BEDFORD, N.H. -- A recent vote at the exclusive Manchester Country Club to suspend Bedford School Board Chairman Dan Sullivan as a club member for his alleged conduct now has a controversy brewing at the private golf course, with lawyers lining up on both sides.

The club's board of directors met on Sept. 21 to decide whether to expel Sullivan from the member-owned club for life for what the club's president, attorney Jay L. Hodes, characterized in a letter as "conduct contrary to the welfare of the club."

Vice president of the board, Allen F. Pattee, confirmed this week that the directors voted instead to suspend Sullivan from the club for one year.

While Pattee declined to comment on specific details about why the board called for the expulsion hearing or on its ultimate decision, a letter posted on the membership Web site by club president Hodes cites "incidents of belligerent, confrontational, profane and threatening behavior by Mr. Sullivan toward MCC members and guests."

Other written complaints submitted to the board by at least 21 different members, accuse Sullivan of what some termed as "unruly" behavior and a pattern of verbal abuse and intimidation of "officials, employees, members and guests."

Many of those complaints, obtained by various sources, mention a letter mailed by Sullivan about two months ago to a portion of the club's approximately 360 members. In the letter Sullivan allegedly lambastes the club's greens superintendent Gary Watschke for greens conditions and his pay scale and alleges nepotism.

Hodes claims in his letter posted Sept. 26 on the club's private Web site that Sullivan's letter was not the reason he was suspended but acknowledges Sullivan's mailing prompted many members to submit complaints.

"There was never disagreement among most of the board members about whether such behavior was acceptable. The question was what to do about it," Hodes' letter states.

As a close-knit, member-owned club, few members were willing to speak publicly about Sullivan's suspension.

"As I am sure you are aware, we are a private club. We've been advised by our counsel that we should respect a member's privacy," vice president Pattee said.

Hodes was out of town all week and did not return a message left at his law office. The board's lawyer, Stephen J. Patterson, of the Manchester law firm, Wiggin and Nourie, did not return a phone call seeking comment for this story.

"The issue is well investigated," Pattee said. "There were many issues. It has been communicated to the parties."

Sullivan, who has been a member of the club for 25 years, declined to speak about the golf course matter when reached by telephone Tuesday, though he did speak openly about school board matters. He deferred all comment on the country club to lawyers on his legal team — Peter M. Solomon, a club member who has a law practice in Londonderry, and Boston attorney Stephen P. Griffin, who has experience in country club cases.

After being contacted by telephone Tuesday, Solomon agreed to a sit-down meeting Wednesday at his law offices with Griffin present. Sullivan's vehicle was parked outside the office, though he did not join the interview.

Solomon and Griffin said they accompanied about 50 to 60 club members who went with Sullivan to the Sept. 21 board meeting, where they claim Sullivan was denied the opportunity to confront his accusers who had submitted only written complaints and were then shut out while the board made its decision.

"I assume the majority of the members will support Dan Sullivan and find the board's actions repugnant," Solomon said.

At the center of the controversy, apparently, is Sullivan's campaign at the country club to rein in spending to keep membership fees from rising and a campaign to improve conditions of the greens, he said.

Sullivan's lawyers said they dispute Hodes' claim that the four-page letter Sullivan wrote over the summer was not the reason Sullivan was suspended and accuse Hodes of issuing his Sept. 26 letter to cover the board's actions.

"Mr. Hodes' letter, his response is really nothing more than a self-serving, face-saving press release to assuage the majority of the membership who support Dan Sullivan," Solomon said.

Solomon said he drafted a proposal, after the country club's board first voted to consider expelling Sullivan on Aug. 17, under which Sullivan would have remained a member by signing a settlement agreement. But the board apparently rejected the proposal.

Solomon and Griffin said they would now like to sit down with attorneys from Wiggin and Nourie to negotiate an alternative in which Sullivan's suspension may be reversed.

"This is terribly damaging, irreparably damaging to Mr. Sullivan's reputation," Griffin said.

"This was his primary social and recreational vehicle, and they have stripped it away from him," Solomon said. "We're hoping reasonable people will rethink an unreasonable position."

Solomon said Sullivan does not want the matter to go to court, though the lawyers have amassed materials for a legal case.

"We have prepared from the beginning," Solomon said. "You have to understand the law as it supports him or does not support him."

Griffin said Sullivan's suspension was a result of a "personal vendetta."

In Sullivan's 25 years as a club member, he formerly served on the board of directors, the greens committee, was named club champion, and participated in most social and golf activities at the club, Solomon said.

"He is an important and distinguished member of the club," Solomon said. "He is also an outspoken critic of bad management and poor course conditions."

This is not the first time Sullivan's confrontational manner put him in the news. While vice chairman of Bedford's elected school board last year, he drew headlines for causing a parking lot confrontation outside a Bedford Town Council meeting, in which he squared off against then Town Council President Michael Scanlon in a yelling match. The two men, separated by the town manager and president of a local tax watchdog group, each accused one another of ruining the town.