Over the past several months there has been much discussion regarding my suspension as an NACD instructor. I feel the time has come for me to make a public statement to clear up some of the misconceptions being put out there. I will not answer questions or clarify anything as I don’t want to get dragged into these discussions on a daily basis. I have too much already keeping me busy to try to keep up with these things. All statements made here are my view of the situation and while I have tried to stick to the facts as I know them I do want to state that these statements are my opinion only.
At the end of March 2015 Michael Angelo Gagliardi, Zelda Gagliardi, Jen Neto, and I travelled to New Jersey to staff a booth at the annual Beneath the Sea (BTS) Dive Exposition. After we had arrived in NJ but prior to the show I received an email stating the NACD owed money for the booth space. During the previous year the NACD was given the booth gratis. Apparently, there was a change in policy in 2015 but that email was the first notice I had received. I quickly emailed the rest of the BOD regarding this and asked for a decision to be made since we were already there and had several more volunteers lined up to staff the booth that weekend. To the best of my memory (since I no longer have access to the NACD emails) Carmen Calzon responded stating that issue had to be discussed during the next board meeting and could not be discussed over email.
This had been an ongoing issue between a few of the board members and Ms. Calzon for several weeks before this. In order to conduct NACD business efficiently we believed it was best to discuss issues over email so that we would not have to spend hours in skype meetings or the quarterly board meetings. My interpretation of Ms. Calzon’s statements were that all NACD business had to be conducted during meetings and that emails were only for announcement of meetings. In my opinion, that is a very inefficient manner of running an organization that is staffed by volunteers.
We were never able to get a decision on the reimbursement for the BTS booth so Michael Angelo and I decided we would pay for it so we were not wasting our time and money (Michael Angelo drove to NJ from Florida and paid for his own hotel and food and I flew to NJ from Florida, neither with any reimbursement from the NACD). We also wanted to keep our commitment to the volunteers who had committed to helping us. We knew we had at least 3 votes to reimburse and hoped to get a 4
th. If not, we would just split the cost and part ways with the organization.
While at the exposition Michael Angelo and I discussed many of the issues we saw happening with the NACD. One thing we considered a major issue was Ms. Calzon being a part of every single communication within the NACD and trying to micromanage everything that was done. We believed legal services should be something that was received when we requested it and not something that was forced on us during every second of every communication. At that point we decided that one of us would make a motion to that effect and if it was not adopted that we would just resign and walk away from the organization because we felt our efforts were being held back.
The week prior to the board meeting (which was schedule 2 weeks after BTS) I discussed with Jeff Bauer the issues Michael Angelo and I had discussed. I also contacted Rick Murcar as a courtesy since he was the president and had been the one to introduce Ms. Calzon to the NACD and let him know our concerns. At that time I let him know that we had discussed resigning if things do not change. An additional issue I discussed was a concern we had about what appeared to us as Ms. Calzon telling Zelda Gagliardi to lie in a legal deposition for a law suit involving another training organization. Another attorney was going to depose Zelda regarding a training record. My understanding and what I told Mr. Murcar is that Zelda was told the question asked would be “Was there anything else in the training file besides the student registration?” She was then told her response would be “No.” Zelda tried to state that she had not seen the training record and when she looked for it in the warehouse it was missing and there was a file where it should have been turned on its side seemingly to mark the location. But she was interrupted and told her response would be “No” and nothing else. Mr. Murcar defended Ms. Calzon and tried to justify what she had said and also tried to justify her role within the NACD. I alerted Michael Angelo and Jeff to Mr. Murcar’s response.
Previously I had planned on attending the April quarterly meeting by Skype because I had a commitment the following day. Because of the issues we had planned on discussing I decided it would be best to be there in person. So I made the 3.5 hour drive to Ginnie Springs. When I arrived I told Mr. Murcar I had to leave at 9pm since I had a 3.5 hour drive back home that night because of prior obligations on Sunday. During the meeting Michael Angelo tried to discuss the issues we had with Ms. Calzon however Mr. Murcar stopped him and stated to hold off on that until the executive session. At 9pm the general meeting was adjourned. I stood up to leave and Mr. Murcar asked me to remain for a few additional minutes. At that time an executive session was called and Mr. Murcar announced that Larry Green would be revealing the results of an investigation he had been conducting. Michael Angelo tried again to bring up the issue with Ms. Calzon on three occasions in the next several minutes and was never recognized by Mr. Murcar. At that point he decided he no longer could remain on in his position on the BOD and slid his resignation across the table to Mr. Murcar and left.
Mr. Murcar has stated on the forums that I was there for the entire reading of the allegations. This is not true. Mr. Green began reading the allegations after 9pm when the executive session was called. These are the same allegations covered over several pages that have been emailed to NACD members and posted in the forums. Before Mr. Green was able to complete reading the allegations Ms. Calzon began asking him for specific information regarding the standards that were violated. While I was still present Mr. Green was not able to state any specific standards and used the words “vaguely” and “sort of” as adjectives to answer which standards were violated (“vaguely describes”, “sort of violates”). At 9:20pm I stated I could stay no longer and left as Ms. Calzon was still trying to get specific information from Mr. Green regarding the standards violations. He had not even made it through the first page of the allegations.
During the 3.5 hour drive home I had a lot of time to think. It appeared to me based on the brief amount of time I was present during the executive session that all Mr. Green had was the initial information he had sent to me 2 months previously and that information was not sufficient to act on. There was no specific information, dates, course names, or student names with the exception of one class that was attended by board members. There were no specific standards stated as being violated. Yet, there was a long list of allegations against me based on vague information. During that drive I decided I was just wasting my efforts volunteering for the NACD and my time and efforts would be better served elsewhere. The next morning I let Michael Angelo and Jeff Bauer know of my decision. Shortly afterwards I sent Mr. Murcar an email resigning from the Training Director position and my position on the Board of Directors. Jeff Bauer resigned shortly after.
A couple of hours later Mr. Murcar acknowledged my resignation and continued on to advise me of my suspension in that same email. This is in spite the bylaws stating in Section 3, Paragraph 8, subsection C that “After receipt of a complaint, the NACD will forward a letter to the instructor outlining the general nature of the complaint. Once the instructor is notified, he or she will be expected to respond in writing within fourteen days.” To this day I have not received any such letter.
In the email notification he stated I was “suspended from teaching NACD programs pending a QA Hearing of which a date, location and time will be announced.” This left me with the impression that a QA Hearing would automatically be scheduled. He continued on with “You will be given suitable time to prepare. You will be provided with a [sic] itemized list of the accused violations. You will be afford [sic] the right to challenge your accusers”. Following this Mr. Murcar made an announcement on the forums regarding my suspension so the following morning I emailed him asking him for the specific standards violations and questioning the suspension because it did not meet NACD bylaws’ requirements. I then reminded him of the confidentiality agreement he had signed and suggested he delete his social media posts. He sent a response the following day with an attachment (which has likely been seen by all reading this because it was posted on this thread). However I did not see this email until the 2 days later (April 16) because I had been busy working on my income tax return.
At that point I decided that all future communications should be conducted by certified mail as dictated in the bylaws so that receipt of communication could be documented. I took time to read through the allegations and sent a response within the allotted time. My response was a request for the information Mr. Murcar had stated he would provide – the list of accused violations so I could have suitable time to prepare. I also included communication asking for several dates during which someone would be available to receive the property belonging to the NACD that I had in my possession. Mr. Murcar’s spouse, Diana Murcar, signed for the certified letter on April 29, 2015, less than 14 days after I received and opened the email notification. (See attached file entitled Gmail – Re_Resignation.pdf for a copy of the email transactions)
Two weeks later, after not having received a response from Mr. Murcar, I sent a 2
nd letter, this one to Mr. Murcar, Don Syme, and Chris Corbett, requesting the same information as in the first letter. In fact, I even copied and pasted the information from the first letter into this second letter. This was sent on May 11, 2015. All three letters were signed for, this time by Mr. Murcar, Mr. Syme, and Mr. Corbett. Still no response regarding that request.
On June 11, 2015 I contacted Steve Mann, former General Manager of the NACD. I explained that I had tried to return the property to the NACD but was not getting any responses from them and asked if he would mind if I dropped off the property with him so it would at least be in High Springs and possibly get back to them. On June 13, 2015 I met with Steve Mann and returned all the NACD property I had in my possession. On June 16, 2015 I received a message from Steve that he had turned over the property to Mr. Green. I no longer have any NACD property in my possession, digitalized or hard. Everything that was in my possession was turned over by me and received by them over a month ago.
Gmail - Re_resignation.pdf
View attachment Gmail - Re_ Resignation.pdf
