Friday, March 25, 2011

Underwhelmed

I was at the March Village Woods Owners' Association board meeting and was thoroughly underwhelmed by the care they take in addressing concerns in the community forum portion of the meeting.

The biggest problem I had was lack of leadership.  The meeting was not called to order, no one was introduced or even acknowledged and answers to questions were treated with a combination of arrogance and utter lack of understanding of the problem in the first place.

Then they went about levying fines and calling for hearings.  Finally they excused the community members and went into Executive Session where God knows what was discussed.

When I am elected to this board, things will change!
  1. People will be encouraged to attend meetings and get involved.
  2. Everyone will be made welcome.
  3. Their problems and concerns will be given equal weight
  4. Robert's Rules of Order will be observed (they work or they wouldn't have been in use for over 200 years).
  5. People will not be called into hearings before the board. Instead, they will be asked to share their thoughts and ideas on problems.
  6. There will be a safety committee tasked with being the liaison between the complex and the community policing office in Linda Vista.
  7. There will be no real or perceived conflicts of interest i.e. board members will receive no special benefit for volunteering other than the knowledge that they are making Village Woods a model community.
So there!

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Excperts from a letter to Jim Fraker

Thank you, Jim.

Of course I will want to communicate with the electorate so I will need names and addresses of all owners living at Village Woods and elsewhere.  Please let me know what I need to do to make this happen.

I, of course, am still most interested in the use of the bulletin boards in the complex and am eager to read your response to that.  I have quite a campaign planned.

One last thing: you make a remark just about every time I see or hear from you to the effect that: "I don't mean to be flippant but drugs and murder aren't against the rules; they're a police matter."  I would just like to say that drug use is expressly against the rules:
"F. ILLEGAL ACTS (Article 2.3)
1. Alcohol Abuse, Firearms, & Illegal Drugs: Commission of
any illegal act in the common area is not to be permitted and
will be cause for suspension of all privileges of the
perpetrator, his/her family, and guests. All City, County,
State and Federal laws always will be enforced, including but
not limited to the following:...

c. Illegal drugs and other materials harmful to life and
property will not be possessed by anyone."
 
This is out of the rules handbook.  I will again ask for your assistance with prosecuting people who sell drugs in the complex. 

Thank you!

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Conflict of Interest

I believe that a conflict of interest exists on an association board whenever board members receive treatment that the average association member would not.  This was proven to me at the last board meeting I attended.  A new owner asked how many infractions it usually took before a letter of reprimand was sent.

The property manager went into a long and involved statement that I will boil down to: it takes more than one infraction before a letter is sent because the nature of the infraction needs to pass muster i.e. the management company needs to make sure that it's a valid complaint and not just some crank sounding off.

Then a board member chimed in with "unless it's a board member; then the letter comes immediately."

This is a blatant conflict of interest.  In this case the board member's complaint gets sent along without the regular vetting process.  And, let me tell you: the board is full to the teeth with cranks.  If the board of directors of the Village Woods Owners' Association are participating in this kind of conflict of interest and getting this kind of preferential treatment, what else are they doing illegally?

One thing I can point to is discrimination in terms of whom to use to fill board vacancies.  Just as one cannot choose one's neighbor, neither can the board of directors choose who will sit with them on the board.

I want to be one such person.  There are at least two more I know of and perhaps many more who have not been placed on the board to get the number up to that which is required by the association's bylaws.

In short, the board of directors of the Village Woods Owners' Association are not only participating in conflict of interest and discrimination, they are putting themselves, the association and management company in harm's way.  These are actionable offenses and a person with a lot of time on his hands and an axe to grind (an axe, mind you, that is legally and morally correct) can cause enough trouble so as to be elected to said board...

This will be brought up to the board and staff in person at the next meeting.