WASHINGTON — The public effort to convince a majority of the $331 million Lafayette Federal Credit Union to convert their credit union to a mutual bank charter got off to a rough start.

U.S. Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) took the most public stand when, at an Aug. 24 press conference, she sharply attacked the credit union's leadership and board for the lack of transparency in the conversion process so far.

“The leadership wants to conduct the balloting first and have the campaign later,” Holmes Norton said, “but in a democracy and that is what a cooperative is, it is the campaigning that comes first and then the vote,” the Congresswoman said to a crowd of between 30 and 50 at an Aug. 24 press conference.

Holmes Norton alluded to the request that she and Representative Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) had made in an Aug. 21 letter to the CU to hold off on the balloting for at least 60 days to allow Lafayette members to consider the proposed charter change. She received no written reply to the request, Holmes Norton said, and had heard nothing but a “very curious” telephone call to a staff member saying that the CU would follow the existing regulations only.

“I take that as a no,” Holmes Norton said, promising to lobby other House and Senate legislators from the region to get involved when they return to work in September and noting that being out of the country was the only thing that prevented Van Hollen from attending the press conference.

“You will have an entire Congressional cohort on your side,” she said to a cheering crowd.

In her remarks, which appeared to have been partially prepared beforehand and partially extemporaneous, Holmes Norton returned several times to praise federal workers, most whom are credit union members and many her constituents. She chided the credit union for underestimating them.

“This is the wrong city, at the wrong time to mess with federal workers,” Holmes Norton said, her voice rising as she worked the crowd.

Holmes Norton also stressed that she remains “a true neutral” on the question of whether Lafayette would do better as a credit union or a bank, but she said that when some of her constituents approached her about the CU's conversion process, she had to get involved. “I will never be neutral, we can never be neutral about process,” she said.

Holmes Norton's conference added more fuel to an already flickering fire that got started when The Washington Post published an article critical of the Lafayette conversion proposal on Aug. 24.

“I have rarely seen a situation with such a lack of transparency, even in the developing world,” Tom Carter, a member of the credit union, who promotes the creation of cooperative businesses around the world in his job at the U.S. Agency for International Development, was quoted as saying. “And I'm outraged because it's a betrayal of trust by individuals elected to represent and protect the interest of the 16,000 member-owners.”

The paper reported that, so far, the members have only heard about the proposed conversion through word of mouth and that this approach has particularly angered them and that they plan to fight it, an effort that likely got a boost from the Post story, which would have been read by many of Lafayette's members.

While many in the Holmes Norton event crowd were from the MDDCCUA, there were also a number of Lafayette members in the crowd, some of whom have become executives with other CUs. Lindsay Alexander, CEO of the $367 million National Institutes of Health Federal Credit Union, was on hand along with one of the CU's vice presidents. So was one of her former staff, Jim Norris, now CEO of the $86 million AFL-CIO Federal Credit Union, who came to lend support.

Significantly, Mike Beall, CEO of the Maryland & District of Columbia Credit Union Association, stressed that the league took a keen interest making sure members of “one of the region's strongest credit unions” knew about and understood the conversion decision. And Beall didn't come alone. About 33% of the assembled people, particularly many carrying signs, were staff members from the MDDCCUA and the National Cooperative Business Association whose CEO, Paul Hazen, also briefly addressed the crowd. Run of the mill Lafayette members came as well. Not many, at first, but more as they walked by and stopped to hear what Holmes Norton and the other speakers were saying. One, Andrew Alexander, a parking attendant at a nearby garage, said he had been a Lafayette member for about a year and a half and loved it. “You can say that I have been a member of other credit unions in my life,” Alexander said, “but this one has been the best. I can't believe they would want to do some dumb ass thing like become a bank.”

Patricia Adams, a USAID employee and Lafayette member “for many, many years,” said she was appalled that the credit union would consider making such an important change without letting its members know well in advance.

“This is like they are doing to the ordinary people, the little people, all over the place,” Adams said. “And it's got to stop.” Her friend Frances, also a member for about six years, agreed. “It's really just about money, you know, who can give us the most money. That's what gets people to do these things.”

Cherisse, a member who did not want to use her last name, said she would pull her business, which includes a mortgage loan and auto loan from the credit union if it becomes a bank.

“A big part of the reason I am with them is that they know me and they are right here,” she said, referring to the fact that the CU maintains a branch in the USAID headquarters building. “If they become a bank they are not going to be able to stay here and if I have to go out of my way to go to Lafayette why not just go to Bank of America, they are just up the street.”

In this Cherisse echoed other members who didn't want to be quoted in the paper. When asked how she knew that the CU would not be able to stay in its current locations if it became a bank, Cherisse retorted. “We don't have any other banks here do we?”

She also expressed concerns that if it abandoned being a nonprofit the CU would not be able to offer as good a deal on loans and other products to low-income people who really needed them. “People who maybe don't have the best credit but who still need the loans rely on the credit union, not on a bank,” she said.

Michael Hearne, CEO of Lafayette has not yet returned phone calls about the status of the buildings and other issues related to the conversion.

Scott Steins, a member for about 16 years, is one of the members who is working to organize opposition to the proposed conversion. He told the assembled people at the conference that he had first come to the CU when he was fresh out of college and just starting out in the federal government.

“I appreciated what my credit union did for me then and since and I want to make people coming after me have the same opportunities I did.” –dmorrison@cutimes.com

Instant Insights /

With Congressional Interest and Major Media Coverage, Spotlight Begins Shining On Lafayette's Conversion

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