A group of Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op members who seek to ban Israeli-made products at the store began court proceedings Thursday, saying the co-op’s board is violating its bylaws by not opening the decision to a vote by members.

“Our ultimate goal is to have the co-op’s bylaws maintained, and those bylaws require and give members the right to put initiatives on the ballot,” said Maggie Coulter, who sponsored the “Human Rights Initiative.”

To read more about the issues behind the legal action, click here.

Coulter said Friday that the group filed a writ of mandate in Sacramento County’s court system Thursday in hopes that a judge will require the co-op board to allow the membership to vote on items brought to it with the required 100 member signatures.

“They’ve threatened to do this for a long time,” said Board President Steven Maviglio on Friday. “It’s sad and unfortunate that they’re forcing us to use money that should be going to sustainable agriculture to pay lawyer fees.”

He added that though the store carries insurance for legal representation, the deductible will be “tens of thousands of dollars.”

Coulter said the board sent out costly mailers to co-op members about the issue in the past, using some of the same money.

“Maybe the board will come to its senses and realize, ‘You know what? Let’s just follow the bylaws and let the members vote,’ ” she said.

In a previous article, Board Member Michelle Reynolds said the bylaws section referenced by the group looking to ban Israeli-made products is a “cherry-picked” section and not representative of the entire bylaws.

Maviglio said the board is following the bylaws, and a policy committee has been in place for a decade to review initiatives, and it determined that the two initiatives in question – the Human Rights Initiative and the Restore Co-op Democracy initiative – don’t qualify to go to a member vote.

Coulter disagreed, and added that there are no plans to stop the legal action.

“The next step is it has to be scheduled,” she said. “We are being represented by pro-bono attorneys from the National Lawyers Guild. They – like us – believe in the democratic process and feel this case has merit and is also an important case.”

She said that she thinks the members’ ability to put measures on a co-op ballot is critical, saying it ceases to be a co-op if that is not allowed.

Maviglio disagreed, saying that the issue will be “laughed out of court.”

He said the board members are confident that they acted within the bylaws.

“It’s just a publicity stunt,” he said. “There’s no merit in it.”

To view the co-op’s bylaws, click here.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.