Vote suspended

A member election that could have turned a local credit union into a bank has been suspended.

First Basin Credit Union Chief Executive Officer Shem Culpepper said the suspension came after credit union management learned members received phone calls telling them that if they didn’t vote against the conversion they would lose their deposited money.

Culpepper sent a letter to the credit union’s members announcing the suspended election before the final vote on Feb. 21.

Culpepper explained in the letter that converting to a mutual savings bank wouldn’t result in any member’s money being lost or any account closed. Culpepper said the credit union plans to investigate who called members and if the members’ personal information was stolen.

“We were so concerned with things that we were hearing that we felt it appropriate to suspend this,” Cul-pepper said Friday by telephone.

The conversion could be addressed again, Culpepper said.

Credit union officials also are considering changing the conversion proposal to retain the one-member, one-vote structure and returning part of the credit union’s net worth to its members in cash payments, Culpepper wrote in the letter to members.

The Houston-based independent auditors whom the credit union contracted for the election have sealed the early votes before the scheduled special meeting, Culpepper said.

The 18,000-member credit union first discussed converting into a saving bank in May 2007, a proposal that received considerable opposition recently.

Save First Basin, an anti-conversion group, will hold a rally at 10 a.m. Saturday at the First Basin Credit Union’s main branch, 2740 West County Road, where its members will demand the credit union reveal the early vote results

The vote suspension is a victory for Save First Basin, group co-founder Letty Moreno said, but the group’s members want the results to be revealed because they feel it will show the lack of conversion support.

“It’s a way for them to save face because they weren’t winning,” Moreno said.

The anti-conversion group isn’t responsible for the phone calls to members, Moreno said, and the group didn’t have access to any member lists or members’ phone numbers.

Culpepper wouldn’t speculate on who was responsible for the phone calls.

However, he said the anti-conversion group has caused “a lot of confusion,” with false and inaccurate statements like increased rates and fees and that member would not be able to get loans after the conversion.

WANT TO GO?

>> Save First Basin, an anti-conversion group, will hold a rally at 10 a.m. Saturday at the First Basin Credit Union’s main branch, 2740 West County Road, where its members will demand the credit union reveal the early vote results.