DeLoss Firing Spurs 2 UCAN Resignations

Two directors of the Utilities Consumer Action Network have resigned in protest of the board’s firing last week of Executive Director Garry DeLoss.

Fred Nagle and Robert Spanjian each cited the DeLoss firing as the basis for their decision to resign as directors of UCAN, the two-year-old group that acts as a watchdog over San Diego Gas & Electric Co.

DeLoss was fired last Monday night on a 5-4 vote. His dismissal capped months of personality clashes and policy disagreements between DeLoss and what observers describe as the “activist” segment of the UCAN board.

Attorney Michael Shames, who helped found UCAN in 1982 when he was a University of San Diego law student, was named interim executive director.

“It saddens me greatly to submit my resignation,” wrote Nagle, who is the mayor of La Mesa. He described the DeLoss firing as “irrational” and “thoughtless” and termed the decision a “personal vendetta by a bare majority of the board.”

Spanjian, who is in the process of selling his San Marcos-based Spanjian Sportswear to an Iowa retailing firm, said he resigned from UCAN’s board because current directors cannot reach unanimous consent on key policy issues.

UCAN Chairman Jay Powell said he was “disappointed” by the resignations and added that the board will soon meet to “search for some people who will be of the same caliber” as Nagle and Spanjian.