexual activist who was dismissed from The Center’s board of directors Sept. 7, has accused the nonprofit organization of eschewing diversity on the board and neglecting to enforce their policy of background checks.

In a widely-circulated letter published last week in the Gay & Lesbian Times, Woulfe, who was dismissed “without reason” from the board, attributes his dismissal to a “pattern of hypocrisy” he says started when The Center began requiring criminal background checks for board members, a policy that has always been in place for Center staff and volunteers, which the board voted to include themselves in 18 months ago. He also accused The Center of not giving the application of “a highly-qualified, PhD, transgender, bisexual candidate” to serve on the board of directors fair consideration, and said the board voted to dismiss him because he “was willing to dissent.”

“I’m not alleging that they’re breaking any laws, necessarily, but I think the taxpayer community in San Diego and the LGBT community has a right to know that in my opinion, these people are being extremely disingenuous, when they’re out there saying their fulfilling the mission of The Center, when, in my opinion, they’re really not doing that,” Woulfe told the Gay & Lesbian Times.

Woulfe is not considering filing a lawsuit or formal complaint, but feels that The Center has strayed from representing the GLBT community’s interests.

“They’re in a period of time where there’s a group of them that have a vision for where they want The Center to go,” he said. “They’ve changed the board bylaws in the past year to allow for a more politically-motivated direction for The Center, thus the embracing of the same-sex marriage issue, the LGBT get-out-the-vote campaign, things like that, and I think that their vision became increasingly political and my vision of The Center is: When you’re spending $2.2 million of city block-grant and San Diego County block-grant taxpayer money for a nonprofit, I have extreme concerns that they are using those funds – rather than push mental health services and expansion of that, and reaching out to youth, and really focusing on the areas that there are extreme needs in our community – they’re out their doing all these political things.”

Center board chair Richard Valdez addressed Woulfe’s concerns in an interview with the Gay & Lesbian Times, saying the political activities of The Center, which are nonpartisan, are a form of community empowerment.

“The Center is committed to helping each person in our community to register and vote in every election, regardless of which candidate or party they’re inclined towards,” Valdez said. “We think that participation in the civic process is really essential to the empowerment of equality, and frankly I’m astonished that anyone would object to that.”

With regard to marriage equality, Valdez said The Center did choose to take a position on that, specifically on the proposed Federal Marriage Amendment. “We believe that equal rights and responsibilities for all Americans are guaranteed by our Constitution and are central to American values,” he said. “So moving our community towards full equality is central to The Center’s mission, and we don’t see equality as partisan. So again, I don’t see the reason for the criticism in that regard.”

Valdez disagreed that The Center is straying from its mission, and explained that political activities do not siphon money from other programs or lessen The Center’s responsiveness to community needs. “I think that The Center is very responsive to all of the various needs in the community – mental health being one of them, youth being another, women’s resources, seniors, public policy, you name it,” he said. “The community has shown that all of those are important, and resources are provided to each of them to the extent that we can provide them. Certainly not enough is being allocated towards the education, advocacy, the public policy component; I would completely disagree with any suggestion in that regard.”

Though it is clearly stated in the bylaws that a board member can be removed without reason, Woulfe explained, he wrote in the letter that he thinks part of the reason he was ousted from the board was because of a visit he paid to the Hillcrest Youth Center several months ago, which was deemed “inappropriate” by other board members, he said.

At The Center there are two procedures for Hillcrest Youth Center contact: a volunteer training course that is standard for all Center volunteers and an additional meeting with the director of the Hillcrest Youth Center prior to having contact with youth.

Woulfe wrote in his letter that Phil Katcher, a youth center volunteer and stakeholder who had not been background-checked, barbecues regularly at the Hillcrest Youth Center as a caterer.

Valdez said Katcher had indeed been background-checked and gone through the standard volunteer training process prior to regularly volunteering at the youth center.

“He is a tremendous volunteer and a tremendous contributor to the Hillcrest Youth Center,” Valdez said. “We value him greatly and I am personally offended for him and on behalf of him that his name has been brought into this and certain implications made about him. He has had a criminal background check. Period.”

Woulfe’s accusation is based on confusion over the youth center’s policies on visitors versus regular volunteers, Valdez said. All visitors are fully supervised by staff for the duration of their visit. All regular volunteers go through volunteer training and are background-checked. In the case Woulfe brought into question, Katcher had held quarterly barbecues at the youth center under full staff supervision, Valdez explained, and when it was decided that the barbecue would become a regular monthly event, Katcher completed the standard training and background check.

“Those people who are in a group setting, not one-on-one with youth, in those instances there isn’t the need to have the criminal background check because it wouldn’t be considered more than incidental contact with youth,” Valdez said. “Where the decision is between two, three visits and more than that, without any one-on-one contact, is sort of a judgment call … it’s one of those things we will kind of look at and decide is there a hard and fast rule, is there not, when does somebody need to have the criminal background check?”

When asked when Katcher had the background check, Valdez was unable to answer the question, but did say that it was not as a result of Woulfe’s accusations. In a phone conversation with Katcher regarding when he received his background check, Katcher instructed the Gay & Lesbian Times to speak with Shawn Ingram, director of development for The Center, or speak to his attorney. Shawn Ingram stated that he was also unable to come up with the exact date, stating that once that information is received, a box is checked and the documents are shredded, which is standard procedure. However, he did approximate that it happened sometime in early to mid-September. While the exact date cannot be confirmed, early to mid-September is the time that Woulfe began going public with his allegations, including meeting with the editor of the Gay & Lesbian Times.

Valdez said that there are no other volunteers, donors, stakeholders or others at The Center who have not gone through the required processes.

Woulfe feels there is a lack of diversity on the board of directors, and that most of the board members added in the past year have been white male and female gays and lesbians.

The board of directors consists of 20 individuals, Valdez said. “The board has members that are gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, HIV-positive and HIV-negative, parents and non-parents, members of communities of color, like myself, and different levels of education,” he said. “Is it an ideal representation? No, but we always work towards making it more diverse. With 20 board members, it’s difficult to represent all aspects of diversity, but we will continue working to make the board as diverse as possible. As a person of color being told that [the board lacks diversity], I won’t stand for it. ”

Woulfe told the Gay & Lesbian Times that the motivation behind his letter was not to see The Center closed, but to address what he perceives to be a lack of forthrightness about the issue of criminal background checks.

“The Center as an entity I have no issue with whatsoever,” he said. “ … What I’m wanting out of all this is I want these… people to be held accountable for the fact that they pushed a criminal background check down the throats of the community based upon lying to the community about why they needed to do it.”

Valdez said the decision to include board members in the criminal background checks was an open dialogue that started several months prior to the board’s vote on the issue. The discussion included legal and insurance guidelines, transparency, equity and what constitutes the best practices for the organization, he explained.

“I believe a key point that needs to be stressed here is the difference between disagreement and deception,” Valdez said. “It was a contentious issue. He [Woulfe] wasn’t the only one to vote the way he voted. I believe wholeheartedly in dissention – that’s how we make good decisions, through discussion. It is difficult to understand where he thinks the deception is.”

Valdez also distinguished between the issue of requiring criminal background checks for board members and Woulfe’s perception that The Center was not following the procedure for a Hillcrest Youth Center volunteer, saying it is a case of apples and oranges. “The issue of criminal background checks was only for the board,” Valdez said. “It has always been in place for volunteers.”

Woulfe, who recently aired his complaints on Steve Yuhas’ conservative radio show, said he is discussing his concerns with political leaders. “If those people go and they look at it [The Center] and they say, ‘You know what, we’re comfortable with what’s going on there, then fine,” Woulfe said. “Then I will go back to my life, and go back to organizations where the politics aren’t this thick, and you don’t have this sort of thing going on.”

“I agree with Richard Woulfe when he says ‘Watch what they do,’” Valdez said, referring to a statement Woulfe makes in his letter about The Center board. “In truth, when people watch what we do, they are impressed. There is an amazing amount of good work being done here.”

- Russell O’Brien contributed to this story