Monetary Disputes Divide Wildlife Refuge Supporters : Crisis: Newfound wealth has pitted longtime friends against each other. Key issue is founder’s salary.

When the Wildlife Waystation first opened in 1977 on a mountainside in the Angeles National Forest, money was so tight that volunteers had to draw from their own pockets to help feed the neglected and abandoned animals housed in the refuge.

Today, the way station has a worldwide reputation, generous donors from the entertainment and business worlds and enough money to fund long-needed improvements and an ample salary for the group’s director.

But instead of resolving the group’s problems, the newfound wealth has divided the once fraternal group of animal lovers, pitting longtime friends against each other and creating the most serious crisis of the organization’s 18-year existence.

Six members of the organization’s 14-member board of directors resigned in November in a dispute over paying way station director and founder Martine Colette $11,000 a month--$6,500 for salary and $4,500 to rent the land, which she owns.

The package, which was approved by the majority of the board, also includes another $140,000 to pay her salary and medical and retirement benefits she didn’t receive for the first 15 years she ran the way station.

The resigning board members say they protested the payment package, in part, because the way station has invested $592,000 in the property over the past three years and yet Colette still has title to 140 acres of the 160-acre site.

“From my position, (the deal) was more fair to Martine Colette than it is for the Wildlife Waystation,” said Joe Williams, one of the former directors and a 17-year volunteer.

Two other board members who have resigned over the past two years said they had serious concerns that Colette was getting too much of the group’s money and making questionable expenditures.

Responding to such complaints, the state attorney general’s office has launched an audit of the way station’s finances. A spokesman for the attorney general’s office said he could not estimate when the audit would be completed.

Charitable, nonprofit organizations are governed by dozens of state laws and corporation codes that prohibit the misuse of donations or the use of deception to divert funds to individuals, said Deputy Atty. Gen. Peter Shack.

“Basically, the money has to be used for charitable and public purposes, based on their articles of incorporation,” he said. “It just can’t go into someone’s pockets, although it can be used to pay a salary.”

But Shack added that it is often a “judgment call” when state auditors examine financial statements for nonprofit groups to determine whether contributions are being spent properly.

For her part, Colette has defended her management of the group’s money, describing the resignations as “sour grapes” over differences of opinion on how the refuge should be run.

After initially rebutting the allegations, Colette declined last week to comment further until the attorney general’s audit is completed.

However, Byron Countryman, the way station’s attorney and a board member, defended the pay package and Colette, calling allegations against her “groundless and without merit.” He noted that the pay package does not go into effect until it is approved by the state attorney general’s office. Countryman said he plans to seek the approval in the next few days.

Nonetheless, the allegations have plunged the Wildlife Waystation into a controversy that threatens to dry up donations and scare away potential volunteers.

“Because money is involved it has made enemies of us all, and in my mind it is disgusting,” current board member Dave Welling told supporters at an annual board meeting in January. “It is hurting the operation of our ranch and it’s going to continue hurting it until we put it behind us.”

Current and former board members agree that regardless of the outcome of the audit and the pay-package dispute, the way station meets a vital need in the region and must continue to operate.

“We need the way station and the way station must stand, but we are objecting to the way Martine is spending the money,” said Judi Williams, 17-year volunteer and former director.

In the middle of the debate is Colette, the charismatic daughter of a Belgian diplomat, who bought the wooded 160-acre site for the way station in 1976, selling her Hollywood costume business later to expand the facility. Colette declined to say how much she paid for the property, in a canyon above Lake View Terrace.

Colette, a self-taught wildlife expert, oversees a full-time 15-member staff with 40 full-time volunteers and 175 part-time volunteers who are dedicated to rescuing, rehabilitating and relocating abandoned or mistreated wildlife. It is the only licensed facility of its kind in the United States.

Even her detractors praise her personal sacrifice and devotion to the cause during the first 15 years when the way station operated on a shoestring budget and she managed it without receiving a salary.

But former board members say she changed in 1990 after Dorothy Wellborn Green--better-known as Dolly Green, the last surviving child of oil magnate Burton E. Green--died, leaving the way station a $2.6-million bequest. Before the gift, the organization had run a deficit almost yearly.

“I swear to you, I never loved anyone like Martine Colette,” said Judi Williams, who said she and Colette had been closer than sisters for the past 17 years. “But her whole personality changed.”

Once the group was out of the red, former board members say, Colette asked the board to reimburse her for her many years of sacrifice and she began spending way station money freely, making several expenditures they questioned.

Part of the problem, they say, stems from a longtime arrangement in which Colette received no salary but was provided living expenses, use of a house on way station property and was allowed use of the group’s checkbook to pay for various way station costs.

Fred Perry, who was Colette’s executive assistant for nearly three years before resigning in 1993, said that while he worked for Colette she used way station funds to remodel her bathroom at a cost of about $3,000, install a $2,000 custom-built gun safe in the house and buy $2,500 worth of clothes and jewelry for Christmas gifts, among other expenses.

“She accuses everyone of having gold fever, but she herself is the one with that,” said Perry, adding that he had provided copies of receipts to the attorney general’s office that he says support his charges.

He said he resigned because of concerns about Colette’s spending habits and because she harshly chastised him in front of other workers.

After a financial audit of the way station’s books for the years 1988 to 1990, the Internal Revenue Service instructed the way station board to separate Colette’s personal expenses and the payments used to maintain and operate the way station, former board members said.

The board attempted to do this in mid-1992 by putting her on a regular $60,000 annual salary, according to financial statements filed with the attorney general. The pay package approved in November would increase her annual salary to $78,000, in addition to the $54,000 in annual rent and the $140,000 to settle other costs owed to her over the years.

But Countryman said the pay package that he and the majority of the board approved was only slightly different from an arrangement the entire board had approved several years earlier. He said the board had for years paid Colette the $4,500-per-month rent. The only difference in the new package, he said, was an increase in her salary by $1,000 per month and the added $140,000 bonus.

“I find (the criticism) so incredible because the other board members have voted for and paid these lease payments for years,” he said. “My heart goes out to Martine. She has always been there for the way station.”

Another dispute is over who should control the 160-acre way station property.

According to former directors and financial statements filed with the attorney general, the way station paid Colette $227,000 in 1992 to reimburse her for the $116,000 she originally put up as a down payment for the land in 1976. The reimbursement included a 5% accrued interest rate per year.

In December, 1993, the way station paid Colette another $365,000 so she could pay a mortgage due on the property after she had refinanced the land to pay for improvements at the way station, according to former board members.

Several board members and supporters said they are angry because Colette continues to accept rent payments even after the board paid off her down payment and made the 1993 mortgage payment--for a total of $592,000.

Joan Haller, a former board member and longtime volunteer who left the group just days before the board resignations, said she thinks the entire property should have been turned over to the way station after the board agreed to make Colette’s mortgage payment.

Haller said she fears the way station is going to use up most of the Dolly Green money on rent and salary for Colette.

“I’m very upset at what is happening because it’s an organization that was wonderful,” she said.

Ever since Colette made the down payment, Judi Williams said, the mortgage payments have been paid for with way station donations, including the final $365,000 payment. Countryman said he doesn’t have the records to show who paid the mortgage, but he said he thinks Colette made all the payments until the way station made the final payment.

Another point of conflict is a plan to build a wildlife refuge in Arizona.

So far, just less than $100,000 in way station funds has been spent to study the possibility of opening an Arizona facility, current and former board members said.

The way station volunteers and board members who resigned say they oppose spending donations that were meant to benefit abused and neglected animals to try to open a facility in Arizona that may or may not be built.

At the January board meeting, Welling said the Arizona project is needed because the way station has outgrown its facilities. He added that the board plans to reimburse the money spent on the project with donations from outside California.

Judi Williams said a consultant hired by the way station board estimated that the Arizona project would cost about $30 million to build. But she said the way station has an inconsistent track record for raising funds and would not be able to generate $30 million in donations.

Wildlife Protection League Vice President Michael Bell, who has donated to the way station in the past, said he is concerned about spending money on the Arizona project because he has been told that the way station has yet to find out whether cattle ranchers will support or oppose the project.

He said that without their support, chances of building such a refuge in the middle of cattle country are slim.

“They are very pro-cattle and pro-sheep and anti-predator,” he said, noting that a way station in Arizona would house coyotes, bobcats and other predators. “In that area, predators are made into mincemeat.”