"Regrettably, your precipitous and illegal removal of Mr. Nee during his appointed term, your failure to afford Mr. Nee a pre-termination hearing, your prejudgment of Mr. Nee in correspondence, in media, and other public statements, and your evident disciminatory treatment of Mr. Nee and Mr. Boeniger on the basis of their union affiliations, demonstrate that neither you nor officials under your control would be capable of providing Mr. Nee with an unbiased, fair and impartial hearing," writes Gursky in a letter on Nee's behalf.

"Therefore, Mr. Nee requests that you provide this office with the name or names of proposed impartial hearing officers, for review by Mr. Nee, or with a proposed independent hearing officer selection process..."

Nee and Boeniger have been Beacon board members since the company was founded in 1994. Last week the board voted to fire former Beacon CEO Joseph A. Solomon "with cause" in light of allegations of mismanagement and abuse unearthed in a report commissioned by the company.

Nee and Boeniger, both former governor-appointees, were the only board members to vote to fire Solomon without cause, a distinction that would have given Solomon a severance package worth about $3 million.

-- With reports from Journal staff writer Lynn Arditi