BEVERLY HILLS : YMCA Critic Cowan Ousted From Board

Perhaps, Roger Cowan says, it was due to his picketing in front of the Beverly Hills Family YMCA. Or maybe it was his public crusade to oust the Y management. Whatever the reason, Cowan has been voted off the board of directors.

Over the last several months, Cowan helped lead a charge to look into the finances and management of the fiscally ailing YMCA. He went so far as to protest against Y president Robert K. Tanenbaum, a former councilman.

“It’s obvious to me I was thrown off the board because of political reasons,” said Cowan, who with his wife, Debbie, founded a citizens committee that campaigned against Tanenbaum’s reelection in April.

Cowan said he was not told the reason for his dismissal. Neither Tanenbaum nor YMCA Executive Director John Eikrem would comment on the board’s actions, taken at its April 20 meeting.

Cowan won’t be the only YMCA critic who is not welcome at the facility.

Dr. Michael Bilinsky and attorney Al Ross, residents who have pressed for an investigation into YMCA finances, were notified in letters from Eikrem that they were banned from the YMCA premises because of their “abusive behavior toward staff and board members.”

Ross and Bilinsky denied the allegation. They said that when they tried to register their children for a basketball program, YMCA employees would not accept their applications.

Allan Robert Block, who cast the sole vote to retain Cowan on the board, said he plans to resign his position as a director in protest of Cowan’s removal and the banishment of Bilinsky and Ross.

The board also agreed not to request its annual $37,605 in city funding despite the nonprofit organization’s chronic shortage of money. Block said the board made the decision because the City Council used the funding as the basis for an investigation into YMCA management and finances.