*
Ordered by the U.S. District Court here to report by April 14 on how they intended to handle the remaining count in the otherwise dismissed NCUA chartering manual case, the banker and CU sides signaled no agreement in a joint court filing that merely staked out their respective-and irreconciled-positions.
According to the filing, the bankers want dismissal, "without prejudice," of the remaining count-a complaint against NCUA-approved charter amendments for five community CUs-paving their way for a speedy appeal but also affording the opportunity of refiling the single charge at a later date.
But the CU side said it would support such open-ended dismissal only if the bankers stipulated that any refiling of the charge would occur only in the same court where the CUs won their victory and if they agreed not to oppose intervention by any current CU co-intervener.
They also had to agree that the dismissal in no way affects the defense available to co-interveners in any future litigation on the count.
Though no agreement was in evidence on April 14, by April 19, however, the American Bankers Association (ABA) indicated it was ready to agree to all three CU stipulations, with only a minor reservation about the last one, Deputy General Counsel for Litigation Michael Crotty said.
* NCUA Board member Yolanda Wheat's Communications and Administrative Specialist Rosemary George left Wheat's employ April 19 for an interim position here at CU think tank, Callahan and Associates.
George, who was a public relations manager at NAFCU before joining Wheat's staff for what turned out to be only nine months, said her departure had been amicable and that she was glad to have had the opportunity of working with Wheat. George is the fourth Wheat staffer to hold the communications slot since Wheat's arrival in 1997.
* The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is urging NCUA to abandon its current plan-passed 2-1 at the November board meeting-to circulate a voluntary low-income service survey among federal credit unions.
In an informal communication to the agency April 14, OMB official Alexander Hunt suggested that the survey was too vague and unscientific to be of any "practical utility," and should not be used in its proposed form.
"A voluntary survey of all credit unions is likely to generate only anecdotal and potentially biased results," Hunt told NCUA's Director of Administration James Baylen. "It would therefore be inappropriate to use these results `to guide NCUA in the policy making process' and `determine the need for regulations.' "
His remarks were similar to those voiced on both sides of the survey controversy-by NCUA Chairman Norman D'Amours, who believes a mandatory survey is needed to collect meaningful information, and by NAFCU, which agrees that the current survey is flawed but thinks no survey is necessary.
Offering to discuss the matter further with the agency, Hunt suggested that the survey should either be rejected, resubmitted as an "anecdotal" survey with proper justification, or be replaced by a "generalizable" scientific survey.
D'Amours plans to resubmit a mandatory survey proposal to the NCUA Board.
* Reportedly, NCUA officials Nicholas Veghts, Jane Walters, and Kent Buckham-recently disciplined by the NCUA Board because of their alleged involvement in the agency's 1996-1997 hiring scandal-have filed their appeals with the Merit Systems Protection Board here.
* Over a hundred angry members of the Polish and Slavic FCU (P&SFCU)-recently released from its NCUA conservatorship to an appointed board-are scheduled to descend on NCUA headquarters on Polish Constitution Day, May 3, to protest restrictive provisions of the reinstatement, says ousted P&SFCU Director Andrew Kaminski.
The scheduled protest hopes to drive home to the NCUA Board the intensity of the objections that some 2000 P&SFCU members have toward reinstatement provisions prohibiting any new elections for P&SFCU's NCUA-appointed board until 2001.
*
NCUA Board member aspirant Geoff Bacino, president of the consulting group, Bacino and Associates, is the White House's top pick to fill the next board vacancy, an informed government source said.
The insider confirmed that the only thing standing between Bacino and a board nomination is his in-progress FBI investigation, which may take weeks or months more to complete. -
gmcorrigan@mindspring.com
