SAN DIEGO — The San Diego chapter of the Sierra Club has been suspended from the national environmental group over “ongoing conflicts and divisions” among local activists.
Thirteen members of the 15-person national board voted to suspend the chapter for four years, U-T San Diego reported. One member voted against it and one abstained, said Mark Westlund, deputy communications director for the national environmental group.
Sierra Club President David Scott said after the vote that the board had received many complaints about strife within the chapter, which had seen the resignation of key local staff and volunteer leaders.
The organization’s leaders have provided few details about the nature of that conflict. But San Diego members and former officials attributed it to the Sierra Club’s micromanagement of its San Diego chapter, refusal to fill key staff positions there and failure to mediate disagreements among local activists.