Syiek calls vote illegal

Joe Syiek doesn’t consider himself a disruption. That’s what board members of the Huntington Beach Playhouse called him when they voted to oust him from the board of directors, but he didn’t listen to that either. They said they wanted to get on with putting on plays at their home in the Huntington Beach Library and move past a contentious time.

Instead he sued to force a vote of the whole membership, calling it the only legitimate way to remove an elected board member. That vote did go against him, calling for his removal. But he disputes the results, calling the vote illegitimate and saying he still has his position till his term expires.

Syiek said that among other things, those under 18 were stripped of the right to vote right before the meeting, and they would have supported him. Board President Dawn Conant has said they were just trying to follow legal counsel, who told them minors couldn’t vote. Efforts to reach Conant to respond to Syiek’s most recent comments were unsuccessful.

Syiek said he plans to keep on going to meetings.

“I have the right to still attend board meetings and still ask questions,” he said. “If it bothers them it bothers them.”

What got Syiek to push so hard and act in a way board members complained was a slowdown in meetings? Mostly the issue involving budgets and fundraising. Syiek said he saw some incorrect data, and he also didn’t think the group was being forward-looking enough about saving for the future, so he started requesting more information than members wanted to give him.

Conant has said constant questioning made it impossible to get things done in meetings, but Syiek counters, “There’s very clear language in the law that says any board member at any time can see any information of any kind.”

Why keep trying, if the board members in charge don’t appreciate him being there? He said he wanted to raise attention to an entrenched leadership that got in the way of asking hard financial questions. And Syiek said he wasn’t alone.

“The kind of questions I’m asking, there were people who said these questions should be asked of an organization like this,” he said.

As for his position on the board, even Syiek concedes he won’t have one when his term expires in March.