Group Seeks Ouster of USOC President

Proclaiming that they now represent “the leadership of the United States Olympic Committee,” a group of senior USOC officials on Tuesday demanded the resignation of the organization’s president, Marty Mankamyer.

Four of the five USOC vice presidents and two other top officials, the heads of the athlete and sports federation groups, joined in a conference call with reporters to say that Mankamyer, elected in August, should quit. One of the vice presidents, Bill Stapleton, said, “She no longer has our support, nor do we believe she has the necessary leadership skills.”

Mankamyer said afterward in an interview with The Times, “I’m not resigning.”

If Mankamyer doesn’t step down, Stapleton said, the executive committee will debate her fate at a meeting Feb. 8 in Chicago. The USOC’s 120-member board of directors must vote on the removal of certain officers, including president. The next scheduled meeting is in April in Fort Worth. Stapleton said the possibility exists of calling a special meeting sooner, although that would create an estimated $100,000 expense for the USOC.

For weeks, the USOC has been engulfed in turmoil over a far-reaching range of circumstances surrounding an ethics controversy sparked by a proposed power deal for the 2003 Pan American Games in the Dominican Republic. The call Tuesday for Mankamyer’s resignation significantly intensifies the stakes and the tumult.

In a report made public Jan. 13, the USOC’s ethics oversight committee found that Chief Executive Lloyd Ward had “created the appearance of a conflict of interest” last year by directing staff to make introductions in the Dominican Republic on behalf of a Detroit company with ties to his brother and a childhood friend. The report recommended no action, and the USOC’s executive committee took none Jan. 13.

In the aftermath of that decision, five USOC officials resigned, including the ethics compliance officer and three members of the ethics panel.

Meantime, the senior International Olympic Committee delegate to the U.S., Anita DeFrantz of Los Angeles, over the weekend suggested a comprehensive, independent review be undertaken. Mankamyer endorsed that proposal Monday, as did those on Tuesday’s phone call, although Stapleton said it should be “limited in time and scope so as to move this process forward rapidly.”

The public call for Mankamyer’s resignation, as well as the timing, underscores just how deeply divided is the USOC’s leadership.

Joining Stapleton on Tuesday’s conference call were vice presidents Paul George, Herman Frazier and Frank Marshall, plus Rachel Godino, chair of the Athletes’ Advisory Council, and Robert Marbut, head of the council of Olympic sports governing bodies. The remaining vice president, William Martin, was unavailable.

The officers -- as the group generally is known in USOC lingo -- went public with their grievances against Mankamyer even though U.S. Sen. Ted R. Stevens (R-Alaska), later joined by Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-Colo.), last week ordered senior USOC officials to Washington by the end of the month for an emergency meeting, saying the recent reports of management turmoil are “troubling.”

In addition, U.S. agents are due today in Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic’s capital, to interview the Pan Am Games’ project manager, Lowell Fernandez. He said the U.S. Justice Department has expressed interest in Detroit-based Energy Management Technologies’ power proposal for the 2003 Pan Am Games; department officials have declined to comment.

Moreover, a leading Olympic sponsor, David D’Alessandro, chairman and chief executive of John Hancock Financial Services, asked Tuesday for a full-scale audit of USOC revenues and expenses, saying in a lengthy letter addressed to Mankamyer and Ward: “It is no longer possible to overlook the seemingly nonstop turmoil and controversy that afflict your organization.”

D’Alessandro added in a telephone interview that he has deep concerns that New York’s bid for the 2012 Summer Olympics will be adversely affected.

The IOC, which will select the 2012 site in 2005, will “never, ever vote for the United States if they feel this is more of ‘send in the clowns,’ ” D’Alessandro said.

In Tuesday’s conference call, the officers accused Mankamyer of, as Stapleton put it, “attempting to hijack the ethics oversight committee in pursuit of her own political gain.”

As for the officers, Stapleton said, “We have no political agenda and seek to present only the truth.”

One of the vice presidents, George, a Boston attorney, ran unsuccessfully for the USOC presidency against Mankamyer and Sandra Baldwin, the prior president, and would be on many short lists should the presidency become vacant. “We have not had a single conversation about who would be president,” Stapleton said.

A statement that was e-mailed to reporters on Tuesday’s call as it began said the officers concluded that Mankamyer had made a bigger issue of the ethics review involving Ward than they believe was warranted.

“Our view is that it was a technical violation that didn’t rise to the level of termination, or even close to that,” Stapleton said in the call.

Many of the officers also have been irate that word of an ethics-related matter involving Ward was reported Dec. 30 in The Times before many of them knew about it.

On Jan. 12, under pressure from the officers the day before an executive committee meeting in the Denver area, Mankamyer indicated she would resign. She then changed her mind. Last Thursday night, the officers led a hastily called executive committee conference call at which calls were issued for a no-confidence vote in Mankamyer. Ultimately, no vote was taken.

“One way or the other,” Stapleton said Tuesday, “I can tell you personally I am resolved to fix this problem, which is not limited to Marty Mankamyer, and I absolutely agree it is time for potentially some congressional involvement ... to solve the problems in this organization. If we can’t do that, I will resign my position for sure.”