In July, the Port Townsend Food Co-op board of directors voted to remove a board member for violating the Co-op’s Code of Conduct. Some member-owners argue the dismissal violated bylaws and was an act of discrimination.

Co-op board of directors President Owen Rowe scheduled an executive session on July 29 to vote on Cameron Jones’ removal from the board. By a two-thirds vote, Jones was dismissed from the board. According to co-op general manager Kenna Eaton, Jones was removed for “failing to follow the guidelines for maintaining a safe environment in which to have discussions, which in turn rendered him unable to uphold our policies. The board followed the bylaws for calling a special meeting, and the decision was made with a majority vote.”

In a statement on Aug. 6 from his Facebook page, Jones said he was “blindsided by this, but not surprised.”

“I was blindsided because this surprise meeting had been planned since April. I was not informed that the meeting on 7/29 was to vote on my removal until 10:30 that morning, and that was only after another Board Member requested clarification on the purpose of the Executive Session.”

The vote was not unanimous. Juri Jennings, a former board president and board member for seven years, said that the impromptu executive session failed to comply with its policies and bylaws. On July 30, Jennings resigned from the board.

“I was at my day job when an impromptu meeting was called for that evening. The call came without any clear written agenda, even after several board members asked for one,” said Jennings. “I didn’t even know impromptu meetings were allowed.”

According to Co-op bylaws, the board must “hold regular and special meetings at such time and place as it shall determine … All directors shall be notified in writing of said meeting at least five (5) days in advance unless the board agrees to a shorter notice… The board will provide ten (10) days’ notice of all board meetings to member-owners. Meetings shall be open to all member-owners unless the board decides to go into executive session regarding confidential or proprietary matters …”

Rowe contends that there was sufficient notice to the board to satisfy the requirements of bylaws.

“I scheduled an executive session of the board, giving the advance notice required by our Bylaws,” said Rowe. “Although some Board members raised schedule concerns, in the end, every single oard member attended and participated in the meeting as originally scheduled.”

“The required two-thirds of board members approved the removal of Cameron Jones,” he said.

Jones said the removal process felt like “being ‘canceled,’ a mistake that needed to be erased and forced into silence.”

According to Jones, he was tasked with organizing a facilitated conversation with a third party due to the tension among the board.

Behind the scenes

In the months leading up to the special session, sources say Jones was vocally frustrated with the board’s resistance to ideas involving the revival of a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) committee, leading to tension between Jones and the board. According to interim board secretary Lisa Barclay, Jones’ behavior resulted in his expulsion.

“It was Cameron Jones who mistreated an employee, breaking the board’s Code of Conduct,” said Barclay. “Mr. Jones refused to acknowledge or repair the damage, so the board took appropriate action to fix the situation.”

“He was removed for his conduct, not for any other reason,” said Barclay.

“We want to emphasize that we are committed to continuing our DEI work. Since 2018, the board has been learning about equity, belonging, inclusion, and accessibility. We’ve had consultant support, training sessions, read books, had difficult discussions, made mistakes, tried again, and recommitted ourselves to learning and growing,” she said.

Details regarding Jones’s alleged mistreatment of an employee were not available before publication.

“What I have learned through this difficult experience is that there appears to be absolutely no tolerance for this board to hear the hum of frustration from a black man over a lack of response to members’ equity concerns,” said Jones.

In response to Jones’ dismissal from the board, Black Lives Matter of Jefferson County (BLMJC) drafted a letter to the board with grievances and a list of actions the organization felt necessary for the Co-op to hold itself accountable.

The letter called for actions to be taken, including things like the timely removal of Rowe and Eaton, a public apology, an overhaul of policies and procedures through an equity lens with guidance from an outside facilitator, providing ongoing equity and inclusion training for employees, and conducting a series of listening sessions that will be reviewed quarterly to identify relevant issues and actionable outcomes.

According to Oceana Sawyer of BLMJC, the letter specifically made requests, not demands — deliberately inviting a dialogue. However, the letter, dated Aug. 8, also gave a list of deadlines with specific dates for when the actions should occur.

After a week without responding to the requests, BLMJC chose to act.

On August 16, BLMJC launched an online petition for co-op member-owners and called for a boycott.

“We launched a boycott and a petition for member-owners to sign, stating that they would like to have the board of directors look at our requests, pursue our requests, and if they don’t, then the member-owners have a couple of options available to them,” said Sawyer.

Sawyer said that the petition specifically asks for member-owners to sign, because if 15% do they would have the numbers to call for a special session to vote on the removal of the board president. Sawyer estimated that for a special session to occur, it may require approximately 1,500 signatures from the 7500 active member-owners. As of Sept. 8, the online petition has 90 signatures.

 “It’s a high hurdle, no question about it,” said Sawyer. “We want to give a space for member-owners to voice their concerns. That’s the point of the petition.”