The gates to Yuba City’s Tierra Buena Sikh Temple remain chained by order of a Sutter County Superior Court judge, the result of a power struggle for Gurdwara leadership.
Judge Brian Aronson signed an order of dispersal Friday night at request of the Gurdwara’s lawyer, Michael Barrette, after a tense 24 hours in which two factions vying for control of the executive committee clashed verbally over possession of donation boxes and the authority to change the temple’s locks.
“I believe, and, based on what we talked about, that Judge Aronson agreed, that because of past violence, the best course of action was to lock the doors of the temple,” Barrette said, referring to a large fight in 2012 when two people were stabbed.
“Nobody gets in, nobody changes anything, nobody takes any money.”
When the Gurdwara will reopen is unknown, but it will be closed at least until Monday when the court opens, Barrette said.
Those looking to attend services or pray Saturday were greeted by closed gates and two signs, one with the order of dispersal signed by Aronson and another directing people to a private residence.
“It’s heartbreaking to see ,” said Charnkamal Tamber, who attends and volunteers at the gurdwara, as he stood outside the locked gate. “I’m just so used to peace and happiness here.”
The dispute stems from a Dec. 25 emergency meeting of the board of directors at the Walnut Avenue Community Center. Harbhajan S. Dheri was elected executive committee president, Palwinder S. Malhi was elected secretary and Sukhvinder Singh was elected treasurer, said board member Parminder S. Grawal.
At a Dec. 26 meeting, a vote was taken to throw out the election results, Barrette said.
The results were voided because the election was conducted without following the temple’s bylaws and the civil code, including who called the meeting, who sent out notice for the meeting, where the meeting was held, and that the meeting was held on a holiday, Barrette said.
However, Malhi said the board of directors followed the bylaws in the Dec. 25 meeting, and the Dec. 26 meeting was the one held illegally because of actions taken at a Dec. 5 meeting.
“They called a meeting and didn’t have a quorum, so they filled the quorum illegally and removed five board of directors who didn’t agree with them, and put in eight new board of directors,” Malhi said.
The situation escalated on Dec. 31 when the newly formed committee came before the standing committee to get the keys to the temple and were denied. The newly formed committee left with the unlocked donation box from the day, and the standing committee took the locked box, Grewal said.
On Jan. 1, the newly formed committee and its supporters began to change locks at the temple.
Sutter County sheriff’s deputies and Precision Security employees were on hand but did not intervene, which is when Barrette reached out to Aronson, the attorney said. A Sheriff’s Department spokesman was not available for comment.
“We do not condone violence at the temple; we are not going to fight,” Barrette said. “I thought the Sheriff’s Department was ordering them to disperse, and when they didn’t, I had to go to a higher authority.”
Dheri, who was elected president at the disputed Dec. 25 meeting, said tensions were high, but nobody was being violent.
“I just want to know why we are locked out when no violence happened,” Dheri said. “Basically, we are really, really hurt by that decision.”