The number of Houchen board members has significantly dropped and members who have resigned claim the nonprofit’s bylaws are being violated.

The Houchen Community Center should have 18 board members. However, it has never had that many active members. As of December, some say the board is down to five, while other say it is eight.

The board's former vice president Daniel Armendariz spoke up in an interview with KFOX14 about his reason for resigning.

"There were too many things going on that didn't sit well with me. I didn't want to be a part of it anymore," said Armendariz.

Several other resigning board members have claimed that the community center is violating its own bylaws by having a small group of individuals serving on the board.

However, one board member who has not been involved in a lawsuit between a group of members, said that there is no violation as long as the board has 51 percent of the vote when they meet to "conduct business."

As long as three members are present, the board can continue making operating decisions.

According to Armendariz what the community center needs to keep afloat is new leadership.

"When people know there are things that are wrong, yet they want things to continue the same same, it gets very frustrating," said Armendariz.

Armendariz was vice president of the Houchen board for five years and said the nonprofit is very close to his heart. He said his mother was born there in 1921 when it was a women’s hospital.

Armendariz and a handful of others attempted to close the community center's day care in September because they were going through financial problems. The day care was reopened by the center's current board president Cheryl Felder.

"In 2011 there was a $50,000 deficit. This year alone on a monthly basis Houchen had a deficit of $5,000,” said Armendariz. "I think we could have closed the day care for a short time and then restart it up again."

Felder said the center has already received applications for new board members and has sent out many donation letters in hopes of raising funds.

However, Armendariz claims there continues to be several other violations occurring such as not reporting an accurate number of children to state officials.

"If they keep moving around the figures, when it comes to asking for money from the state, I think, yes, they're in violation," said Armendariz.