ADMINISTRATOR APPOINTED TO OVERSEE SAN DIEGO NAACP CHAPTER

Action follows complaints about alleged election, policy irregularities

The NAACP, the nation’s oldest civil rights group, has appointed an administrator to oversee the affairs of its San Diego branch after receiving complaints about alleged election and policymaking irregularities.

“We’re going to get to the bottom of this,” the administrator, Alphonso Braggs, said during a special meeting Saturday morning for members of the local chapter.

He told about 35 people listening and watching via Zoom that he will investigate the allegations and make recommendations to the national board about possible remedies, which might include ordering a new election.

In the meantime, he “assumes overall responsibility for the operation of the branch, its committees, and staff,” according to a July 23 authorization letter signed by Derrick Johnson, president and CEO of the Baltimore-based NAACP. That includes approving all expenditures and policy positions.

Francine Maxwell, president of the San Diego chapter, and other members of its executive committee denied any wrongdoing and expressed frustration at not being allowed to respond to the allegations before the administrator was put in place. They gave Braggs a packet of information for his inquiry.

“Where’s our due process?” several of them asked during Saturday’s two-hour meeting. But they also pledged to do what it takes to end the oversight.

The specific complaints have not been released. Braggs said they centered on branch elections, most recently held last November, and on the branch taking policy stances that “don’t comport” with positions adopted by the national board.

“We are one organization, although we have a bunch of units spread across the country,” said Braggs, president of the Hawaii NAACP and a member of the national board. “Any policy position has to be the same as what headquarters has issued as official policy.”

One recent example where that didn’t happen: the selection of San Diego schools Superintendent Cindy Marten as deputy U.S. education secretary. The national board backed her nomination; the local chapter didn’t.

During Saturday’s meeting, Kenya Taylor, a former member of the local branch’s executive committee, identified herself as one of the complainants.

She ran against Maxwell for president and lost, but said that isn’t why she’s raised concerns.

Taylor said her campaign’s access to chapter members was unfairly restricted, and that other people had difficulty casting ballots in the election, which was conducted online.

“This issue is bigger than any one person,” she said. “It’s about the greater good of San Diego.”

The local chapter, started in 1919, has hundreds of members. (The NAACP doesn’t release totals.) Its ranks have been growing, and so too its activism on civil rights and social justice issues, including police reform, voting rights and housing discrimination.

“Are you going to make us better?” Todd Cardiff, a local attorney, asked Braggs during the meeting. “We’re a kick--- chapter. We move fast, and I’d hate to see that interfered with.”

Braggs complimented Maxwell and the other local leaders several times during the meeting for their passion and civic engagement.

“You lead the nation in several areas,” he said. “My job is to help you remove this extra layer of approval while you continue to do the work of serving the people in the community.”

This is not the first time the national board has cracked down on the local chapter. In September 2019, it suspended then-president Clovis Honoré for three years for unspecified “activities, behavior and conduct” deemed detrimental to the organization.

Several other chapters around the country have been placed under administrators in recent years for various reasons.