Stuck in the Big Muddy: Suspect Votes, Suspensions Resignations, Cover-Up Conspiracies, Fraud and Fury
The USTA NorCal Board’s Cycle of Anger Flares Again

Despite anguished calls for peace, USTA NorCal’s political landscape crackled with a white-light intensity amidst a staccato beat of suspensions, resignations, sanctions, threats and accusations of buying elections, phony signatures, voter repression, conspiracies to cover-up election fraud and claims of misuse of corporate contributions. As in ‘04, there were four different presidencies and the factional battles were largely about control, power and procedures. For the second time in four years, the USTA national office eventually intervened.

Fred Tierney, Dwight Johnson and Margie Peterman were all part of the fray.

In particular, USTA NorCal’s annual meeting exploded in a firestorm of anger when election committee chairman Fred Tierney came forward with 131 new member organizations representing San Jose and Stockton schools, along with voting proxies that were in the name of two employees of Nationwide Insurance, where Tierney’s ally, USTA NorCal President Dwight Johnson, is an executive. With votes from those new organizations alone, whose membership cost $3,275, Tierney and Johnson now controlled over 25 percent of the group’s votes. The memberships were purchased as part of Nationwide’s outreach program. Unsubstantiated charges also emerged that Tierney maneuvered inappropriately before the election and director Jean Hassoun asserted that Tierney attempted to greatly reduce the voting power of numerous public park-based clubs. Critics asked, “Where’s the moral compass?” and raucous exchanges engulfed the Board meeting. Johnson said the gathering was a “full scale riot. No one was listening.” Another said matters were “ugly and violently evil.”

Tierney’s supporters asked, “Why not?” and said all their moves were legal, while Johnson, although silent at the time, later contended that “this is something that popped up months ago and just happens to run parallel to what we’re doing politically. These school programs will turn out to be the best thing to happen to NorCal, especially since big money is now being put into after school programs by Schwarzenegger.”

But opponents claimed that the move was a way to influence the election; that the 11th hour timing was suspect; that schools weren’t even notified that they were being signed up; that to get programs schools don’t even have to be USTA members and that the president and the chair of the election committee should be neutral arbitrators who are above the fray. Plus, Tierney asked for the money back if the new memberships were not to get full membership rights (including, one would assume, the right to vote). Amidst the fury, Tierney withdrew his 131 new proxies and longtime volunteers Andrea Norman, Patrick King, Sandi Kaney, and Alvin Hom resigned.

In December, the battle flared again when the newly elected Board suspended Tierney and Johnson (who director Hassoun claimed was too inactive a leader) for a year for “bringing reproach to the section.” This was the second time in two years that Johnson had been removed as president. Also, Paul Kepler, long a powerful force in USTA NorCal circles (he was removed as president in ‘04, then regained the presidency and then resigned), reemerged as treasurer. His longtime ally Margie Peterman, USPTA NorCal’s Executive Director, was elected as the new president. There were also exchanges on whether former president Mark Manning inappropriately signed proxies and an investigation was launched.

Following their suspensions, Johnson and Tierney filed grievances with the USTA, contending that the NorCal Board had no right to suspend them and there was no due process. The USTA concurred and USTA NorCal Executive Director Bruce Hunt told IT, “Since the suspensions are null and void, all actions after that are null and void. So NorCal now has just one officer. Dwight Johnson is the president.”

In addition, Johnson and Tierney filed grievances with the USTA against Peterman, Kepler, Manning and VP Jack Drimmer based on varied charges, including a forged signature, “a coordinated effort to unseat the president, [and] to cover up election irregularities,” as well as inappropriate use of corporate sponsorship dollars.

The USTA has not yet responded to these grievances. But they named two national Board members to oversee the NorCal Board and issued a grave warning, stating that NorCal’s “long history of continuing problems...puts at risk the USTA’s goals” and this turmoil shouldn’t disrupt the staff who they “hold in high regard” and if “there is further deterioration” there would be serious consequences. On top of all this, Hunt asserted that certain board members were planning to fire him and other staffers and if this occurred NorCal would face “legal liability based upon a hostile work environment...and wrongful discharges.”

At a special January meeting as IT went to press, the NorCal Board reasserted its position in a nuanced way in order to try to comply with USTA rules. Peterman was re-installed as president, again replacing Johnson, whose powers as immediate past president were suspended for three years. Tierney was allowed to remain a USTA NorCal Board member and may play USTA events. But the NorCal Board also moved to suspend him for three years from any kind of governance: He’s a board member in name only, since he can not sponsor, discuss or vote on issues. However, three USTA observers who were on hand said the moves violated USTA rules and might expose the group to lawsuits and USTA sanctions. When IT asked Bruce Hunt whether he could work with the new Board, he said, “No comment.”

The bottom line: amidst the quagmire there are few clear exit strategies as USTA NorCal finds itself stuck waste deep in the big muddy. But stay tuned, developments will be fast and furious.

—IT