LIBERIANS IN MINNESOTA GEAR UP FOR MAJOR MEETING

By Augustus Toomey

The Liberians in Minnesota are gearing up for an important Community Townhall meeting scheduled for Sunday, April 18, 2010 at the Brookdale Covenant Church in Brooklyn Center commencing at 5:00 pm

The meeting is intended to resolve a leadership crisis that ensued on the OLM Board of Directors, few days after it was inducted into offices.

The Chairman, Mr. John Tarley was allegedly removed unconstitutionally and replaced in early January with the Mr. Clarence Yaskey, the man whom he defeated during the Board leadership election.

Following reports of the removal of the OLM Board Chairman a community meeting was convened and the Community Intervention Committee was constituted with the mandate to investigate Mr. Tarley’s removal and report to the community for its action.

The committee is composed of ten members and headed by Mr. Kelvin Gray, President of the Bassa Dokpah Minnesota Chapter and Mr. Hamilton Kayee President of the Sinoe Association Minnesota Chapter.

The committee earlier met with members of the Board to inquire about the removal process. During the meeting, members of the Board present insisted that they had the constitutional right to remove Mr. Tarley and replace him without any reference to the Community.

They informed the Committee that they took the action to remove Mr. Tarley as Chairman predicated upon his unexplained absence from the Board. According to them, they made several attempts to contact their chairman but to no avail, hence, they were left with no alternative but to take the necessary action.

In his reaction, Mr. Tarley refuted the claim made by his colleagues and referred to it as a "concocted lie" hatched by Mr. Yaskey whom he (Tarley) earlier miserably defeated during the Board’s election. Mr. Tarley informed the Committee that upon his election as Chairman of the Board, he fell ill and was hospitalized.

He said that the Board was duly informed about his illness, and in keeping with the constitution of OLM, the Vice Chairman of the Board, Mr. Richard Parker, was acting as Chairman pending his recovery.

Several members of the Organization of Liberians in Minnesota are gearing up for that meeting and it is expected that the matter will be resolved by a community action.