The Home Builders Association of Georgia launched a campaign Thursday to oust the leadership of a co-op style insurance company that provides workers compensation coverage to builders statewide.

The association's top officials accused the directors of Atlanta-based Builders Insurance of enriching themselves at the expense of the policyholders who own the mutual insurance company. The association's board called on its many members who are policyholders to replace the current board with a slate of directors from the association who will reduce "exorbitant directors fees," more fairly distribute dividends and increase transparency of board activities.

In 2006, six founders of Builders Insurance who sit on the board earned compensation ranging from $167,000 to $198,000. That exceeded what board members at some of the nation's largest companies were paid, including the directors of State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance, the nation's largest auto and home insurer.

"The prevailing feeling around here is that what this board has done is simply outrageous," said Charlie Eison, president of the 12,000-member Home Builders group.

In response, Builders Insurance questioned the motives of the association's action in a statement Thursday afternoon.

The association "is trying to paint itself as the 'protector' of small home builders when in fact it is acting like a predator to protect what many Builders' policy holders see as exorbitant membership rates," the company's statement said.

Membership in the association has for years been required to buy coverage from Builders Insurance. But the company recently began offering coverage to members of another organization called the Contractors Benefit Association, which charges significantly lower dues than the Home Builders Association of Georgia.

The dispute has the feeling of a family squabble because most of the Builders Insurance directors are fellow builders who have been active members in the association. "The folks who were around when this thing was founded look at it as a betrayal," Eison said.

The association on Thursday began circulating documents to policy holders authorizing a special meeting that would replace the current board with a slate of new board members.

The relationship between the association and the leadership of Builders Insurance became tense last year after The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported the details of a lucrative compensation program the insurance company's directors had awarded themselves.

Like most corporate board members, the Builders Insurance directors work on company business only occasionally — typically at two-day meetings held five times a year — to establish directions that the company's executives carry out day to day. Most board members also own their own construction companies.

Builders Insurance was created in the early 1990s amid an insurance crisis for home builders who were suffering from widespread policy cancellations of workers' compensation insurance.

The board's founding directors created Builders Insurance, but they do not own it. It is owned by the company's 13,000 policy holders. The directors are charged with running the company for the benefit of the policy holders. Every dollar the directors pay themselves is money the company's policy holders do not get back in dividends or lower premiums.

Between 1997 and 2006, the six founding directors who still serve on the Builders Insurance board each banked compensation totaling between $1.1 million and $1.4 million, according to a Journal-Constitution estimate.

When interviewed last year, the Builders Insurance directors argued that they were a unique hands-on board that spent years working without pay to build a successful operation.

In its statement, Builders Insurance said it has maintained a high industry rating and paid out more than $42 million in dividends to policy holders, "achievements that would be the envy of comparable insurers."

Eison said that those seeking to oust the board believe that Builders Insurance is a sound operation.

"We think it's a good insurance company," he said. "It's the board we have an issue with."