A former Park City Ice Miners board member is suing the Wasatch Back youth hockey league for restructuring the organization to allegedly prevent a fair election after a parent accused the nonprofit of financial mismanagement.

Vanessa and Jim Krejci filed the lawsuit last week alongside Christina Kim and Benjamin Arnold, who initially raised concerns about the nonprofit’s operations in the fall. Vanessa served as a Park City Ice Miners board member from March 2025 until earlier this year, when the restructuring was announced.

The complaint filed in Third District Court said the Park City Ice Miners were incorporated as a nonprofit corporation in 2008, with a membership structure that allowed families participating in programming to vote in board elections. Under the membership structure, board elections were required to take place each year by March 31.

However, the organization did not hold an election last month. Instead, the nonprofit modified its leadership structure to remove memberships, creating a self-selecting board of directors.

The latest lawsuit alleged Matt Prucka, the current board president, “controlled” previous board elections, including one incident in 2024 in which Prucka was both a candidate for a board seat and the elections administrator. Prucka was the subject of another lawsuit filed by Arnold last year, which focused on Arnold’s concerns regarding the organization’s finances and a reported tendency for Prucka to accept Park City Ice Miners payments through a personal Venmo account.

“PCIM is aware of the most recent litigation filed by the Krejcis and Arnolds,” the Ice Miners said in a statement. “This is the second lawsuit filed by Arnold and a continuation of the ongoing and misplaced threats made by the Krejcis. PCIM is not commenting on litigation specifics but will continue defending itself against these false allegations and meritless legal claims.”

The new complaint specifically said Gavin Manes, the owner of a digital forensics firm, analyzed the Park City Ice Miners ’ previous elections, which he determined violated the organization’s bylaws and “proper election practice.” He then offered to help the nonprofit administer its elections, and Prucka scheduled the next board meeting for Feb. 23.

But the meeting was canceled shortly after Krejci submitted a drafted motion to hold a “proper election,” which only received support from one other board member. Days later, on Feb. 25, other board members scheduled a special-called meeting for Feb. 27, with the agenda indicating a discussion about updating the bylaws with “materials to be provided” at a later date.

It was during the Feb. 27 meeting that five board members voted to create Newco, the new corporation without a membership structure, with only Krejci and Laura Durham against the change.

“Ms. Krejci and Ms. Durham repeatedly voiced their objection that they needed the business rationale, the legal basis and time to consider the merger, along with a future open board meeting to discuss with the members,” the complaint said. “The Conflicted Directors never provided this information and, in fact, never produced any evidence that any due diligence was conducted.”

The lawsuit stated multiple families became “unsettled” after the vote, with at least nine letters written to the board asking for clarity on the decision. The complaint claimed that approximately 20 families expressed concerns to the author of one of the letters, but they “were afraid that if they came forward,” the board and Hockey Director Mike Adamek “would retaliate against their children.”

The document further alleged that the Newco board of directors committed fraud because Krejci repeatedly attempted to resign from her position after the vote. Her requests to the Ice Miners’ legal counsel were never answered, and Krejci sent a letter of resignation directly to Prucka on March 18.

However, Krejci was still listed as a Newco board member in official paperwork establishing the new corporation on March 20.

“The Newco Articles of Merger are, therefore, fraudulent,” the lawsuit said. “There is serious risk that Newco will be unable to obtain an IRS 501(c)(3) determination — putting in jeopardy almost $50,000 in annual donations, which are required by the organization to … operate.”

The lawsuit also called out comments from the other directors, who said the membership structure was removed so families “could not ‘weaponize’ their rights to request records.” It referred to Arnold’s initial complaint about Prucka’s finances, as well as an independently obtained forensic analysis of the nonprofit that “reported multiple areas of ‘heightened fraud risk … and control deficiencies.’”

The complaint said Prucka has been unable to provide receipts for personal reimbursements to Krejci, with the document stating the Krejcis had concerns about the Ice Miners’ reporting to the Internal Revenue Service and whether those filings were accurate. Arnold had raised a similar anxiety in his lawsuit last fall.

“The Conflicted Directors … scrubbed the minutes of Oldco’s board meetings to hide financial errors discussed in the meeting,” the complaint added, referring to the organization prior to the Newco merger. “(Legal counsel) entirely scrubbed these concerns from the minutes without Ms. Krejci’s permission and, in fact, despite her protest. The justification was because they ‘served no valid purpose.’”

The lawsuit claimed the board retaliated against Krejci by removing her from her position as secretary after she questioned the omission. It also claimed the hockey director retaliated against the Krejcis’ and Arnolds’ children, who made high-level teams but were later removed.

Adamek, who has been coaching youth hockey for almost 20 years, allegedly sent a letter to the board in August stating he would not coach the families’ children because their parents “were trying to ‘destroy PCIM,’” according to court documents.

“This was direct retaliation for the Plaintiffs’ inquiry into financial irregularities,” the complaint said.

The lawsuit alleged Adamek and the board prevented the children from playing on other teams as well, with Adamek blocking requests and telling other coaches there was “no possible way” they were adding those specific players to their teams.

The situation caused stress and anxiety for the Arnolds’ children, who reportedly became “fearful” that they would run into adults associated with the Park City Ice Miners.

The complaint concluded by requesting Judge Richard Mrazik declare the Newco change illegal and return all of the nonprofit’s assets to the old corporation and structure. It also requested that the judge reinstate the elections that were supposed to have been held last month, with oversight from membership families and interim elections administrators.

Park City Ice Miners had not responded to the lawsuit in court as of Tuesday, but the board of directors, in a statement to The Park Record, said they remain committed to the hockey program.

“Despite the efforts of these bad faith actors, PCIM is focused on its core mission of providing the strongest possible youth hockey program and developing our athletes,” the statement said. “The Ice Miner community is already prepared for the upcoming season, with tryouts ongoing and coaching announcements completed by our new Hockey Development Committee.”

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On Friday, March 24, 2017, the Park City and the Outliers of the U10 A division competed at the Park City Ice Arena during the 2017 Park City High Mountain Shootout. The Miners fell 3-1. (Tanzi Propst/Park Record)

The post PHOTOS: Park City falls 3-1 to Outliers in High Mountain Shootout appeared first on Park Record.

The Park City High School hockey team faced off against Skyline at the Park City Ice Arena Wednesday evening, Jan. 11, 2017. The Miners won 11-0. (Tanzi Propst/Park Record)

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The Park City High School Miners hockey team faced off against Skyline at the Park City Ice Arena Wednesday evening, Nov. 9, 2016. The Miners won 10-1. (Tanzi Propst/Park Record)

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