The U.S. Olympic Committee’s leadership crisis deepened seriously Friday, with three members of its ethics committee resigning over the handling of a conflict-of-interest case involving chief executive officer Lloyd Ward and two U.S. senators calling for an inquiry into the organization’s management.
Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) said he plans an informal investigation into what he called “troubling matters … associated with the organization’s leadership and executive management.” Stevens was an architect of the 1978 law that gave the USOC control of Olympic sports in the U.S. and gave Congress oversight of the USOC.
“We cannot allow the strength the USOC has achieved since the Amateur Sports Act was enacted to be eroded by personnel problems or failure of its management,” Stevens said, adding that he wanted to meet with committee representatives by the end of the month.
Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-Colo.), a 1964 U.S. Olympian in judo, endorsed Stevens’ statement.
The turmoil has expanded to include USOC President Marty Mankamyer, who some executive committee members believe is trying to force out Ward. She denies the allegations.
On Thursday night, the executive committee had a conference call to discuss possible action against Mankamyer, who was flying from New York to Colorado Springs at the time. She learned the meeting was taking place while making a connection in Denver and joined the call.
“The only thing I can say is, the meeting was about me,” Mankamyer said Friday.
An attempt to ask for a no-confidence vote on Mankamyer was defeated when some executive committee members pointed out the meeting violated USOC bylaws because it was called improperly. “We concluded it was an informational session,” USOC Vice President Paul George said Friday.
Asked if there were a concerted effort to force out Mankamyer, executive committee member Rob Stull said: “I don’t know that to be true. The leadership of the organization is doing what it thinks is best.”
Ward is the USOC’s fourth CEO and Mankamyer its third president since 2000.
Before passage of the Amateur Sports Act, the USOC was essentially a travel agency sending teams selected by individual sports federations to the Olympics. Since then, it has become responsible for all Olympic-related activities, including fundraising. It has a quadrennial budget of about $500 million.
It is a cumbersome mix of policy-making volunteers elected by their peers, such as the president and other executive committee members, and paid staff. Ward is paid $500,000 a year.
Rash of resignations
Five USOC officials now have resigned since Monday, when the executive committee decided not to take action against Ward for asking a staffer to help secure an Olympic-related contract for a company of which his brother was president. Ward said he had no financial interest in his brother’s company, which did not get the business.
Ethics committee members Edward Petry, Stephen Potts and John Kuelbs resigned from the 10-member panel Friday.
In letters obtained by the Tribune, Potts wrote he had “lost confidence in the USOC’s commitment to enforcement of its code of ethics.” Kuelbs, a member for barely two months, said he had been “unable to establish confidence” that such a commitment exists.
Petry’s letter cited a “lack of attention” to items agreed on at the Dec. 23 ethics committee meeting where, sources said, Ward was found in violation of several areas of the USOC’s ethics code. The report the ethics committee presented to the meeting of the executive committee Monday mentioned just one of those and concluded Ward was guilty only of having “created the appearance of a conflict of interest.”
Petry is executive director of the Ethics Officers Association, an organization including ethics officers from most Fortune 500 companies. Kuelbs is general counsel of Teledyne Technologies. Potts, former director of the federal Office of Government Ethics under Presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton, is a board member of the Ethics Resource Center.
USOC executive committee member Brian Derwin of Apple Valley, Minn., resigned Monday, saying Ward’s actions constituted “a clear conflict-of-interest violation.”
The USOC’s ethics-compliance officer, Patrick Rodgers, resigned Wednesday, saying he had been asked to quash the case by ethics committee chair Kenneth Duberstein.
George was among 15 members of the 22-member executive committee who signed a statement Friday to “once again” endorse the ethics committee report. Mankamyer was not listed as a signer, but George did not know if she was asked. He could not confirm whether all the non-signers had been contacted.
Duberstein has chosen not to comment on Rodgers’ allegation. He did not return a message left at his office Friday.
Ward did not respond to a message left at his USOC office.
Rift with Mankamyer
Before coming to the USOC, Ward was briefly CEO of Maytag and a failed company selling used cars on the Internet.
Ward also has been criticized for failing to reveal during his USOC hiring he was a member of Augusta National Golf Club, which has no female members. The USOC supports inclusiveness.
Ward has written the executive committee to complain Mankamyer is behind an organized effort to force him out since it was learned he tried to help Detroit-based EMT secure a contract related to the 2003 Pan American Games in the Dominican Republic.
Ward alleged Mankamyer made a special trip to the Dominican Republic to investigate him. She denied that Friday, saying she asked Dominican Olympic officials about the matter during a meeting in Mexico City in late November. Mankamyer said the information she received convinced her the committee should review the issue.
“This matter never would have gotten to this point if [Mankamyer] hadn’t forced a review,” Rodgers said. “I applaud her for doing that and have little respect for those now trying to move her out.”
