By Leslie Layton

© 2009 chicoSol

 

Barbara Vlamis, the tough-minded woman who has led the Butte Environmental Council for the past 18 years and been one of this region's fiercest high-profile environmental advocates, has been fired by her board of directors, ChicoSol has learned.

 

Vlamis was dismissed as executive director June 25 and is no longer employed by the council after refusing to accept another position at BEC in advocacy, sources told ChicoSol. The action will be announced to about 800 BEC supporters in early July – after board member Jim Gregg returns to Chico from an out-of-town trip -- and had still not been made public on June 29.

 

For several decades, BEC has led the community in recycling, education and park clean-ups. Later, it began to fight urban sprawl – often successfully -- that would have otherwise destroyed much of the open space, including hundreds of acres of environmentally-sensitive wetlands, that Chicoans enjoy. And under the leadership of Vlamis, it has sometimes been effective in fighting powerful developer and business interests with litigation.

 

Vlamis's firing may prove fractious for an environmental advocacy organization that is well established but in need of new funding for its fight over water resources, said Roy Ekland, a BEC supporter.

 

Ekland called Vlamis's removal a "gift" to water agencies and to California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. "She was a strident spokesperson for the right of the Northern Sacramento Valley to control its groundwater resources," Ekland said.

 

A non-profit, BEC is governed by a seven-member board of directors. Supporters become BEC members or "angels" by making a sliding-scale donation. For several years, there have been rumors of conflict between Vlamis and some BEC supporters, and at times, high turnover on the board even though the organization was enjoying strong community support.

 

Several of BEC's board members could not be reached for comment. Board members Mike McLaughlin and Lynn Barris said they could neither confirm nor deny the firing. ChicoSol was told by sources who asked not to be identified that Vlamis had been fired in a unanimous vote.

 

Board member Robin Huffman, contacted June 29, said only that Vlamis had been "removed" from her post, and that BEC was undergoing a "transition."

 

"She's been stressed and overworked and has been telling the board that," Huffman said of Vlamis, "and it showed."

 

The board hoped it could split the functions of the executive director's post that Vlamis held until recently. The idea was to hire a new executive director who would assume administrative responsibilities, and keep Vlamis on in an advocacy position, Huffman said.

 

"I wouldn't have joined the board without the wonderful work and advocacy of Barbara," said Huffman, who became a board member in March. "She's a soldier for the cause, a warrior for the environment. This wasn't an action the board took lightly."

 

Huffman said she was saddened by Vlamis's refusal to stay on, and it would be important in the coming months for the environmental community to "stay on the same course."

 

Ekland, an attorney who has helped BEC on a pro bono basis, accompanied Vlamis at the June 25 board meeting at her request. He said the advocacy position she was urged to accept was in fact a demotion and that she refused it. "I think it was inadvisable to bifurcate the leadership position," Ekland said. "They wanted to demote her and they put her in an untenable position so she would resign."

 

Ekland said Vlamis neither accepted a demotion or resigned. "She has forced the board to confront the consequences of their actions," he said.

 

But the proposal to bifurcate the executive position isn't new. It was floated in an October 2007 letter to the board that appears to have been signed by 16 BEC supporters. The letter, a copy of which was forwarded ChicoSol late June 29, referred to ongoing conflict between the board and executive director and mentions there had been several attempts to resolve problems related to "communication and power sharing" through mediation.

 

ChicoSol was unable to contact Vlamis. At BEC's Second Street office June 29, a staffer said she wouldn't comment and there were matters that had to be handled with "utmost delicacy, respect and consideration."

 

Ekland dismissed the possibility that Vlamis was removed because she alienated supporters or board members. "Certainly they did not discuss that June 25," he said, adding that this board had "relinquished control" over BEC affairs.

 

Ekland said the board had failed to meet its goals in fundraising and membership, a point he and Vlamis made at the June 25 meeting. As a result, he said Vlamis had been "run ragged" but "very successful" in community fundraising.

 

"She is not warm and cuddly," Ekland said. "But she's exactly the type of person you need to deal with the onslaught from the Department of Water Resources, the Drought Water Bank... You want someone who's not going to roll over."

 

The real problem, Ekland argued, are board members who are more comfortable with "the soft side of environmentalism." The board "didn't appreciate the confrontation politics the Drought Water Bank has required."

 

The Drought Water Bank, he said, is a Schwarzenegger creation. The agency wants to transfer control over surface and groundwater resources in the Northern Sacramento Valley to what it calls "needy districts"--  irrigation districts that serve corporate farms on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley.

 

Huffman called the work Vlamis had done on water issues "phenomenal."

 

The BEC board held several closed-door sessions prior to the June 25 meeting that apparently dealt with Vlamis's possible removal. Though she was invited to a June 2 meeting, the meeting was held within a couple of days of the death of Vlamis's mother, and Vlamis advised the board she therefore would not be able to attend, Ekland said.

 

Huffman said the board tried to work around Vlamis's personal situation. "We tried to get her to the table to talk about this. She was really avoiding us. She was not kept out of the loop."

 

Ekland said that at the June 25 meeting, four board members announced they would be resigning prior to September. So Ekland suggested the board document its concerns with Vlamis's leadership, give her a chance to respond in writing and forward those materials to the incoming board. "I am perplexed by the action of the board," Ekland said. "The board has blinked. It's back pedaled.

 

"All I can say is, as a BEC member, I'm meeting with other members. We're looking for ways to confront this capricious and arbitrary action by the board. We'll see whether the membership supports the board or Barbara."

 

Leslie Layton, a freelance writer, publishes chicoSol. She can be reached at chicosol@sbcglobal.net