<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" ><tr><td valign="top" style="font: inherit;"><div id="yiv1472584242"><h1>Beth Butler, longtime director of Louisiana ACORN, fired in wake of Obama flap</h1>
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By <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://connect.nola.com/user/grussell/index.html">Gordon Russell</a>
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<h5>October 12, 2009, 8:45PM</h5>
<p>Beth Butler, the longtime executive director of <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-13/1253424061142910.xml&coll=1">Lousiana ACORN</a>, was terminated by the organization's national leadership Monday amid a power struggle at the embattled advocacy group.</p><p>Butler's sacking came two days after local <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2009/10/lower_9th_ward_residents_want.html">ACORN leaders criticized President Barack Obama's planned itinerary</a> for a trip to New Orleans this week -- comments that drew an immediate rebuke from ACORN's national leaders.</p>
<span class="mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-photo" style="display: inline;"><span class="photo-breakout photo-left small"><img src="http://media.nola.com/politics/photo/beth-butlerjpg-ffc625f204859e9a_small.jpg" alt="beth-butler.JPG"><span class="byline">The Associated Press</span><span class="caption">Beth Butler, longtime executive director of Louisiana ACORN</span></span></span><p>On
Sunday, ACORN Chief Executive Bertha Lewis said the remarks, which
were not uttered by Butler, were "without authority and do not reflect
the position of the national leadership." Lewis said she would "be
personally going to New Orleans to deal with the individual involved."</p><p>Less
than 24 hours later, Butler was fired. An angry Butler said Monday
that the real reason for her firing was not the flap over Obama's
visit, but a simmering tussle over assets that ACORN's Louisiana
affiliate controls and that the national group covets.</p>In
particular, Butler said headquarters has its eye on a land trust set
up by the Louisiana branch. The trust owns five relatively modest
houses, she said, and has a bank account of perhaps $60,000 intended
for rehabilitation work -- nothing to sneeze at, she said, "in the
nonprofit world."<br><br> As it happens, ACORN officials agree
with Butler that her termination was not carried out only as
retribution for the Obama critique. Rather, according to an ACORN
official who would speak only on background, the episode was
"reflective of a lack of accountability to process" on Butler's part.<br><br> Butler had repeatedly breached ACORN protocol, and this was the most recent instance, he said.<br><br>
"Normally, the theory is that locals can speak for themselves, " said
the official. "But this is in a time of severe challenge for us, and
they were criticizing the president of the United States. If they had
criticized Ray Nagin, we'd have nothing to say about it."<br><br>
The "severe challenge" he described is an effort to recover from a
series of scandals that have rocked the organization and threaten its
survival. The most devastating was a series of videos in which two
guerrilla journalists posed as a prostitute and a pimp, and received
counseling from ACORN employees on how to avoid paying taxes on brothel
income.<br><br> That scandal was preceded by revelations that
ACORN employees had registered dozens of phony voters before the last
election. And before that, it emerged that Dale Rathke, brother of
ACORN's founder, New Orleans-bred <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2009/09/former_acorn_organizer_worries.html">Wade Rathke</a>,
had embezzled nearly $1 million from the group. Instead of announcing
he'd been caught, selected group leaders allowed him to quietly repay
the money over a period of years.<br><br> The last scandal
resulted in the ouster of Wade Rathke, who also happens to be the
longtime companion of Butler. The two have lived together for decades
and raised two children together, Butler said.<br><br> Butler,
who has worked for ACORN for 37 years, said her real sin in the eyes
of the national organization's leaders was a failure to concede to
their demands. In particular, she said, she had led resistance to a
demand to turn over the land trust, called the ACORN Community Land
Association of Louisiana, to the national group.<br><br> "We were
told by national ACORN that we had to give it up to them, " she said.
"We got e-mails threatening our jobs because we didn't push the land
trust people to hand over property and money to the New York people who
took over ACORN.."<br><br> Butler passed along an e-mail message from Lewis calling Butler's behavior regarding the land trust "unacceptable."<br><br>
The national entity is also making a play for roughly $90,000 in
hurricane relief money controlled by the local group, Butler said.<br><br>
"It's hardball here, " she said. "Our local resources are being
spirited to New York. ACORN Louisiana is the most lucrative chapter in
the country, and we knew they were aiming to take us over. There's a
major meltdown in ACORN. They're trying to scramble all of us who would
fight them."<br><br> ACORN's criticism of Obama's original
itinerary -- essentially, that it was too short and did not include
a stop in the Lower 9th Ward -- was voiced by Vanessa Gueringer, an
unpaid volunteer who heads the group's Lower 9th Ward chapter.<br><br>
"I'm thrilled that he's coming, " Gueringer said of the president on
Saturday. "But, " she added, "we want to see that change that you ran
your platform on. We want to see the hope that symbolized your campaign
in our neighborhood."<br><br> The day after Gueringer's remarks,
the Obama administration announced it was adding a stop in the Lower
9th, at Martin Luther King Jr. Charter School.<br><br> Gueringer
said Monday that she has not received a phone call or an e-mail message
from the White House expressing any vexation with her comments.<br><br> She said the episode simply provided a convenient smokescreen for ACORN leaders to fire Butler.<br><br>
"It all goes back to Wade, " she said. "They're angry at Wade, even
though Wade's money was paid back. There's been a relentless campaign
to destroy the New Orleans chapter of ACORN. Wade founded this
organization. They would not have jobs today if Wade hadn't done that.
This is all a lie, it's all a smear campaign."<br><br> The ACORN
official, speaking on background, said Butler was not terminated
because of her ties to Rathke. In fact, he said, the organization
took pains "to give her a chance to earn her stripes and show she was
not part of the legacy Wade left" in the wake of his ouster last year.<br><br>
The official also disputed Butler's claim that the national group is
covetous of Louisiana ACORN's assets. He said the assets were minimal
and "not worth fighting over."<br><br> As for the land trust, he
said, the national group had decided to "set it free" by cutting ties
with it. "We have no intention nor desire to control its assets, " he
said.<br><br> He said Butler was fired for "strict personnel reasons.."<br><br> . . . . . . .<br><br><i> Gordon Russell can be reached at grussell@timespicayune.com or at 504.826.3300.</i><br><br></div></td></tr></table>