Goings On Issue 4 August 09
NO ON RECALL “ARTICLE” Take a look at the “article” the no on recall group is using as “proof” that everybody knew about the incentive plan. It’s right here in this URL http://www.recallno.com/RecallNo/Urgent.html First of all the program they are talking about is the suggestion program. It started in 1987 and ran until 1990. Oh, you didn’t know? Well, there are all sorts of little plans which have come and gone and they will try to get you to think are the Incentive plan but they aren’t. This “article” had to be run in the Leisure World News at the time because….assessments were rising and the people paying them didn’t like it! What a surprise! Now, look way down at the bottom of the “article”. See that little word? It says ADVERTISEMENT! That’s right. It’s the same kind of thing that you see when you are guaranteed to loose that weight around your middle for life if you just buy this magic electro gizmo that you attach to your pajamas and wear over night for just 6 weeks. Only $19.95 plus shipping and handling! It’s an AD! What will they think of next?
COMMENTS FOR IRV SNYDER, 4002-2C vis a vis his letter to the Glob Mr. Snyder, I suggest you keep on renting. You are dead on when you say any community should have a group seeking information for the good of the community. Friends of the village purports to do that (via their TRUTH SQUADS) and Residents Voice has been giving information for four years. What is it you suggest RV DO? They give out information. What does FOV do? Well, let’s see, it won’t answer questions it doesn’t like. It acquired enough feedback “to last for months as they develop programs that will be of interest to all” but they aren’t developed yet and the information has only been acquired. So they don’t DO anything. They say they want to be the club that ACTS rather than REACTS. Haven’t seen any acting yet. That would involve DOING. What have YOU done, Mr. Snyder? Why are you lying around waiting for somebody to DO SOMETHING? It is up to the residents to DO. You are wrong when you say RV recommended an alternate management company for PCM. They invited two different management companies to come in and talk about what management companies DO. The general manager made a serious mistake by even acknowledging the presentation of their arch rival Merit. That, by the way, is called reacting. But he didn’t even know for sure what had taken place at the meeting because he wasn’t there! Apparently just the mere presence of a rival company made him very nervous. Now why would that be? At no point was either of them endorsed as a replacement for PCM although either would certainly be capable of doing so. AND WHEN WE GET RID OF PCM TOP MANAGEMENT we will certainly be willing to listen to those companies who care to come in and make a bid for the job. Get your facts straight, Mr. Snyder. ‘Til then keep renting.
I’d love to see a copy of the RV newsletter that says RV intends to recall the Third Mutual Board. RV can’t recall anybody. RV isn’t a member. Are you aware that ANY owner has the perfect legal right to start a petition to recall any or all directors? Of course, it requires DOING something and that is just exactly what happened in United. A right was exercised and residents DID sign the recall petition. Lots of little, uninformed experts decided the people who signed the petition should be punished and made to pay the cost of the recall. Guess what, Mr. Snyder, under the law the cost is born by the mutual! Yessir! So, perhaps if enough people were able to DO something like READ governing documents, By-laws, CC&Rs and the Davis-Stirling Act there would be a whole lot less confusion and people would understand what others are DOING. Then they could mosey along to things like California Corporate Code and eventually even make their way to the US Constitution. It’s quite a document. But it’s something one has to DO for oneself.
Are you one of those people, Mr. Snyder, who expects everybody around them to DO and then you just grouse about it when it wasn’t done to your satisfaction? What exactly is it, Mr. Snyder, that you want to stop Residents Voice from DOING? Is it that they will take a stand? Is it that they make DO-nothing boards accountable by bringing information to the attention of the community? Are you aware that there are thousands of people who attend Residents Voice and ask to get the newsletter and are critically interested in their community? There is a bunch of malcontents who call them dissidents but in reality they are COMMUNITY ACTIVISTS. And they DO plenty. They DO as individuals and as groups and as any conscientious people who feel the need to DO in and about the community in which they hold a financial stake. Until you own here, Mr. Snyder, DO something productive and look for a place where you might be welcome. Oh, by the way, that little document called the US Constitution I mentioned earlier gives these COMMUNITY ACTIVISTS the right to speak. In fact, the General Manager carefully and clearly told the community via TV and a board meeting that the very exercise of these rights would cost them. You don’t like being put off (paragraph 1 in your letter), you don’t know what you’re talking about(the rest of your letter) so you really should disappoint your land lord and find another place to live. But that would require DOING something, wouldn’t it. Disagree all you want but at least have something to back up your side. It’s your right to speak, too.
UNITED’S FINANCE COMMITTEE MEETING contained moments that should be examined. Mike Curtis asked for an accounting of the legal services for United in the Month of June which had been budgeted at $4,500 but were actually $19,965. Pat McLaughlin came to the meeting without any kind of breakdown of the charges. Janet Price stomped her foot and said “Why is staff having to do this extra work if he already knows the answer?” The problem here is several fold.
First of all, why was McLaughlin unprepared. It was a very sizeable amount of money. She is attached to her laptop at these meetings. Why didn’t she just pull the information up? Or, if it isn’t ON her computer why didn’t she have the answer. You can bet that any rational person paying bills would want to know why that large an overage had occurred and it is the JOB of the directors to ask those kinds of questions. Why was Curtis the only one to ask the question?
Second, Janet Price forgets she works for the boards. They don’t work for her and if a board member asks for something she is to give it. She can have a little hissy on her next trip to Hawaii or the Great Barrier Reef or the Great wall of China or while she’s standing in the unemployment line. The reason, Ms Price, is because McLaughlin didn’t bother to come with the information and an elected DIRECTOR wanted an answer. It’s not your place to editorialize. Maybe if YOUR STAFF were better organized and not trying so hard to be hostile all the time to all directors outside their sphere of influence, those kinds of questions wouldn’t have to be asked. Mr Curtis is absolutely right to bring to the attention of the member/owners of United that there was a HUGE discrepancy in the budget and actual amount. Complacency is exactly what has gotten this entire place in such an uproar.
Place the blame squarely where it belongs. In this case it belongs with the Financial Director and her staff. Perhaps if fewer Staff were in finance committee meetings and were instead working at their desks this kind of information could be immediately available and we would only be paying for half the time logged.
I wonder how many “explanations” of the incentive plan Price can come up with before the Feds come in and haul out the top management staff a la Enron. I suppose as many versions as times somebody like Vogel “invites” her to give an explanation.
Third Budget Review Version 2 also had some revealing moments. Milt Johns, General Manager, commented on how Direct Mutual Operating costs increased due to the length and number of meetings held by Third. I can tell you from personal experience that there have been an historical number of special and/or special closed Third meetings this year. These meetings plus regular meetings last for hours and hours and hours. You may have noted when Carol Moore appeared recently on the morning news with Rob Merritt that even the settlement conference at the courthouse lasted EIGHT AND ONE HALF HOURS. Yes, Virginia, in real life that conference should have concluded by noon. But remember who is sitting in the presider’s chair. Moore can make a meeting last for dog’s years. Perhaps if she personally didn’t have to have just a little something to say after every, single other person who speaks, meetings would move along with better speed. But she not only has something to say, she frequently dominates the debate completely. She seems lose her place in the meeting frequently and has to be reminded where she is and what action is next. It is truly a pathetic display yet she will talk about how diminishing function frequently strikes men more often than women. Frankly, Paulus doesn’t do any better at controlling his meetings. None of them seem to have any kind of understanding of how a meeting should be run or what it means to preside. When a meeting is run well business is conducted with grace and efficiency and has no need to last until Hades is a block of ice. Debate can still be strong and passionate but the meeting ultimately ends. Rumor has it that being in a closed meeting these days is like swimming in a pool of frenzied sharks. Is there truly blood in the water?
Kathryn Freshley wanting to combine the Disaster Fund and the Unappropriated Expenditure Fund is really a bad, bad idea. It is just exactly that kind of combining and splitting that prevents anybody from being able to follow a cost center from year to year. I see Freshley has fallen completely and absolutely under the spell of the Finance Director and her accounting practices. It clouds things rather than makes them more transparent and if anything the Treasurer should be working for more, not less, transparency. I’m not sure that is one of the things that Freshley learned to do in “her corporate experience” and I wonder if it is something she “always tells her clients” to do.
Basically, Third Mutual should go back in and tell the General Manager and Finance Director to tighten up and drop the assessments to where they belong and quit playing shuffle the funds.
Discussing the GOLF Building GRF director James Matson talked about many tasks being parallel “in order to speed completion.” Do you suppose he means to be as speedy as the report about the plumbing remediation or even the implementation of that project? And, why does Dick Sharp want somebody as construction manager to be somebody who knows golf? Do you suppose they are now considering a roof top driving range to add to their palace? I have to say here that I grew up playing golf on an amazing and highly ranked golf course. Many of you have probably not heard of it because the organization supported amateur athletics as opposed to professional but Jack Nicholas got his start there as did a number of other renowned pros. Our starter building was just exactly that. It was a building just about big enough for one person to sit in and start players at the first tee.
What surprises me about the entire discussion is Freshley saying that it was a good idea to have the ranking sheets (for the hiring of the architect) included in the minutes in case “10 years from now people might want to know.” Has Freshley learned that minutes aren’t to be mere scribbling and a record of who made xerographic copies of things but actual records of meetings and actions voted? What a concept! The reason I’m so surprised is simply because Freshley and I went toe to toe over the validity of a set of minutes she personally took and I demanded be changed for content. But you see that makes me argumentative rather than working for transparency and accuracy in the records. She will say one thing and vote another way. I call it sleight of vote.
South County Outreach Food Drive. Please give. Don’t just give now during this particular drive that PCM is trying to make a philanthropy and publicity for them. Barrels are out all the time in various locations and people are hungry all the time, too. I’m not sure we’ll ever convince the dusty old guard on GRF that there are actually people in this very place who are not eating and not taking all their prescriptions because they cannot afford to but you know it to be true and so do I.
Be Proactive!