The aftermath of a 2013 scandal that temporarily saw topexecutives at the $603 million Alabama One Credit Union suspendedfrom their positions has spilled over to this year's boardelection.

Jerry Logan, a former board member when Alabama One inTuscaloosa, was the BF Goodrich Federal Credit Union, collectedenough signatures to qualify to run and his name will be added tothe ballot that will be mailed to members, Alabama One said.

The credit union's annual meeting is scheduled for March 28 atthe Bryant Conference Center on the University of Alabama inTuscaloosa, where the credit union is headquartered.

Logan's name will join those of three board-approved incumbentsup for re-election: Larry Sexton, Richard Powell, and DannyHarrell.

Logan served on the board and the supervisory committee for theold BF Goodrich FCU for roughly six years from 1998 until 2004. Heresigned in 2004, he explained, over the board's decision to changethe name from BF Goodrich to the Credit Union of Alabama, adecision the board would later have to revisit after litigationfrom the $654 million Alabama Credit Union, also based inTuscaloosa.

“I resigned from the board because there was just no reason tomake the change,” Logan said. “People don't understand that thesename changes are expensive and there was just no reason to dothat.”

Logan said friends urged him to run to get back on the board in2004, but he lost. In 2006, he tried to run again in but the creditunion rejected his candidacy for insufficient signatures.

“In my heart of hearts, I always thought those signatures werevalid, but they ruled they weren't and what could I do,” Logansaid.

This year, with the help of friends, Logan collected 592signatures, almost 100 more than the 500 the credit union said hehad to collect.

“It was hard to collect signatures, no kidding,” Logan said. “Iwas outside of that BF Goodrich plant, in the rain and cold atevery shift change to get it done.”

Alabama One confirmed Logan's account of getting on the ballotbut did not comment further.

Logan said he wanted to make sure he collected more than enoughsignatures because Lorrain Ramos-Baird, another member and formerAlabama One employee, had been expelled from the credit union afterit became known she was running for the board.

Ramos-Baird did not return calls for comment, but a law firmrepresenting her in litigation with the credit union confirmed herexpulsion. Alabama One had not cited a reason for its decision whenit notified her was no longer a credit union member, according tothe law firm.

Logan's determination to run for the board arose after thecredit union's 2014 annual meeting when he and other members triedto ask questions about the credit union's dealings with Danny Ray Butler, a local business owner.

A federal grand jury indicted Butler for fraud and check kiting in October 2013 and the Alabama CreditUnion Administration suspended four credit union employees in lateFebruary 2014 in connection with an investigation. The ACUAreversed the suspensions in middle of March 2014.

Butler, who pleaded guilty to fraud and check kiting in July2014, received a sentence of three years in federal prison andrestitution in after costing Alabama One $1.2 million and the SBAover $3 million in losses.

In addition, the credit union has faced a series of lawsuitsfrom members who alleged that credit union representatives played arole in getting them to invest with Butler. As of press time, twoof the original five had settled with confidentiality agreements inplace, but three are still pending.

“We just need to see some transparency about all this,” Logansaid. “One lawsuit is too many and five is just awful.”

Logan added that he and other members are also upset thatAlabama One saw negative income this year of $7.82 million,according to NCUA data, and saw its equity ratio drop from 11.59%to 10.40% as its reserves shrank from more $65.6 million at theclose of 2013 to $60.5 billion at the close of 2014.

Of that $7.82 million, $4.59 million came in the form ofloss from the disposition of fixed assets, which Alabama One CEOJohn Carruth explained as a commercial property tied up inbankruptcy process.

“Regarding the CALL report, the credit union took the mostconservative approach to a piece of commercial property that wasthe subject of differing appraisals,” Carruth wrote in an email.“The property in question has not been sold yet, however, and thecredit union was instructed to report it the way that it did.”

Logan still wants answers on how the credit union made as manyloans as it did to Butler and why the credit union was so slow topick up on the check kiting.

“We are supposed to be democratically run and memberowned,” Logan said. “When they wouldn't even let us ask questionsat the meeting, I decided I had to run for the board again.”

In a previous interview with CU Times Carruth addressed thequestion of the lack of questions at the annual meeting.

“We get about that many people every year and the credit unionfollowed the procedure that it always follows,” he told CUTimes in March of 2014. . “It appeared that allies of theplaintiffs were trying to use the annual meeting for an improperpurpose and to score points that they thought might increasepressure on the credit union to pay the plaintiffs money. Anoverwhelming vote of the members present rejected that attempt.Members have numerous opportunities to give the credit unionfeedback and express their concerns. Anyone complaining knowsthat.”