Angel Flight of New England Aviators, Founder in Power Struggle

 

For the pilots who donate their time to Angel Flight of New England Inc., the mission — flying sick patients to medical appointments for free — has always been more important than how the organization was run.

That changed abruptly last year, when a power struggle erupted between the nonprofit’s founder and the board. Now, pilots worry the in-house upheaval could put Angel Flight at risk, with major donors threatening to withhold money, and each side complaining to the Massachusetts attorney general of improprieties by the other.

The battle started last summer, when Angel Flight board members objected to founder and executive director Lawrence Camerlin paying his daughter $80,000 a year for an outreach position.

It escalated in December when, in response, Camerlin dismissed his leading critic, who was also the organization’s largest financial backer. Then, in January, Camerlin fired the rest of the board, leaving him and his wife in control.

The dismissals stunned the nine directors. Many had donated money and time to the organization, flying patients to hundreds of medical appointments over the years.

While the organization continues to book its usual 100 flights or so a week, donors and former directors worry that a weakened Angel Flight will not be able to serve its mission.

“All we ever truly wanted to see out of any of this, from the very inception of our time as volunteer pilots or our time as board members, was to fulfill our mission statement, and that is to serve as many people as possible,’’ said John Rochelle, a longtime Angel Flight pilot who was chairman of the board until the December firings.

Camerlin said that he fired the directors because they had alluded to possible lawsuits without being specific. “We felt they were in violation of their fiduciary responsibilities. They wouldn’t give us information about claims likely to be filed against us,’’ he said.

Under Angel Flight’s bylaws, “members’’ of the organization have the authority to replace the board of directors. And the only two members of Angel Flight are Camerlin and his wife, Ruth.

Thomas A. McLaughlin, vice president at the Nonprofit Finance Fund, which consults to charities, said a founder should not have the power to fire a board.

“This is a highly unusual governance structure in a nonprofit public charity,’’ McLaughlin said. “The whole point behind a nonprofit board of directors is that it should be representative of the community at large, and they should be fiduciaries. It is arguable that this is a breach of fiduciary duty.’’

Camerlin started Angel Flight in 1996, after selling his ambulance business and getting his pilot’s license. He earned $119,587 as head of the group in 2007, according to recent tax filings. Friends describe him as charismatic and passionate about Angel Flight.

Eugene Loubier, a former president of Winchester Hospital who cofounded Angel Flight and, at Camerlin’s request, recently rejoined as chairman, said that while the dismissal of the directors was unfortunate, Camerlin handled the situation appropriately, relying on a lawyer’s advice.

Angel Flight operates out of the Lawrence Municipal Airport and has more than 900 volunteer pilots who fly patients with cancer and other serious conditions to medical facilities. Pilots also donate the use of their aircraft; in 14 years, the group has made more than 32,000 trips flying patients around the Northeast’s nine states, including New York.

Some of the volunteer pilots are also Angel Flight’s biggest benefactors, raising about $1.3 million a year since 2007.

One of the organization’s biggest fund-raisers is Joe Howley, a former director at the center of the fight with Camerlin. A commodities trader from Greenwich, Conn., Howley first raised the issue of Camerlin’s daughter, Amy, at a board meeting in July. He was fired five months later.

Amy Camerlin, 34, started working for Angel Flight about 1999, her father said in an interview. She earned $78,840 in 2007, according to the latest tax filing, for what is described as a 50-hour-a-week “community outreacher’’ job. Her father said she handled public communications, produced videos, and worked with board members. But several pilots and others who worked with the group said she was rarely at the office. Her pay rose 50 percent from 2004.

“She has done a great, great job for us,’’ Camerlin said. Yet she was let go in July, he said, after the board pressed the matter. Amy Camerlin declined to be interviewed.

By Nov. 20, the night of the group’s annual “Evening of Angels’’ fund-raiser, the directors thought the matter had blown over.

The group honored Rochelle, then the chairman, for having flown his 100th mission. Howley and his friends raised a six-figure sum that night.

But less than two weeks later, on Dec. 3, Angel Flight’s lawyer fired Howley in a letter. The reason: He alleged Howley had had an outburst in the hotel, late on the night of the fund-raiser, that “reflected poorly on the company.’’

E-mails between donors and pilots say Camerlin was alleging that Howley lashed out at the hotel staff for not delivering beer to a hospitality suite for an after-party with donors.

Directors and Angel Flight officials who were present that night said Camerlin did not witness the exchange between Howley and hotel staff, and exaggerated what took place.

“I don’t understand what I did to deserve the way that Larry treated me,’’ Howley said in an interview. He said he had tried to raise the issue of Amy Camerlin’s employment without hurting anyone’s reputation. “What he did in return for that was to take the most vicious track to embarrass and insult me and get rid of me.’’

Asked why he had not consulted with other directors before firing Howley, Camerlin said, “We never acted unilaterally in 14 years. This was the first time.’’

From there, events unfolded quickly. The remaining eight board members wrote to Camerlin, protesting Howley’s firing. Camerlin never replied, the board members said.

And James O’Rourke, a large donor, wrote to Camerlin, warning that unless Howley was reinstated, he and 18 friends who had donated in November would demand their money back.

After the new year, the board proposed an emergency telephone conference for Jan. 11 to discuss Howley’s dismissal and the shuttering of the Woburn office without consulting the board.

But on Jan. 8, they all received letters from an Angel Flight lawyer, informing them they had been removed in a vote by the members — Larry and Ruth Camerlin.

Camerlin defends the process, saying that having himself and his wife as the sole voting members provided “great stability.’’ He has hired a lawyer to represent him and tapped Loubier and another former official to return as directors.

In February, a group of the fired directors and their lawyer went to Attorney General Martha Coakley’s office and detailed the firings, and alleged misuse of charitable funds, including for Amy Camerlin’s salary and the Camerlin family’s using an Angel Flight credit card for personal expenses, according to three people who were at the meeting.

They declined to be identified by name because the group had not made public these charges.

The attorney general’s office declined to comment.

Camerlin said he contacted Coakley’s office about the situation in December, when the threats of lawsuits against Angel Flight arose.

Former pilots and directors said they never wanted a fight with Camerlin; they just wanted to fly patients.

“I have no animus against Larry,’’ said Peter Ryan, a pilot and former Angel Flight director from Greenwich, Conn., said. “I’m just distressed at the sadness of all of this. In the end, the patients will suffer.’’

-From: “Clash could imperil missions of mercy; Angel Flight of New England aviators, founder in power struggle” by Beth Healy, The Boston Globe, April 5, 2010, http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/04/05/clash_may_ground_angel_flight_volunteer_pilots_mission/ retrieved 4/5/10.

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