NAACP’s Chavis Rejects Calls to Resign : Controversy: Executive director says he had authority to use his organization’s money to secretly settle a threatened sex discrimination suit.

NAACP Executive Director Benjamin F. Chavis Jr., refusing to yield to mounting demands that he resign, said Thursday that it is within his authority to pledge the organization’s funds to pay up to $332,000 to settle a threatened sex discrimination suit brought by a disgruntled former employee.

“I have no intention of resigning from the NAACP,” the head of the civil rights group told reporters at a news conference here.

Chavis, who said that he has been under pressure from NAACP and financial backers to clarify the situation, said that sexual harassment charges were not involved in the secret agreement with Mary E. Stansel, his former aide. Chavis paid her $84,000--including $64,000 in NAACP money--as part of a settlement in which she dropped a sexual discrimination and wrongful discharge suit against the organization. Terms of that agreement provided for the NAACP to help Stansel find an $80,000-a-year job in Washington or pay her up to $330,000.

Chavis declined to discuss whether he had a personal relationship with Stansel or the nature of her duties during the six weeks that she worked as his deputy at the NAACP’s Baltimore headquarters. He acknowledged that news reports suggesting he had sexually harassed Stansel--which he called “false”--have hurt his standing with some NAACP members and with some financial backers of the organization.

Meanwhile, an official representing NAACP chapters in Oregon and Washington state has threatened to withhold money from the national office until the matter is investigated and resolved by the board.

“The NAACP currently faces a crisis in leadership, finances and integrity,” Greg Evans, president of the Washington-Oregon State Conference of Branches, said in a letter dated Aug. 1 to NAACP board chairman William F. Gibson. “I believe the situation we are currently faced with demands immediate and demonstrative action.”

At his news conference, Chavis predicted that he will receive a vote of confidence from the NAACP board of directors when it meets to consider the matter on Aug. 20 in Baltimore.

Suggestions that sexual harassment was involved in the settlement are “without merit,” Chavis said, and have been used “as a ploy to defame both my good character and the reputation of the NAACP.”

Chavis distributed a letter that he said was written and signed by Rose M. Sanders, a noted civil rights attorney from Selma, Ala., who represented Stansel in the settlement agreement. “I at no time posed sexual harassment as an issue,” the letter read. “Sexual discrimination, however, was a claim raised and resolved.”

Waving an enlarged copy of the letter before the news cameras, Chavis said: “This letter documents the fact that the allegation of sexual harassment was never an issue during the negotiation of the agreement concerning Ms. Stansel’s dispute with the NAACP.” He said the letter does not imply that he or the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People is guilty of discrimination against Stansel.

As soon as Chavis was elected to lead the organization in April, 1993, he was embroiled in a series of fights with members of the board over the direction and policies of his administration. Both critics and supporters said that Chavis’ leadership has angered factions among the organization’s traditional supporters--most notably older middle-class black members, Jewish leaders and labor organizations--who oppose his outreach to controversial groups such as gangs, gangsta rappers and nationalist black leaders.

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Richard Womack, director of the civil rights department of the AFL-CIO in Washington, said he told Chavis and Gibson that organized labor is not happy with their leadership. “Our support for the NAACP is strong and ongoing,” he said in an interview. “But in terms of the leadership of the NAACP, that may be where the question mark is.”

Womack said organized labor will express its displeasure with Chavis and Gibson by redirecting its contributions. “I see less funds going to the national (office) and more to the local branches,” he said.

During his news conference, Chavis said that he has talked with major NAACP funders, including the Ford Foundation, about recent news reports alleging sexual harassment of Stansel. He said he assured the foundation officials that nothing improper had transpired with their money.

Although figures are not available, some board members said privately that corporate contributions to the NAACP have waned as controversy has followed Chavis.

Chavis, however, disagreed. He said that corporate contributions to the organization’s estimated $16-million annual budget are up 14% over last year.