Barufaldi fights back

Former chamber director lambastes board over contract

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

In a letter to chamber executive board Chairwoman Helen Heier, Barufaldi accused the chamber of violating his employment contract and maintaining a nepotistic organizational structure.

Heier has refused to publicly join battle with Barufaldi, refusing to even say if she had received the letter, a copy of which was given to the Independent on Thursday.

‘‘I cannot comment on anything,” Heier said Monday.

The chamber issued a statement Friday, saying that Barufaldi had ‘‘left his position” with the chamber. It was the first official statement issued by the chamber since the Independent first broke the story of Barufaldi’s departure May 2.

‘‘The Board of Directors expresses its sincere appreciation for Dan’s contributions over the past fourteen months,” Heier said in a prepared statement. ‘‘The board recognizes that the Charles County Chamber of Commerce has benefited greatly from his leadership and dedication.”

Until the chamber finds a new president, Deanna Hancock, the chamber’s administration manager, will serve as interim executive director. A committee, chaired by John Jilek of Edward Jones Investments, is being organized and the search process will begin immediately, according to a chamber statement.

According to the letter and a Thursday interview with the former president, Barufaldi denied that he resigned his position at the chamber. He indicated that he was pushed out by the executive board in an effort led by Heier and former director Gore Bolton, who he also named in the letter.

Bolton declined to speak publicly on what he called an employment matter and referred questions to Heier.

Barufaldi said in his letter that he was told he and the chamber ‘‘were not a good match,” which he said was not sufficient cause, under his contract, to fire him. Barufaldi claimed he received a ‘‘superlative performance evaluation” and 100 percent of his performance bonus last year. He also claimed to have taken the chamber’s budget from a $37,000 deficit to a positive cash flow.

‘‘In short, you and your executive committee have some explaining to do to a completely and continuously excluded board of directors and membership,” Barufaldi wrote to Heier.

The chamber’s attorney, Stephen Scott of La Plata, also declined to answer Barufaldi’s claims directly, saying, ‘‘Being an employment issue ... privacy concerns really prevent us from commenting on the details. ... We certainly wish [Barufaldi] well.”

In his letter, Barufaldi accused the executive committee of acting secretively and suffering from ‘‘governance gangrene,” as a result of what he called nepotistic recycling of the same small group of executive board members.

‘‘You have all been frequently advised of the nepotism you all acknowledged and condoned, along with the conflict of interest in having a married couple occupy two seats on the executive committee,” Barufaldi wrote. ‘‘This is a chamber weakness and vulnerability you elected to sustain rather than confront, and allowed the interests of the few to block the interests of all the members.”

Barufaldi was referring to the marriage of executive board members Blaine Lessard and Darlene Breck.

‘‘Both of us were on the board before we were married,” Breck said Monday, addressing Barufaldi’s claim.

According to a report by the Ocean City Today newspaper Barufaldi is still embroiled in another contract dispute with his former employer. The paper reported that Barufaldi sued the Ocean City Chamber of Commerce for hundreds of thousands of dollars claiming breach of contract and other damages. The case does not appear on Maryland’s case search Web site, and the clerks’ office at the Worcester County Circuit Court refused to confirm if it exists.