Warbird Information Exchange

By Al Everson
BEACON STAFF WRITERS

A growing rift between rival factions among DeLand Naval Air Station Museum volunteers made for a contentious annual meeting Jan. 16.

Some members of the museum were ejected. They moved to another place to convene what they said was the organization's truly legitimate meeting.

A deputy from the Volusia County Sheriff's Office stood watch as the two sides bickered at Molly Malone's Irish Pub and Eatery on the north side of DeLand.

"I would like to make a motion that the illegal board be out of here!" John Bemis said.

"Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to leave!" countered Treasurer John Fuller.

The meeting agenda had not given any indication there would such raucous parliamentary rhetoric.

Rather, the official order of business called for the showing of short videos, an invocation, a flag salute, reports by museum leaders, presentations of awards and certificates and adjournment.

But the business portion of the dinner lasted less than 15 minutes, as Fuller headed off an insurgency to replace the existing leaders with a new slate of officers.

One of the dissenters, Jerry Millholen, stood up from across the room to claim the 2007 board meeting had never been formally adjourned, and thus was still in progress.

At that meeting more than a year ago, Millholen and others had unsuccessfully tried to replace the museum's president, Dale Alexander, and other leaders. Millholen and others said the current leadership had kept their offices only because of proxy votes, which, they asserted, are not permitted by the organization's by-laws.

The unsettled argument raged on.

"You cannot suspend Roberts' rules of order," Millholen told Fuller. "You can't do that."

"We would like this meeting to be in order," said Fuller.

Millholen, who was ordered out, announced the meeting would continue at the American Legion Post 6. He invited anyone else interested in the museum to join him.

At Molly Malone's, Fuller presided over the dinner meeting in Alexander's absence. Alexander, he explained, had been suffering from pneumonia.

"It's miracle he's still alive," Fuller said.

A Navy pilot, Alexander had trained at the DeLand Naval Air Station in World War II and has long served as the museum's director.

The conflict has seethed and simmered — and occasionally reached the boiling point — over the past year, as the two sides skirmished over the propriety of the museum's board, finances, and leadership, as well as the status of a Vietnam-era patrol boat undergoing restoration on the museum's property.

The rift widened when the two sides clashed over the continued presence of the PTF-3 next to the museum.

Alexander sued Boy Scout Troop 544 in Orange City to have the boat removed, even though Millholen and Scoutmaster Bob McCray said they had received permission to keep the vessel there until its restoration is completed.

The PTF-3 project is being funded partly with grants from the Florida Division of Historical Resources and the Florida Department of Veterans Affairs. The PTF-3 was one of the vessels involved in the Tonkin Gulf incident in 1964, which preceded the escalation of the Vietnam War.

The suit to force the removal of the boat was settled out of court, Fuller said. He said he is not at liberty to disclose the settlement, except to note "they're allowed to keep their boat on our property for a very long time."

As he watched people leave the restaurant, Fuller seemed unfazed by the tone and tenor of the meeting.

"We'd like to put a call out to the community for new members," he told The DeLand-Deltona Beacon.

In addition, Fuller said the selection process for the DNAS Museum leadership had been investigated. "There is no wrongdoing in connection with how the 2007 board came into being," he said.

However, Linda Pruitt, a spokeswoman for the Volusia State Attorney's Office, confirmed her agency is investigating the nonprofit historical group, but she declined to give details.

"There is an investigation pending. A complaint has been made," Pruitt said.

As the meeting at Molly Malone's ended, a crowd of about 35 assembled at the nearby American Legion Post 6, where Millholen claimed the gathering was the truly legitimate annual meeting of the DNAS Museum.

The first point of business, Millholen added, was to conclude the meeting of the prior year and thus clear the way for a new board to be elected and installed.

In quick order, the members voted to adjourn the 2007 board meeting, and acclaimed Pete Lowenstein and Cal Lancaster president and vice president, respectively, of the DNAS Museum. Jack Fortes was named secretary, and Ed Carson was chosen as treasurer.

"As treasurer, I will open up a new account known as the DeLand Naval Air Station Museum Inc.," Carson said.

Fuller refused to recognize the rival faction's actions to take control.

"These corporations are regulated under Florida law. We're regulated under state law," Fuller said. "They can't do that. They can't just create a new board of directors with a voice vote. They can't do it without notifying our entire membership base."

Millholen said the rival board will take control of the museum's property and funds.

By BOB KOSLOW
Staff Writer

DELAND -- Call it the museum coup.

Fed up members of the DeLand Naval Air Station Museum met in exile this month, ousted its longtime leader and replaced its board of directors.

Then the newly elected board members went to the museum and changed the locks.

The new board pledges a new era, while the ousted leader charges the coup was illegal and the building takeover a crime.

Created in 1992 to commemorate a World War II Navy pilot training center and the veterans who died there at what is now the DeLand Municipal Airport, the museum has become the focus of a bitter power struggle that past two years.

The dispute boiled over in late 2006, when a majority of board members resigned in conflict with Dale Alexander, a longtime museum member who had served as president, vice president and executive director for 13 years. They expected Alexander to resign as well, but he took over as president and appointed a board of his supporters. At the museum's annual meeting in January 2007, Alexander was elected president and his supporters were elected to the board.

Members of the old board charged the election was illegal, and asked the State Attorney's Office to investigate. The case remains open, a State Attorney's Office spokeswoman said.

Opponents said Alexander ran the museum as a private club, voiding memberships and locking members out. They said the museum was failing to restore two donated vintage Navy planes while trying to run off local Boy Scouts and military veterans restoring a Vietnam-era PT boat on the site.

Last spring, the Alexander-led museum sued to force the Scouts to remove the boat to make way for a parking lot for a planned exhibit and display building. A settlement this month gives the Scouts at least two more years to finish their work.

On Jan. 14, museum members assembled for their annual meeting but quickly clashed with leaders.

Gerry Millholen, who is involved in the boat restoration, called for a separate meeting at a different location. Some 35 of the 40 attendees went along, witnesses said.

Then Millholen announced that the 2007 meeting that resulted in the disputed board election was never adjourned. So under museum bylaws, the new meeting was just a continuation, he said. The members closed the 2007 meeting, opened the 2008 meeting and elected a new board.

Pete Lowenstein was elected president. Other officers are Cal Lancaster, vice president; Jack Fortes, secretary; and Ed Carson, treasurer. State incorporation papers were filed Jan. 17.

"We just reinstated the duly elected board," Millholen said.

Chris Stubbs was named executive director.

Neither side is sure what happens next.

"We can't let this ride," Alexander said Monday. "The (Jan. 14) meeting was illegal and it's an illegal board."

New secretary Jack Fortes said, "Future actions are unknown. We are inventorying items and examining the books and computers. We want to create some advisory boards to broaden the membership and get more people involved."

Lowenstein has called police three times since the coup. On Jan. 22, he found a broken key in a door lock. On Jan. 24, he reported a bathroom window broken and an aircraft workers manual taken from a display case and left outside.

On Jan. 26, he said two artifacts turned up missing after a visit to the museum annex by two of the 2007 board members. One told the police he was retrieving one of the artifacts for another man who owned them.

bob.koslow@news-jrnl.com