refusing to budge

San Diego Pride’s Scandal-Plauged Board Members Won’t Resign. Is It Good Enough They’re Very Sorry?

The remaining members of embattled board of San Diego Pride — which voted to amend its own bylaws to award a $5,000 bonus to board president Phillip Princetta and stirred up all sorts of controversy — does not plan to resign. But they will apologize!

“The Board of Directors of San Diego Pride has no intention of resigning,” write Princetta (pictured), Treasurer Mike Karim and Secretary Carl Worrell in a statement. “Instead, we are going to apologize to our community and ask them to open their hearts to forgiveness.” Haha, that’s cute.

Of course one person who won’t be accepting their apology anytime soon is Ron deHarte, SD Pride’s executive director — or he was, until he was fired on Monday, reports SDGLN — who raised objections to the cash gift. (Officially, the board fire deHarte over “irreconcilable differences,” and not his whistleblowing.) You’ll remember deHarte’s name from when he was attacked in June at an equality rally

The board members go on to say, “Ninety-nine percent of what this community has read so far on the issue is inaccurate and based on pure spin. It is a plan to remove the current governing body of this organization and ‘take it over,’ plain and simple.” They won’t point out the 1 percent of the media coverage that is accurate, but we’re going to add this nugget: The appearance of impropriety alone is enough to damage to reputation of San Diego Pride, and is going to damage the organization’s fundraising efforts. Because what donor wants to write a check to a gay group that’s been quietly re-routing its own bylaws to financially reward its leaders?

As SDGLN op-ed contributor Arlon Jay Staggs notes (without mention SD Pride by name): “If you look past the logos and bumper stickers, you‘ll see how the people who lead the foremost LGBT equality organizations in San Diego are extremely willing to accept checks and volunteer hours with one hand, while slapping its very lifeblood in the face with the other. You’ll start to see how shallow their million-dollar sound bites really are. You’ll notice how appreciation, acknowledgement, and contribution interest them far less than looking good and avoiding looking bad.”

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