New board puts Metiva on leave

WASILLA — An additional board member resigned and six new members were appointed to the Greater Wasilla Chamber of Commerce board of directors after executive director Cheryl Metiva requested administrative leave Tuesday.

Metiva began the chamber’s first meeting since five of the seven directors resigned by reading a statement she previously released to the media. In it she said she resolved previous credit card charges with the past president and did not have an opportunity to address the current board’s concerns about her expenditures. She looks forward to an audit and the opportunity to explain any matters in question.

Metiva requested administrative leave in order to best serve the audit process, she said, and will remain fully available to auditor. She did not want to make any other statement now and concluded by saying it was a privilege serving the chamber for the last five years.

In a press release issued Thursday, the new board of directors said Metiva has been placed on paid administrative leave for the three weeks she is entitled to under her vacation policy. After the three weeks, she will remain on unpaid leave pending the completion of the third party audit. The board will decide whether to retain Metiva based on the results of the audit. If she is retained, she will be reimbursed for the period of her unpaid leave.

After Metiva read her statement, Chas St. George, one of the two board members remaining, read his own statement at Tuesday’s meeting. He said he came on after the board had already made discoveries about Metiva’s expenditures and advocated for a third-party audit from the beginning. The chamber deserves a complete and unbiased assessment about its well-being, he said. Because of doubts about his impartiality and in order to avoid any perception he would impede a fair investigation, he tendered his resignation effective immediately.

Quentin Algood, the last remaining board member at this point, said she was at a number of meetings where there were suggested and hinted and failed accusations, but she had never seen any indication the law was broken.

It’s clear a third-party audit needed to be done, she said, but the chamber needed a board of directors before any action could be taken. There is nothing in the by-laws about what to do in a situation like this, she said, but she is willing to do what the members want.

St. George said the chamber needed to move toward filling the board of directors because they are currently not in compliance with their by-laws. A membership quorum was possible at Tuesday’s meeting because there was at least 10 percent of the 328 members in attendance.

A motion was made and passed to call for an emergency election. Volunteers to serve on the board were called for, and six people stood up. There was then a motion introduced to have Algood appoint one new member, have those two appoint a third, the three appoint a fourth and so on until the board was full of seven directors.

Mike Gabel was the first volunteer to be appointed. He is the Wasilla branch manager for United Rentals and has served on the board in the past. Marcus Reum — the second appointee — works for Country Financial and was the vice chair of the Economic Enterprise committee for the chamber in 2008. He said he is friends with both the Metivas and the five directors who resigned, so members can judge his bias as they may.

Next came Wal-Mart employee Chris Abernathy. He said he moved to Wasilla from North Carolina just eight months ago, and he doesn’t know any of the parties involved. David Baker was appointed fourth. He works for Wells Fargo and said he has only been in the Valley for a year. The board then selected Rizz Arbelovsky, the owner of Nails Plus. Julie Busch, co-owner of Buschwacker Decoys and president of the Mat-Su Anglers Club, rounded out the now-complete board of seven directors.

The new directors will sit on the board only until new members are selected during the regularly scheduled election in November. The board has selected Abernathy as the new president.

The statement released Thursday also said the new board members are getting quotes for an independent third party audit. How the chamber will pay for the audit will be determined once the cost and time frame are pinned down, Abernathy said.

Assistant Director Lyn Carden has agreed to act as the interim executive director. She is on vacation until Wednesday, and the chamber office has been staffed by volunteers from the at-large membership.

“We are going to try and continue business as usual,” Abernathy said when asked if the scheduled events like the Silver Salmon Derby are going to happen this year.

The next board meeting is Monday at 5:15 p.m. at the chamber office in the Wasilla train depot. It is open to the membership.

While not present at Tuesday’s meeting, Marty Metiva released a statement of his own. He said the Wasilla chamber has been a recipient of the Polar Plunge fundraiser in the past. The check the chamber received from the Plunge was a donation to help the chamber with their budget shortfall and preceded any allegations about the executive director, he said. He concluded by saying he overreacted to the board’s decision to split the money between the non-profits the 2009 Plunge supported, taking their response personally rather than professionally.

Contact Todd L. Disher at todd.disher@frontiersman.com or (907) 352-2252.