Membership Recall of ITM Board of Directors

Recall Petition

On March 25, 2016, the Hoosier Heritage Port Authority (“HHPA”) suspended the operating authority of the Indiana Transportation Museum (“ITM”) for all trains along the HHPA District rail line. The suspension was enforced after several warnings and attempts to resolve outstanding issues. The failure of the ITM Board of Directors to meet the requirements of the HHPA’s line-use policy, which required ITM to perform track maintenance in lieu of the payment of track usage fees, was just one unresolved issue resulting in the suspension. The policy agreement also required ITM to report the amount of money spent on such track repair, as well as reporting on train schedules, ridership numbers, and verification of operating crew certification, none of which were satisfied. Simultaneously, the Indiana Attorney General opened an investigation of ITM’s finances. The investigation is reviewing the Board’s budgeting practices, accounting practices, and their ability to properly manage public assets.

Despite the fact that all this information was readily available from ITM’s Railroad Operations division, the board of directors failed for years to communicate the required data to the HHPA. At the same time, the board of directors failed to secure and approve adequate funding for needed track maintenance and repair. Instead, the Board of Directors allocated funding at a level insufficient to maintain the track and well below the annual budget amounts requested by the Railroad Operations board of managers for several years running. The ongoing shortfall in track maintenance expenditures resulted in a steady deterioration in the serviceability of the railroad infrastructure in terms of highway grade crossings, rail joints, ties, and ballast. Meanwhile, the Board of Directors spent large sums of money on unnecessary legal fees and advertising, out of proportion with what should have been allocated to such budgetary items. The inappropriate budgeting prevented ITM from appropriately maintaining the track, keeping equipment in good working order, operating the museum for the public’s benefit, and restoring ITM’s historic rail engines, cars, and other equipment.

When six members of the Railroad Operations Board of Managers brought these issues to the ITM Board of Directors, seeking accountability for years of mismanagement and requesting a meeting of the museum’s membership to decide on a recall petition served against the current board members, the Board of Directors terminated the six as volunteers of the organization. The Board of Directors also terminated one of their own members as well, for having signed the recall petition letter. Subsequently, the Board of Directors terminated the museum membership of two family members of the terminated members, even though neither signed the recall petition. In point of fact, this marks the second time in recent years where volunteers seeking a recall vote were terminated by the current Board of Directors. In that case, the two members were terminated merely for circulating a recall petition.

Subsequent to these terminations of the very supervisors who had been managing the operation of the trains safely and successfully for decades, the Board of Directors and other museum volunteers took it upon themselves to destroy personnel records (including confidential medical records and crew certification records) of not only the terminated individuals, but of several other active volunteers, despite the fact that federal regulations required these records to be secured and archived for five years.

These management failures manifested themselves in the recent cancellation of the popular ITM FairTrain, as a direct result of the ITM Board of Directors failing to maintain the track to a levelacceptable to the HHPA’s track inspector, and the inability of the board to produce complete crew certification records to the HHPA, inasmuch as these records had in fact been unsecured and destroyed without proper authority, under the auspices of the Board of Directors. It is important to understand that the six members who were terminated for raising concerns with the Board of Directors regarding financial issues, had properly maintained and secured all operating crew records throughout their tenure as supervisors, according to federal requirements.

The actions taken by the HPAA and the ongoing investigation by the Indiana Attorney general of ITM’s finances reflect the concerns raised in the letter presented to the Board of Directors by the seven terminated members. It is the opinion of the seven terminated members that the current Board of Directors is either unwilling or incapable of managing ITM in a manner that will insure its secure future and preserve one of Indiana’s most prized assets.

The Indiana Transportation Museum is an important asset to Indiana’s communities along the line, and has provided enjoyment to thousands who have ridden trains over many years, while educating the public regarding the history of railroad transportation in Indiana and the nation. The recent cancelation of the Fairtrain is an unfortunate result of years of mismanagement, but it is the future of the Fairtrain and the numerous other activities and benefits provided by ITM that is in jeopardy if immediate action is not taken by ITM members. The current Board of Directors has not only failed to recognize their own management shortcomings, but also have failed to accept responsibility for these shortcomings and ignore the call of the museum’s own long time members to resign, and allow the membership to elect a new board of directors. It is clear that the time has come for the current ITM Board of Directors to accept responsibility for the myriad of management problems which have resulted in the museum’s inability to run trains, and to fulfill the organization’s mission as an educational non-profit entity.