BOISE, Idaho — The North End Neighborhood Association is Boise's oldest neighborhood association. A new board of directors was elected last year, but since then the non-profit has been in a dispute with some of its members and previous board of directors.
Overseeing more than 10,000 members, the North End Neighborhood Association (NENA), is charged with preserving Boise's historic neighborhood. The Association provides advice to the City of Boise based on the collective view of the neighborhood on issues with planning and zoning, historic preservation, and more.
After months of disputes between some of NENA's membership and its board of directors over what they felt was a lack of transparency and the direction of the board, some of NENA's membership recently voted to recall 5 sitting board directors.
The NENA board members who were listed in the recall vote say this vote is not legitimate.
"What we found reaching out to subject matter experts that have tried the supreme court case in non-profit membership, they came back and said this is what you need...You need 10 percent of the voting power. In the bylaws if a valid petition of 100 signatures have been presented then we would also have a special meeting." said Daniel Foregger, one of the directors listed in the recall.
Petitioners behind the recall disagree. John Llewellyn with the North End Neighborhood Alliance, a group of NENA members who facilitated the recall vote, said "the arguments as I understand it is they are wrong, and the legal advice they are getting is wrong, and they are not correct. The vote was meticulous it was run in a very fair and open manner."
Current board members say the reason some petitioners are under the impression that the board isn't being transparent is because of the transition from the previous board and trying to bring NENA back into compliance.
"We were elected in October and we weren't seated until January, and getting a hold of the documents and records has been quite the challenge. After we were seated the volunteer that ran the website, wiped the website clean entirely and so trying to scramble and get these past videos and documentation up and communicated to the community has been a bit challenging." Foregger said.
As for what's next, Foregger says the board will continue with business as usual, and bring NENA back into non-profit compliance so they can provide transparency. Llewellyn said petitioners will continue to urge board members to step aside.
The two members of NENA's board not listed in the recall did not respond to our request for comment. NENA's board will meet Tuesday for their monthly meeting.
