Vineyard Bank's leadership in the hands of Tuesday's meeting

     The fate of leadership at Vineyard National Bancorp -- the parent company of Vineyard Bank -- lies in the hands of Tuesday's annual meeting, where shareholder votes will determine who takes charge in the coming months.
     Some stakeholders speculate the tug of war between former CEO Norman Morales and Vineyard will be a pushover in Morales's favor.
     Besides, he and a like-minded group of investors, including John Salmanson and Douglas Kratz, have purchased a substantial amount of Vineyard stock.
     The bank said Morales "resigned" in January. He was cut a check for more than $1 million, among several other perks. He led the bank during a period that Vineyard attributes its skyrocketing loan losses to.
     But because of Vineyard's "troubled condition" status designated by federal banking regulators, either side's board candidate nominees are subject to regulatory approval.
     Vineyard Bank announced last week that it is voluntarily agreeing to a federal regulator's consent order, which says the bank must manage its financial woes by following a three-year capital plan and numerous other rules.
     Also, the OCC charged Vineyard with the daunting task of keeping its head above regulatory waters.
     Vineyard must not only diversify its investments, but also get the OCC's permission if it wants to grow its loan portfolio by more than 5 percent from the prior year, among a litany of other regulations.
     The documents also said Vineyard told its creditor -- First Tennessee Bank National Association -- on Thursday that it might need another extension on a $48 million loan. The overdue loan was already extended to Aug. 29, and Vineyard is backing nonpayment with its entire shareholder stock.
     Besides himself, Morales is asking for approval of Kratz, Thomas Koss II, Cynthia Harriss, Harice "Dev" Ogle, Lester Strong and Glen Terry.
     Through investor group One Investments LLC, Kratz bought almost 10 percent of Vineyard's stock in late June for about $6.3 million. Morales and Salmanson joined Kratz in the stock purchase.
     Vineyard is asking shareholders to approve interim CEO James LeSieur, Frank Alvarez, David Buxbaum, Charles Keagle, Robb Quincey, Joel Ravitz and J. Steven Roush as board members.
     Vineyard's shareholder meeting will be held at 2 p.m. at the Doubletree Hotel in Ontario on 222 N. Vineyard Ave.
     --matthew.wrye@inlandnewspapers.com