A fight over who controls the board of the Billy DeFrank LGBT Community Center in San Jose has led to the ouster of Executive Director Aejaie Sellers and board president PJ Matarese. The moves have plunged the center into a period of uncertainty just as the facility is struggling to raise money amid a weakening economy.

The decisions came after a contentious January board meeting at which Matarese claimed the make-up of the current board was invalid and in violation of the center's bylaws. It was the latest controversy to hit the center's board, which has been embroiled in a months-long battle over the direction of the facility.

Last August as the center began to experience financial problems, board members resigned en masse, leaving two people on the board, Matarese and Anne Hansen, who at the time oversaw the membership committee. After installing new members to the board in October, conflicts continued to ensue among board members while Sellers was notified that her future employment at the center was under review.

As the board's leadership battle played out, the center's fiscal troubles continued to mount. Over the holidays, the center closed its doors for two weeks in order to save money and learned it would not be receiving a grant from Yahoo, a hit of upwards of $20,000 to its operating budget of $650,000.

Then, in early February, six of the seven board members voted to push Matarese off the board, elect Hansen president, and terminate Sellers's contract, two weeks shy of her three-year anniversary of being hired. The board subsequently announced it would hire an interim executive director – the person should be selected by Friday – and that it was launching a nationwide search for a permanent replacement.

"The board felt it was time for a change. We do thank Aejaie for all of her work at the center. Had Aejaie listened to the board, her departure would have been celebrated," Hansen told the Bay Area Reporter in an e-mail. "Unfortunately, Aejaie at the request of board members and consultants did not take the advice. I am saddened by Aejaie's way of fighting this relationship."

After returning from a three-day weekend to celebrate her husband's birthday, Sellers said she was notified February 10 by telephone that her services were no longer needed. She packed up her office Friday, February 13, her last day of employment.

Sellers's sudden termination could result in legal action. In an interview last week Sellers did not rule out filing a lawsuit against the center. She said her firing came as a complete shock.

"I haven't processed it at all," said Sellers, believed to be one of the few transgender people hired to run an LGBT community center. "I have no idea. No one has spoken to me about why I am no longer there."

But Hansen said Sellers has known since last fall that there was a likelihood she could lose her job.

"In early October I said to her very politely, I said I just think it is time to go," said Hansen, a local real estate agent who has served on the DeFrank board for two and half years. "She is a friend and there was no ugliness going on. It was just time for a change with new energies and structuring of the center."

The board also notified Matarese two weeks ago that it had voted to remove him from the presidency.

"We didn't push him out. He would not communicate with any of the board members since the 28th of December," said Hansen.

Matarese labeled the decision to oust himself and Sellers a "hostile takeover" that the board "absolutely" didn't have the authority to make.

"That board is illegal," said Matarese, a San Jose resident who joined the board last year. "I think that some of the board members had a personal agenda and they were working to fulfill that agenda."

The fighting over the board's legitimacy came to head at a meeting Tuesday, February 24 at which Matarese demanded to be returned to the oversight body for the South Bay's largest LGBT organization. Two of the new board members resigned, and the remaining four members decided to hold a special election March 24 to vote in a new board in the hopes of putting an end to the controversy.

"It just makes everything equal and people cannot keep complaining and disrupting what the DeFrank needs to get done. We are putting it back in the hands of the membership," said Hansen.

Hansen said that the center's annual election of board members – required by the bylaws to be held in September – "was not handled properly" last year, and therefore, the new election is being conducted. She added that she has yet to decide whether she would run to retain her seat on the board.

"I am pretty tired here. Today is the worst day to ask me that question," said Hansen, who is putting together a committee of 10 people to help with the executive director search.

Matarese said he intends to seek a seat in order to return to the board.

"I believe in what the center is doing and I think I have a lot to contribute," he said.

With leadership of the center in flux, concerns are growing the controversy could lead to a drop off in support from corporate funders and major donors.

"I am concerned about the health of the center. I think that this just puts a bad face on the center," said Matarese. "And I think certain grants or major funders may drop out. They are not certain who is managing the center."

Clark Williams, who had served as interim executive director prior to Sellers's being hired, echoed those concerns. He also questioned the way the board handled the matter, by firing Sellers instead of seeking her resignation first, and not issuing an announcement of her dismissal prior to posting a job notice online.

"It has been really ugly and very troubling to me. Some funders may see the DeFrank center as a risk for administering their grants," said Williams. "I want to see the DeFrank get its act together and the board resolve their differences."

Hansen said that despite the recent turmoil, the center "is financially sound" for the next few months. She hopes that come March the center can put the recent disputes behind it and move forward.

"I don't want anything to hurt the center. It is really about moving on and moving forward," she said. "Really this had to do with some personality issues that have nothing to do with the center itself."