Accusations of unfairness, ineptitude and illegality are flying amid the ousting of two board members as well as the departure of former director of the Cottonwood Watershed Group, Vieva Swearingen.

In a letter to the Valley Post, Swearingen accused the board president, Jan Lopez, of “taking actions that I believe to be immoral if not illegal, such as calling unannounced closed session meetings . . .”

The board meeting she referred to occurred on Aug. 8, she said. Swearingen was not a board member, but said she was the office manager and “should have been there.” Swearingen added that two board members, Ron Crane and Bill Williams, were not notified of the meeting.

The two board members had already been voted out by the majority of the board for missing three consecutive meetings in June and July, according to Lopez.

Swearingen also said that the board violated its bylaws by voting out the board members. According to Swearingen only voters can remove board members.

“They cannot remove a board member from office, only the members who voted can remove that person,” Swearingen said. “Jan Lopez is taking on an authority she doesn’t have.”

“Vieva is no longer an employee here, and I’m certain she has her own opinions,” Lopez said.

Lopez said that the California Corporations Code indicates board members as having the only say in board matters.

“We’re acting on our understanding of the bylaws,” Lopez said.

The two former board members in question are Ron Crane and Bill Williams. They failed to attend a board training session regarding sexual harassment in the office and hostile work environment. The remaining five board members voted that the training should be mandatory for board membership, requiring Crane and Williams to make-up the training within 45 days.

Having missed three meetings including the training meeting, the board members voted to remove Crane and Williams from the board.

“We didn’t harass anybody,” Crane said. “We want an official accounting of the watershed group. The person who needed harassment training is Vieva. She had five harassment letters filed against her by former employees.”

Staff Services, Inc., a human resources firm purported to have received those letters, declined to comment.

Crane said his efforts to encourage the group to obtain an independent audit had failed by those remaining on the board. The group, he said, was run negligently while under the auspices of Swearingen as director.