WA’s statewide American Legion chapter suspended for ‘dysfunction.’ What happens next?
The American Legion Department of Washington has been suspended after an investigation “revealed dysfunction within the department at a level that cannot be allowed to occur,” according to a resolution passed by the Legion’s National Executive Committee.
Restructuring of the department and creating a new constitution could take one to two years, John Raughter, deputy director of media relations with the American Legion, told The News Tribune this week.
The committee voted at a special meeting Saturday to suspend the Washington American Legion Department immediately, a step Raughter said is rare. Programming run by individual posts within the state of Washington will not be impacted, he said.
The American Legion Department of Washington is a nonprofit veterans’ organization that offers a wide variety of supportive services to veterans and their families across the state, as well as youth programming and sports. It has more than 150 posts across the Washington, and its latest Form 990, filed with the IRS in 2021, listed 24,000 volunteers and 27 employees.
The suspension means the Department of Washington would be disbanded and administrative control would revert to the national organization, according to Legion documents. Effective immediately, the National Executive Committee will run the Department of Washington as the committee develops a new constitution and installs new officers, Raughter said.
Abandonment of constitution, lawsuits cited
The National Executive Committee resolution stated that “at some indeterminate point in the past” the Washington department “did away with their constitution.”
The resolution also states that lawsuits, “existing, occurring and nascent, have put an unbearable financial burden on the department.”
“The department already has been adjudged liable for improper termination of an employee, currently faces an extant lawsuit for malfeasance and faces between one and six Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaints (the number is unclear from oral presentations),” the resolution states.
The News Tribune was not immediately able to obtain details about those allegations.
As a consequence of the suspension, “all department officers be relieved until such time that the officers be duly elected or appointed in accordance with a newly authored constitution of the Department of Washington, and that the national commander be authorized and directed to terminate the employment of any employees effective immediately if so needed,” the resolution stated.
The national commander also would have the authority to name and appoint a Washington Reorganization Committee to secure the department’s headquarters in Lacey, oversee the department and take steps to ensure its proper operation, oversee financial operations of the department, ensure the department is property audited and hire an interim caretaker, according to the resolution.
“If anything, I think this should reinforce people’s trust in the American Legion, because when we have an issue like this, we hold people accountable,” Raughter said. “The American Legion believes in holding people accountable. And this process just kind of is evidence of that. When Oklahoma’s charter was suspended about a [decade] ago, they came back stronger than ever. As far as services and our dedication and advocacy for veterans, that will not be impacted in the least. We’re still there.”
This story was originally published June 13, 2023 at 12:49 PM with the headline "WA’s statewide American Legion chapter suspended for ‘dysfunction.’ What happens next?."
