Executive Director Ben Jealous ‘oversaw multiple rounds of layoffs’ and ‘openly feuded’ with staffers, Politico reports
The Sierra Club’s board ousted Executive Director Ben Jealous in a unanimous vote Monday after a “tumultuous” two years of his leadership, according to a report.
The group’s board “has unanimously voted to terminate Mr. Jealous’ employment with the Sierra Club for cause following extensive evaluation of his conduct,” a spokesman told Politico in a Monday email. The board’s president, Patrick Murphy, said in a statement that the board “made a difficult but principled decision to uphold our values and commitment to accountability, which will be carried forward by the leadership team.”
The Sierra Club, a liberal environmentalist group, placed Jealous on leave last month, after local chapters voiced frustration with his leadership and requested a vote of no confidence by the board.
“His ouster follows several turbulent years at the group,” Politico reported Monday. “Jealous oversaw multiple rounds of layoffs during his tenure as the Sierra Club’s leader and openly feuded with the group’s staff.”
Jealous, a prominent left-wing activist, has faced scrutiny before. During his failed 2018 campaign for governor of Maryland, Jealous gave different answers to Jewish and Muslim voters about the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement. That same year, Jealous’s campaign placed multiple calls to a lobbyist who was convicted of fraud, even as he openly pledged not to take a meeting with any lobbyist convicted of such crimes.
The Sierra Club has also been no stranger to controversy over the years. The activist group has supported “minimizing the production and consumption of domestic animals” to “reduce greenhouse gas production” and advocated for socialist congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D., N.Y.) Green New Deal.
Jealous in a statement to the New York Times slammed the Sierra Club’s board and vowed to contest the decision. “It is disheartening, unfortunate, but perhaps not surprising that the board has chosen an adversarial course that the facts so clearly cannot support,” Jealous said. “I have begun the process under my contract to fight this decision. I am confident that we will prevail.”
Erica Dodt, the president of the union that represents Sierra Club employees, celebrated Jealous’s termination.
“We are heartened to see the Sierra Club take action to terminate Ben Jealous for cause,” Dodt said in a statement to Politico. “Over a year ago, our union members overwhelmingly voted no confidence in Jealous’ leadership, citing his mismanagement of our organization’s strategy and budget and his ongoing attacks on our union.”
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