Over 130 people filled The Center’s auditorium last Monday to hear explanations and put forth contrasting opinions concerning the manner in which San Diego LGBT Pride handled the discovery and subsequent resignation of four workers who were registered as sex offenders on the Megan’s Law Web site. The meeting was organized by Ray Drew, past executive director of the Family Pride Coalition, and City Commissioner Nicole Murray-Ramirez.

Drew said he lost trust in the Pride board, felt it was inappropriate for sex offenders to be working at Pride in any capacity, and now wants all board members to step down due to their error in judgment.

“I believe the judgment of the Pride board was wrong, not just once but over and over and over,” said Drew. “I believe the Pride board in the end finally simply lied to us. In their arrogance they felt like they knew better than us…. The issue here tonight is how this organization can continue, and I believe it can continue best with a clean slate.”

Murray-Ramirez wants to go with a plan to have a majority of emeritus board members replaced as a compromise.

“At a recent Pride board meeting, this compromise received no action or endorsement… This is not about a takeover of Pride, but about change,” said Murray-Ramirez. “I most respectfully beg of the Pride board to do the right thing and accept the compromise of a majority of new board members, or resign.”

Some audience members were not in favor of Murray-Ramirez’s compromise and objected to his recommendations for board candidates.

A joint letter written by state Senator Christine Kehoe and Deputy Mayor Toni Atkins, read by Atkins’ GLBT community liaison George Biagi at the meeting, said the community’s confidence in the board has been shaken, and that the board should recruit new board members with experience and professional credentials. The letter said they hope the Pride board takes the “necessary steps to improve … policies and procedures,” and offered aid in assisting with the task.

Newly appointed Pride co-chair Philip Princetta addressed the crowd on behalf of the board of directors, and apologized to the community for creating the controversy, explaining that it was never the intent of any board member to deceive or lie.

Princetta said a committee has been formed to develop a screening process for staff and volunteers involved with Pride’s year-round activities and festival, and said they are consulting with law enforcement, legal advisers and other community organizations to develop screening guidelines.

“We guarantee that we will have a screening process in place that our community will be proud of,” said Princetta.

Shouts of disapproval from the audience ensued after Princetta announced the board had asked for executive director Suanne Pauley’s resignation earlier that day. The request for her resignation was made after a board member from Los Angeles’ Christopher Street West Pride parade told Pride that Martin Ramirez, a clown who worked in Pride’s Children’s Garden since the 1990s, was also registered as a sex offender on Megan’s list.

“The reason why the executive director was released from employment was because she was not forthright with information when we needed to act,” Princetta told the crowd. “The executive director was not asked to leave or resign for issues that began on June 29. The board of directors has a set of rules and a set of guidelines, and over this course of events that began in June and ended now, that is why the board made the decision to ask for the resignation. That’s all I can say on that this very minute.”

Princetta said that several individuals who were interested in serving on the board had come forward, and the next step would be an interview with those individuals at the next board meeting on Aug. 17. He said two new board members would be announced shortly thereafter.

Following that announcement at Monday’s meeting, Judi Schaim, a longtime San Diego GLBT activist who has served on Pride’s board as a co-chair in the past, told the Gay & Lesbian Times she offered to serve on the board but was told she would need to apply like everyone else.

“I told them, ‘If you invite me, I will be on the board,’” Schaim said. “I was told they would think about it.”

On Sunday, Schaim said the Pride board told her she would need to go through an interview process, which would take place at the Pride board’s next meeting on Wednesday. But on Tuesday, incoming Pride co-chair Anne Hewitt called to tell her that the interview was cancelled, and offered Schaim a potential position on an advisory board Pride may develop, or the opportunity to apply for a board position at Pride’s Aug. 31 annual open house.

To Schaim, this signaled that they were not interested in her help, she said. “It’s really tragic,” she said. “It breaks my heart that this board is possibly destroying this event that has been around for 30 years.”

Princetta said the reason for canceling Schaim’s interview at the Aug. 17 meeting was because the full board would not be present at the meeting, and the organization wants to ensure that each Pride board member has an opportunity to meet and interview all candidates.

Debra Self, one of this year’s Pride co-chairs who was stepping down at the end of August as part of the board’s standard bylaws, resigned her position early, saying that Pride wasn’t sticking to their three-point action plan, which they issued Aug. 12.

“Part of that plan was to immediately appoint two new board members,” she said. “And, yesterday I learned that some members of the board have decided not to follow through with that; that they believe now is not the right time, and I have watched as lifelong friends of Pride – whose only motive was to assist Pride during an extremely difficult time – have had their motives called into question. I have watched as a deaf ear has been turned on community leaders offering advice, support and good counsel. I have seen people – who have done nothing but do what they believe to be in the best interest of Pride – attacked and vilified by fellow board members, and so, with only 15 days left, I resigned. I could have easily ridden out these last 15 days, but my resignation signifies my loss of confidence in the board to make decisions that are in the best interest of the organization and the community.”

An open house to recruit new board members is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. on Aug. 31 at the San Diego LGBT Pride office.