Dec 1, 2023 By direction of the officers, the Special Committee is sharing its findings, conclusions, and recommendations with the NWLL community after investigating the allegations of "cheating, wrongdoing, favoritism, financial improprieties, retaliation... and other misconduct" raised by Board members Erin Sweeney, AAA Commissioner, and Mike Klisch, Majors Commissioner, in a letter to the community in August of this year. The committee also investigated the questions about the league's finances that Ms. Sweeney and Mr. Klisch raised in subsequent email messages.
The Special Committee unanimously approved the findings, conclusions, and recommendations within the report.
It is not an overstatement to say that 2023 has been a challenging year for our league. While our players have excelled on the ball field in countless ways over the last 12 months, the fabric of the NWLL community has been torn by the accusations and counteraccusations of wrongdoing and fraud.Since it was formed in September, the Special Committee has worked hard to take an independent and impartial look at the accusations, report our findings unvarnished and without favoritism, and come to unbiased conclusions. We also developed recommendations that will strengthen the league's operations and eliminate any perceptions of impropriety in the future.
Read the Special Committee Report
Background:
On Sept 10, 2023, NWLL Board of Directors passed a resolution forming a special committee to, among other things, conduct a review of and take such investigative steps as are necessary to evaluate the August 13, 2023, letter from Erin Sweeney and Mike Klisch. The Special Committee shall, after its work, present a report to the Board on its findings, conclusions, and recommendations, if any. The members of the Special Committee are Rick Bielke, Nichole Francis, Scott Anderson, Eric Bensky, and Neha Misra. The Special Committee held its first meeting on September 13, 2023, and appointed Scott Anderson as chair. The committee also retained Steptoe & Johnson LLP as counsel on a pro bono basis.
Erin Sweeney, the AAA Commissioner, filed a lawsuit on September 18, 2023 against Northwest Little League in DC Superior Court. The lawsuit reiterates the allegations and demand for documents that Erin and Mike Klisch, the Majors Commissioner, made in their letter to the community in August. The Special Committee, working on the behalf of the Board, is currently working with our counsel from Steptoe & Johnson on a response to the lawsuit. Steptoe has agreed to represent NWLL in court on a pro bono basis.The Special Committee, which was formed on September 10, takes the allegations made in Mike and Erin’s letter seriously and has pledged to investigate them. We have started to collect relevant documents, and we will schedule interviews with relevant individuals shortly. The Special Committee promises to report our findings and recommendations to the entire NWLL community in a timely fashion.The Board has already shared with Erin and Mike three year’s worth of financial statements, bank statements, check copies, tax forms, Board meeting notes, and members lists. The Committee is currently working to determine whether it is appropriate to share with Mike and Erin the additional documents that they have requested.
The Committee can be reached at nwllspecialcommittee@gmail.com (only members of the Committee and counsel will have access to any messages sent to that address).