The former director of the Community Office for Resource Efficiency says he was forced to quit the nonprofit agency after board members ostracized him for raising concerns about what he believed was an illegal merger with a rival nonprofit.
Gary Goodson said he is considering a lawsuit against CORE, which handles public Aspen and Pitkin County funds to promote energy efficiency, because board members retaliated against him for speaking out against the group’s possible merger with the Roaring Fork Valley energy-efficiency nonprofit startup, Clean Energy Economy for the Region, or CLEER.
Goodson said he felt CLEER was launching a “hostile takeover” against the 14-year-old CORE, espousing a similar mission and covering a similar territory. CORE’s board, including representatives from Aspen, Snowmass Village, Pitkin County and Carbondale, initially supported the merger, then backed off, but the process came “at some cost to me,” he said in an interview on Wednesday.
“I really believe in the ideals of the CORE mission,” he said. “It was my dream job. More than my job, the whole organization has been put in peril.”
Goodson quit on Nov. 4 after nearly a year with the organization, in what he called a “constructive termination,” a term for quitting under duress which can be legally considered the equivalent of being fired. He was recently hired as the executive director of the United States Green Building Council San Diego Chapter.
CLEER founder Alice Hubbard Laird denied any notion of wrongdoing.
“It wasn’t at all a hostile takeover,” she said. “CORE came to us.”
CORE came under further scrutiny from Pitkin County commissioners on Wednesday, when they agreed on first reading to approve CORE’s project funding, but with transparency concerns they wanted cleared up before the final approval.
“I do not feel like anything has been done underhanded or without clear transparency to the community,” said Pitkin County Commissioner Patti Clapper, who sits on the CORE board. “I feel like I’m being told I’m underhanded, and I really take offense to that.”
Commissioners didn’t mention concerns about CLEER, but they did express concerns about CORE funding other projects overseen by board members, including Pitkin County and Aspen projects.
“I don’t think you [CORE] have an open process,” said Commissioner Michael Owsley.
Goodson alleges he was the victim of political manipulation after voicing his opposition to funding and merging with CLEER.
“Gary Goodson is one of the most talented and passionate advocates for the environment and the entire Roaring Fork Valley community,” said his attorney Richard Dally. “He was thrown under the bus by politically-motivated, powerful people for reasons that are mysterious at best.”
Goodson said he feared CLEER’S objectives were too close to CORE’s own mission, which is to promote renewable energy, energy efficiency and green building.
CLEER was formed to help create what it calls a “clean energy economy,” foster energy independence and reduce climate change impacts, including a focus on energy efficiency, sustainable transportation, renewable energy, high-performance buildings, smart growth, recycling and local food.
CLEER won a $1.6 million Colorado Department of Local Affairs grant in October to fund a variety of clean energy programs in Garfield County. It held its first Garfield New Energy Communities Initiative Advisory Board meeting on Wednesday.
“We would not be where we are now without that seed funding, and it’s had major benefits in terms of this collaborative effort,” said Laird, who also helped launch CORE. “It’s been a really good thing.”
Goodson said some board members had initial concerns about the merger, then rallied behind it, only to finally withdraw their support after he raised concerns. While the board eventually came around to his side, he said, they did so only after “considerable damage to CORE, and certainly to me, and prob CORE handles about $2 million each year in Renewable Energy Mitigation
Program funds, which are paid to Aspen and Pitkin County by home builders for projects that don’t meet energy efficiency standards. The funds are distributed to valley energy efficiency projects.
CORE paid $100,000 to fund the New Century Transportation Foundation, which launched CLEER.
“I think a lot of CORE board members have come to realize that probably the most successful grant we have ever given was probably the $100,000 that went into the fieldwork that went into the formation of CLEER,” said Carbondale Mayor Michael Hassig, a CORE board member.
Hassig praised the work of CLEER, but he said it’s still a pilot program, and because its reach stretches to Parachute, it would probably be inappropriate for CORE, which is funded mostly by Aspen and Pitkin County, to fund it. But he didn’t rule out a future merger.
Goodson “was right to raise concerns” about the merger, Hassig said, but he said the talks were only exploratory. “I think he overreacted to some extent and I’m sorry that took place.”
Goodson said he worried that CORE was funding a group that appeared to be in direct competition, and that by merging, CORE was getting too cozy with an organization it was funding.
Goodson said his concerns were rebuffed by board members, who he said ignored his e-mails and calls and publicly discussed their desire to hire a new executive director while he was still in the seat. He described it as a “retaliatory, hostile work environment” that left him “no other choice but to resign.”
Since Goodson’s departure, Climate Project Manager Nathan Ratledge has been acting director.
“Gary’s departure is unfortunate and a temporary setback, but as an organization, I think CORE’s in a pretty good place to continue to serve the valley and grow,” he said.
dfrey@aspendailynews.com