Menifee/Sun City
Chamber of Commerce
Dubious Integrity in Menifee Valley
pedophiles aren't the only bad guys
who need to be exposed
Thugs and liars are now on the Board of Directors of the Newly merged Chamber of commerce! If you want to be certain the old Chamber will be as incompetent as what was the "new chamber" vote for Jerry Stamper and Joan Ring! They are so jaded they don't even admit responsibility for destroying the new one. Now they want to repeat themselves in this one! By the way by what secret legal process did they accomplish since I saw no ballot for membership vote?
Three weeks ago The Californian quoted Jerry Stamper saying the Chamber was closing their doors and going to sublet the space. Now they are planning an installation dinner? Is it any wonder the Chamber is a disaster with that kind of ambivalent leadership? Can anyone believe anything that Chamber says or does? By the way, since the two Chambers aren't IBM and Hewlett Packard, how long or how hard is it to complete a merger? Stamper has been "talking about merger talks" for almost two and one half years? It makes one wonder--is Stamper interested in accomplishing anything more than getting his name in the paper?
Solomon’s Choice
$17,000 in legal fees down the toilette trying to harm another Chamber & Board member the Board could have avoided simply by making the right choice when they were asked in Therese Daniel’s March 11, 2006 letter to the Board.
Via Superior Court of Riverside County, the Menifee/Sun City Chamber of Commerce had to reinstate me as Director of the Board and member of the Chamber. It was an expensive and hard struggle to force this Board to comply with the laws of the State of California. They demonstrated extreme animosity towards me, grasped at any straw to discredit me in their attempts to justify their own malice. The actions of the current Board to terminate me last March were unethical, illegal, immoral and egregious. Menifee/Sun City Chamber Board of Directors repeatedly demonstrated a flagrant disregard for its own bylaws, California Corporate and Fair Practice laws. This is the second time this Board has railroaded a qualified person who has done only good for the new Chamber. Remember Julie Johnson? Her last statement was; “They fired me for doing a good job.”
However, acting in a legal and professional manner is of no concern to Jerry Stamper and his coconspirators. They have treated the Chamber as if it were their personal private club. Saying; “Off with their head!” to anyone who didn’t agree with their opinions. Their attitude is simply: “What has legality, credibility, or accountability to the membership got to with any thing?” Consequently, for the highest and best interest of this Chamber, I was going to file a petition to remove the existing Board on the basis of malfeasance, incompetence, moral turpitude, conspiracy to cover up, and conspiracy to commit an egregious act against another Board member. It is a waste of time and money as the best they can hope to do is merge with another chamber and the worst is they probably dissolve. There are many, many wonderful members who joined this Chamber as an alternative to the old Chamber who deserve to have honesty, integrity, and inspiration in its leadership. They do not deserve to be betrayed by a dishonest Chairman of the Board whose only effort since this Chamber began was to sabotage our straight line to success by attempting to manipulate us to merge with the very Chamber the members chose not to join. Within three months after we began to develop the Chamber Jerry Stamper worked counter productively towards the Chamber’s success by secretly conspiring with the old Chamber to merge. His actions were not in the best interests of the Chamber.
Many people asked me why I would want to be with a group of people who so obviously bear malice towards me. I took my stand for two reasons. My word, promises, and oaths are my life. I took an oath to serve the Chamber—not the Board of Directors of the Chamber. The order of the Riverside County Superior Court was a direct result of my refusal to violate my personal oath to serve the Menifee-Sun City Chamber of Commerce. The second reason I chose to hold my position is to protect my reputation. Knowing what this group did to Julie Johnson was a good indicator as to what they would do to me. I had been a loyal, dedicated, positive Board member since its inception. Just as Julie, I had done nothing to deserve what they attempted to do to me.
This Chamber was born out of dissatisfaction with the quality of management of the Menifee Valley Chamber of Commerce and I was told by Cheryl, Jeff Stone’s desire to crush his opponents from old Chamber. As one of the seven or more original founding members, I swore to serve the Chamber for it and its members’ highest and best good. When the Board attempted to illegally terminate me in March, I protested and advised them they were acting illegally. I asked them to send me a list of items they deemed were unacceptable in my behavior. They refused. After several failed attempts by me and my attorney to communicate with them, I petitioned the Superior Court of Riverside for reinstatement. The best Jerry Stamper could do was produce a pitiful and comical two page letter written by Carol Crocker attempting to prove how undesirable I was. The problem with Carol’s letter is she was so confused; she falsely accused me of inviting someone to participate in the EDC meeting who “wasn’t even a member.” It turned out he was a member before she became a member. When the alleged non member in Carol’s letter brought this to Cheryl Ferruli’s attention she gave him a free membership plus an ad in the news letter.
When we first gathered to discuss the start of a second and we hoped more successful chamber, the founding members were not very well known to me. I had whole heartedly believed they were capable, professional, ethical, and motivated people dedicated to the success of a new Chamber. It was only a matter of a few months into our effort I learned I was seriously mistaken. There is nothing more fun or productive for local business than a well run vital Chamber. Chambers being non profit corporations for the benefit of commerce are run by a volunteer Board of Directors. The benefits for the volunteers are extra visibility and the prestige of serving. This is why it is imperative that all who serve on the Board bring honesty, enthusiasm, integrity, and ability. When there were only the seven of us as the first members, various offices were open. Jerry Stamper, the current Chairman of the Board grabbed the position of Chairman of the Board and simply was unchallenged by the rest of us. He was never voted into his grabbed position. His leadership immediately began abandoning us by going on a month long honeymoon. Thus he left the rest of us at a critical time to do all the grunt work, locate an office, deal with the harassment of the old Chamber to get up and running. When he did return to assume his duties, he couldn’t remember dates of meetings, agreements he made, decisions by the Board, doesn’t know how to write a letter, and can not speak publicly. No one but I said a word. I was told to shut up.
The powers of Chairman of the Board as so designated in the Chamber’s bylaws are limited to conducting meetings and general over seeing the daily grunt work of Chamber business. They do not permit Chair people to enter into large contracts, negotiate Chamber mergers, arbitrarily give themselves the title of President, or any other such actions that directly affect the Chamber business and image. (However, Jerry Stamper and his Board can not be bothered obeying its own Chamber laws and bylaws. They via “unanimous decisions” by their personal clique of Directors present at their clandestine meetings would validate any violation, harm, or lie, they choose as it is proven beyond a shadow of a doubt by their flagrant disregard of a Superior Court Order to reinstate me.) At an emergency meeting called by Stamper at his house October 2005, we learned--rather than his focusing upon the success of our Chamber-- Jerry had begun unauthorized “talks” about merging our Chamber with the old Chamber. None of us challenged Jerry on his unauthorized actions. Jerry made it very clear the “old Chamber” absolutely did not want Julie Johnson as the CEO. (Julie Johnson, CEO of the Menifee Valley Chamber who had done an outstanding job was terminated by them. No good deed goes unpunished.) Two main decisions were made at that meeting:
1. We would not even consider talks with the other Chamber until after the first of 2006.
2. The Board would give Julie Johnson a vote of confidence and support her in her CEO efforts.
Within three days after that meeting, I began getting calls from Ron and Betty Royer. Ron was very direct and advised me under no circumstances did they want this Chamber to merge with the other. Betty raved about Julie & Cora as the two dynamos “who all by themselves put the Chamber together”. Betty proclaimed “this Chamber is the best thing Menifee has going.” Both the Royers were planning to begin a petition against the Board in favor of retaining Julie. It was a mystery to me as to where they were getting their information. Within a week or so Cheryl Ferrulli, who was a Director and treasurer began to call me to discuss her frustration with Julie and my feelings about Julie. It was my opinion then and remains so today, Julie Johnson is very knowledgeable and capable about Chambers. Julie was faced with same problems all of us face. She was human and therefore fallible.
In November, a second emergency meeting was called by Jerry Stamper at his house. He and other members of the Board trashed Julie. It was particularly cruel. Three motions were made and unanimously approved at that meeting:
1. Julie Johnson was to be terminated as CEO
2. Under no circumstances would we merge or talk about merging with the other Chamber.
3. To assure the members, an e-mail blast would be sent confirming our refusal to merge.
Immediately after Julie’s termination, Jerry began referring to himself as President of the Chamber with approval from Jeff Comerchero. How convenient for Stamper Julie was now removed. He had removed the first negotiating obstacle to merge with the old Chamber. Jerry Stamper ignored the Boards’ decision to neither discuss nor merge. He secretly and aggressively persisted in negotiating with Vicki Carpenter. While he was doing that, he was denying to our Board any participation. Per Jerry’s suggestion, Vicki changed the word “merger” to “unification” because Jerry claimed the word “merger” was so unpopular with the members. Jerry even made promises to Vicki that Darcy would become the CEO of the merged Chambers. Then, from November to January, Jerry began repeating the ideas and phrases of Ms. Carpenter as if they were his ideas. “We need to keep the community unified. We can’t make enemies. We must not divide the community. . .” Just what defined “community” by them is a question to me? Most of Sun City Area is a retired community and a Chamber is designed for non retired business people to promote commerce. Jerry’s actions and secret efforts were truly counter productive to the Chambers goals.
Three hours after Julie’s termination, Ron and Betty Royer were at the Chamber office offering their loyalty to the Chamber and asking Cora, Julie’s former assistant out to lunch. After that The Royers’ began patronizing Jerry Stamper, Joan Ring, and Cheryl Ferrulli for positions of power in the Chamber. (Is it any surprise Betty Royer is currently on the Board of Directors. Ron Royer is chair of EDC?)
It wasn’t until January 2006 that all of the Board members got complete insight into Jerry Stamper’s aggressive role in attempting to negotiate a merger without prior Board knowledge or approval. From the November ‘05 meeting to January, Jerry was saying to each member of the Board; “Oh, poor me. I am under so much pressure. I don’t know what to do. They keep calling me and sending me letters asking me to merge. I just can’t handle this. I have to answer them. We have to acknowledge them” When questioned about the degree of his effort towards this attempted merger, he denied any action on his part and claimed the Directors of the other Chamber of the Menifee Valley Chamber just kept calling him and putting pressure on him in spite of refusal to talk to them.
My first awareness of what Jerry was doing came to me through Cheryl Ferrulli who had a habit of calling me every evening from 7 P.M. until 10 P.M. from November to January. Cheryl continually bragged she is one of Laurie Stone Rubin’s best friends and has spent many Christmas Eves at Jeff Stone’s home. Cheryl provided me with information I had no way of knowing unless it came from her. I acted upon much of that information only to have it used against me later. She discussed details about Laurie Stone Rubin’s life,--her divorce, her mother’s cancer and Laurie’s fear of her own cancer in January 2006,--Jeff Stone, all she had learned about Jerry Stamper and Izzy, and Ron & Betty Royer whom she and Joan Ring repeatedly claimed they particularly disliked. (At least that is what they continually told me about the Royers. They called theRoyers passive/aggressive. Were they talking out of both sides of their mouth?) Cheryl was furious among other items about Ron Royer’s vicious treatment of one of the service vendors at the Christmas in Menifee event. She told me she made Ron apologize for it. Cheryl claimed she despised Jerry Stamper and wanted to do everything in her power to derail his position as Chairman of the Board. When she realized how close Jerry was to succeeding in obtaining a Board quorum to discuss a merger, she enlisted Joan Ring, Sharon Crow and me to vote against it. Later when she realized Jerry had asked Gus Telfer Hernandez to join our Board she became livid. She called me and talked for days saying that Gus was part of a World Gym scandal and that his wife cheated Laurie Stone out of $500. It later turned out it wasn’t the same Gus who cheated World Gym investors but she claimed it was true that this Gus’s wife cheated Laurie out of $500. Please bear in mind this was information I would have no other way to obtain except from Cheryl. She very much coveted the CEO position and resented that Jerry Stamper was reluctant to give her a full contract. After Jerry’s motion to discuss a merger with the other Chamber was clearly defeated at the January 2006 Board meeting, vital information came forward from Cheryl which exposed Jerry in all his deceitful actions and bald faced lies. Jerry had been bragging to Brian Eckhouse of the Californian, one month prior that the Chambers would merge. In a telephone conference call with Brian Eckhouse, Joan Ring, Cheryl, Jerry Stamper right after the Board meeting, Brian repeated twice to Jerry: “This is a 180 degrees opposite from what you told me last month.” At that point, Jerry Stamper was clearly the “Emperor and His New Suit of Clothes.” He was naked and we all saw it. I was appalled and disgusted that Jerry abused his position as Chairman to deceive his own Board while misrepresenting his powers to the Directors of the other Chamber. It was the perfect time for him to be asked to resign his position as Chairman. If Jerry had any integrity he should have automatically resigned for the highest and best good of the Chamber. In my mind it was the fiduciary duty of this Board to make him accountable and ask him to resign. He had proven himself to be a liar, failed to act for the good of his own Chamber and abused his position as Chair. Why then, was he not asked to resign from his position as Chairman of the Board? Why was he allowed to step on stage at Jeff Stone’s EDA Luncheon? In spite of my objection at the January Board meeting to Jeff Comerchero about calling Jerry president, Comerchero still introduced Jerry as courageous founder, leader and President of the new Chamber. Then Jerry stumbled, mumbled, before 600 people? After that I was keenly aware there something very, very wrong with this Board.
I talked to Joan Ring; Cheryl Ferrulli, Sharon Crow, and tried to talk with Thad Luyban. Why, I asked repeatedly after all the lies, deceit, Chamber bylaws violated by him is Jerry Stamper still Chairman of the Board. Sharon Crow told me “the problem was settled so shut up. You are acting like a high school kid.” Cheryl Ferruli agreed he lied to us, but said we had to go along with him. (Why we had to do that she never said.) Thad never returned my call. Joan Ring agreed he did wrong by lying to us, that he is weak, he is forgetful, and makes bad decisions but advised me to put up with him just a little longer. She said he couldn’t take much pressure and was planning to retire in June. I stated I would continue to serve on the Board under protest of Jerry as Chairman. Joan became extremely hostile at that moment and said; “Don’t you dare.” Since it was obvious there was some – unknown to me ‘buddyism’ going on between Jeff Comerchero and Jerry Stamper, I never even bothered to waste my time trying to talk to Jeff. What was wrong with the picture? Why was I feeling the Chamber was being sabotaged? It became very clear this was nothing more than a cover up of Jerry Stamper’s harmful actions to this Chamber. As I began to mentally focus on my question, all the little ‘this’s and ‘that’s’ I had heard and ignored about Joan Ring and Jerry Stamper began to haunt me. She made a big issue at the February Board meeting to tell Jerry what a great job he did at Jeff Stone’s luncheon. (All who saw him that day know he made a fool of himself on stage). It definitely seemed the promoter of the cover up was Joan Ring who had convinced others to go along with her. It appeared to me Joan protected Jerry like a jealous lover. That is why Jerry was never asked to step down as Chairman of the Board. That is why a memo I sent March 7, 2006 addressed only to Joan and Cheryl was shared with the other Board members and used as an excuse to attempt to oust me. The memo vented over my issues about Ron Royer’s self serving interests and Cheryl Ferrulli’s failure to stand up on behalf of a Director over a rather difficult member. The memo closed stating I didn’t think anything would change, “I was merely “clearing the air.”
Since then they spent $17,000 in legal fees trying to keep me out. This is a non profit corporation and that is how they spent membership money. Now they have zero in the bank account. That’s a lot of malice from a group of people who claim to be so pure yet bash me.
Since they barred me from my seat on the Board for eight months, the Board approved talks regarding merger with the other Chamber. Let me be very specific on this issue. It is one thing to work with Boards approval, and quite another to lie and do so without Boards’ approval as Jerry Stamper had done. Now that Jerry Stamper has Board approval, does not exonerate the fact that he had lied and misrepresented the Board from November 2005 to January 2006. The issue of Clinton’s impeachment was not that he had an affair with Monica Lewinsky. The issue is that he lied about it. Though Clinton prevailed, it still didn’t change the fact he lied. The Board’s later approval of merger talks doesn’t change the fact Jerry Stamper is a proven liar and the Board covered up for him.
March 8, 2006, Jerry Stamper e-mailed and via regular mail a letter to resign or they would terminate me due to my “lack of respect for the leadership of the Chamber.” It was supposedly signed by the entire then existing Board. They not only attempted to terminate me as a Board of Director but my membership as well. This was obviously a retaliatory act by Joan Ring and Cheryl Ferrulli. Where was the wisdom and good leadership in that? Was that their idea of acting in the highest and best interest of the Chamber? Among the many peculiar items about Jerry’s letter was the fact that it failed recognize me as one of the leaders. Was it before I sent the memo or after I sent the memo they had decided I wasn’t one of the “leaders” of this Chamber? Having served in various positions on Boards of non profits for over 25 years in the greater Los Angeles area, I had the opportunity to acquire experience and knowledge about them. I have been a member of four Chambers and served on the Boards of two. Based upon this past and more recent experience, I can objectively say six of the current Chamber Directors are unqualified for the reason listed below and other reasons that will come forward later:
1. Incompetence Not one of the six Directors ever took the time to learn, understand, and abide by its own laws and bylaws. They do not even know they are supposed to keep the Chamber corporate book complete with all minutes available at all times for member inspection. What kind of decisions in the Chamber’s best interest could they make without knowledge of the California Corporate laws and their own Chamber’s bylaws? What a display of absolute arrogance to not know non profit corporate laws.
2. Moral turpitude Instead of dealing with Jerry Stamper when it was obvious to all he was misrepresenting himself as President after Julie was terminated, they pretended it was O.K. Why is it O.K. for Jerry to do that and not O.K. for me to disagree with it? What kind of credibility is that?
3. Conspiracy to cover up & moral turpitude When it was discovered Jerry was violating his position as Chairman of the Board and negotiating an unauthorized merger with another Chamber, they covered it up. Jerry Stamper was nothing more than a mole for the other Chamber. How honest was and is this to the members who wanted a new and more progressive Chamber? What kind of ethics, morality and integrity did that show? (I am well aware Jerry has since manipulated the Board and created committee to explore a merger. A merger is pending.)
4. Conspiracy to commit an egregious act against another Board member When I protested too much, they conspired via secret meeting to commit an egregious act against me by attempting to illegally terminate me. Then they persisted in their malice for eight months by refusing to respond to all reasonable attempts to discuss the matter. They incurred a $17,000 legal bill doing so. How did the Chamber benefit from that?
5. Moral turpitude & incompetence They don’t believe in a Director’s right to opinion and free speech. Therefore, to successfully serve with them, a Director must agree to censorship. They do not run a Board, they run a dictatorship. What they were too ignorant to understand, is -- it is the duty of any Director on the Board to look into the moral fiber, track record, ability and character of any one looking for positions of power within the structure of a non profit corporation. Any good leader knows the importance of good character and integrity is imperative. I had good reason to write the Board memo’s to other Board members about my doubts of Jerry Stamper as Chair, Ron and Betty Royer’s persistent patronizing, and Gus Hernandez after Cheryl had made such a big deal about Gus’s wife cheating Laurie Stone. I had no reason to suspect Cheryl would misrepresent her information, her feelings, or intentions and later deny she did so. This Board is so ignorant. It attempted to use the memos written by me and given only to a couple of Board members as evidence of wrong doing on my part. What they don’t know is that those memos only demonstrate how passionately dedicated I was in performing my duty as a Board member.
6. Malfeasance When confronted with overwhelming information complete with quoted points and authorities, California corporate laws, about their illegal activities, they ignored the facts, placed themselves above the law and did as they please. They showed total contempt for any law just as they are showing contempt of a signed court order now. They preferred to create a $17,000 legal bill. How safe is any other good willed person serving on their Board? How safe is the membership?
7. Malfeasance & moral turpitude They violated their own oaths, bylaws, California Corporate laws and California Fair Practice laws. They chose to serve each other rather than the Chamber. They betrayed their own members. How seriously have they compromised the Chamber’s straight line effort to success? They lost over 150 members. Now the best they can do is merge? Isn’t merging what started the whole conflict last January 2006?
8. Moral turpitude, malfeasance & incompetence When finally forced by Riverside County Superior Court to deal with this issue, they tried to make up lies about me be claiming I “threw chairs.” When asked to prove so in writing they forwarded a meaningless letter by Carol Crocker intended to prove my unworthiness as a Director. It was so incompetent she wrote “a man invited by me (Therese Daniels) to the EDC committee meeting was not even a member.” He had been a member since August of ’05.
9. Continued incompetence, malfeasance & malice Since they realized they agreed to accept me via Court Order, they are once again violating Chamber, California corporate, and Fair Practice laws and illegally placing this issue on the agenda of the General membership meeting this January 11, 2007. They now want to attempt to discredit and debase me to the membership and use the membership’s lack of knowledge about the true facts to vote me out. They want to do so by bypassing the proper method of giving me an opportunity to defend myself. How honest and fair is that? Is this action of a Board of integrity or a Board of incompetence?
1. Their response to the e-mail I sent them informing them they were holding secret Board meetings again was to hold a special Board meeting on January 2, 2007 at 2 PM. They chose to ignore the four point written statement I gave them explaining their foolishness if they persisted in keeping item IV on the agenda. Then they tried to convince me if I responded in my own defense as to what they have done to you and me, I would be only making my reputation worse. Now this is where I get confused. Isn’t being asked to be removed from the Board of Directors by the entire membership a direct public discredit and debasement of me? Yet, they want to do that to me and expect me to coyly turn the other cheek and say nothing in my defense. If I am already destroyed how can I do any more damage to myself?
2. Now they knowingly have voted to keep item IV on the agenda regardless of the consequences they bring upon themselves, this membership, and any future public relations. They are smug certain they will get away with this because think a merger with Menifee Valley Chamber is eminent. Imagine how that Chamber will feel when it finds out this brilliant group chalked up a $17,000 legal bill for a cause they could not win.
When Menifee/Sun City Chamber began, it promised its members a newer and better Chamber than Menifee Valley Chamber of Commerce. They lied to the people who joined on good faith. They failed to keep their promise. What makes a Chamber great is its leadership, the participation of the membership and the results their efforts bring the membership. In the approximately 14 months since they trashed Julie and the ten months since they barred me from service on the Board, they failed at every project to show the smallest profit, to bring strong membership turn out, to boost member’s businesses, to make a great Chamber or stand out in pride and joy in the community. This is the price this new Chamber has paid because of Jerry Stamper’s poor leadership, choices in people to serve on the Board and sabotage of this Chamber’s success unchallenged by any one but me. Consequently, is the only action left for this Chamber to merge with the old Chamber? Is this wise and good leadership?
The above article is a clear and true statement to the best of my knowledge.
Therese Daniels
Cc: To attorney Richard Lowe, Brian Eckhouse of The Californian, Members of Menifee/Sun City Chamber and Menifee Valley Chamber, Julie Johnson any and all persons.
No matter how loud, much or colorfully the people mentioned in this article deny and protest, we have a large file with copies of the court filed documents, minutes, news paper articles, e-mails, letters, including names of witnesses, and more that document and prove the accuracy of the above statements in this article. Let the mud fly!
The January general membership meeting was held and they illegally held a vote in which they claim they got sufficient votes to remove me from the Board. Once again they violated their own Chamber bylaws because:
1. The provision in the bylaws applies only to a general member and not a Board member
2. They still did not give state what I did wrong.
3. I am not even certain the vote count was honest
What is wrong with the people of Menifee Valley? Don't they care if they are dealing with ignorant, self serving manipulative liars who ruthlessly ignore the standards of ethics, honor or integrity? It seems lawlessness prevails! Do they really think if they sleep with dogs they won't get fleas? I don't know about you, but I for one will not do business with any business who is a member of the Menifee/Sun City Menifee Chamber of Commerce.
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