One of the people she fired was Tom Brownscombe, who had taken her job as scholastic coordinator after Beatriz had left under a cloud in March 2000.
We really have to feel sorry for poor Ole' Tom Brownscombe, because immediately after he was fired, he went to Las Vegas where he won $85,000 in a poker tournament. If Beatriz had not fired Tom, he would still be slaving away at his desk in New Windsor and would not be corrupted by having all that money.
After Brownscombe was fired, his position was not filled. There has been no scholastic coordinator ever since.
I was just thinking about the fact that Beatriz fired her replacement as scholastic coordinator. I have never quite figured out what the scholastic coordinator does, but clearly the scholastic coordinator is involved in coordinating the massive mega-tournaments for children held around the country. Some of these events have more than 4,000 child players.
The big scandal which just about engulfed the USCF while Beatriz was the scholastic coordinator concerned the March, 1999 National Elementary Championship in Arizona, organized by Richard Peterson. There were two contracts for that event: One was a clean contract which was the standard USCF contract for such events. The other was a marked up version with lots of lines crossed out and words written in between the lines. I have copies of both versions in my storage locker. Richard Peterson claims that the version which is the clean standard form was not signed by him. The one he signed was the marked up version and the signature on the clean unchanged contract is a forgery, says Peterson.
Beatriz claims on the other hand that the signature on the clean version is the real signature of Richard Peterson and that essentially Peterson forged his own signature.
There were two big issues between the two contracts. The biggest issue was the T-Shirts. The clean version gave the USCF the right to sell T-Shirts at the National Elementary Chess Championship. The marked up Peterson version gave Peterson the right to manufacture and sell his own t-shirts at the National Elementary Championship. This is not a trivial matter. Sales of t-shirts are the biggest revenue item at such events.
Another item concerned the sale by Peterson of bottled water to the players, instead of providing for free the familiar canisters and plastic cups. Peterson says that the water only cost one dollar per bottle and the cost was reasonable. Others say that Peterson charged the children two dollars for a bottle of water, which was excessive. This incident became known as the Bottled Watergate.
Then, of course, was the allegation of sexual impropriety. Beatriz called Peterson from Tanners motel room at 11:00 PM one night and then called Peterson from the same motel room at 8:00 AM the next morning. This led Peterson to conclude that Beatriz had slept with Robert Tanner. Peterson charged that this had been such a wonderful experience for the two of them that Beatriz had awarded Tanner, who was a rival scholastic organizer, a bid to hold another kiddie tournament, in spite of a better bid by Peterson. We now know, however, that this was not true and that Beatriz Marinello did not sleep with Robert Tanner.
How do we know that? This brings us to Jareckigate, which arose when Carol Jarecki was paid $4,000 by Beatriz to run the tournament. The $4,000 came from the advance entry fees the parents of the children had sent in directly to the USCF to pay for the tournament. Since Peterson was the organizer, the bottom line was that Peterson was charged for this $4,000. Peterson claimed that he had not hired Jarecki and that the $4,000 payment to run a three-day tournament was excessive. Beatriz and Jarecki claimed that Petersons deputy had hired Jarecki and besides there was no other qualified person available to run the tournament.
The case would up in court when the USCF at the behest of Beatriz sued Peterson. Meanwhile, Peterson had signed another contract with the USCF to hold the 2000 National Elementary in Dallas in March 2000. In view of the litigation, the USCF abrogated that contract. Also March, 2000 was when Beatriz left the USCF. She claims that she resigned in protest to the settlement that had been reached between Peterson and the USCF. By that time, Bob Smith was USCF President and Gerald Dullea was Executive Director. Smith negotiated a settlement with Peterson, which did not last long however. Beatriz says that she resigned in protest to the settlement. Others say that she was fired. Tom Brownscombe was hired to replace Beatriz.
Nowadays, the claim is made by Randy Bauer that in view of the experience that Beatriz gained by working for the USCF for one year in 1999-2000 that Beatriz is qualified to be made the next Executive Director of the USCF. However, that one year was tumultuous and was filled with controversies and lawsuits on a scale which has never happened in the USCF before or since. Also, the USCF has done quite well without a replacement for Tim Brownscombe. I am just wondering what else Beatriz did during her one year with the USCF and whether the experience she gained there was valuable.
Sam Sloan