KENSINGTON, Md. -- The $319 million Lafayette Federal Credit Union has rejected the efforts of some of its members to call for a special meeting at which some or all of the CU's board members could be recalled.

The CU had the petition signatures reviewed by an outside accounting firm, Baltimore based Stegman and Company, review the petitions, according to a letter sent to petition supporters. The review found more than 200 of the signatures invalid because they were duplicates of other signatures, or had invalid social security numbers and other problems.

Thus with the more than 200 signatures invalidated, the petition lacked the number of signatures needed to have called the special meeting.

The letter, signed by Lafayette Chairman Arnold Rosenthal, also attacked the petition itself, calling it "materially false or misleading."

"We believe that you and your support group misjudged Lafayette's willingness and did not plan on Lafayette agreeing to accommodate your request to inspect the books and records," Rosenthal wrote. "Nevertheless, the Petition, the handout materials supporting the Petition and the oral statements used to solicit signatures claim that Lafayette has not been 'forthcoming' and has 'refused' your request. The factual record clearly does not support that claim," he added.