A response to Virginia Templeton

Goings On LWV Issue 23 October 2009

Dear Virginia, in response to your letter to the Globe editor of October 15 here are a couple thoughts.

Your question was “When does the Board plan to disclose its efforts to break up the PCM Management Team?” If you think seriously that Carol Moore will answer any question you have openly you are just kidding yourself. Personally, I don’t think they plan to “break up the management team”. Rather I think that the action they have planned will take care of the “team” and the chips will fall as they may. I personally have been advocating since March the full and complete disassociation with PCM in any form but that’s asking for the board to grow a pair and actually take charge. I’ve also been calling for the dissolution of GRF as our trustee since they seem to be bleeding us dry of every nickel. Decent and qualified trustees are a dime a dozen and we could hire one who would cost us less in the long run than GRF has any day.

So, what does Third plan to do vis a vis Professional Community Management? I’m surprised this isn’t a question that could be answered by the TRUTH SQUADS of Friends of the Village. In any case, according to a board member who seems incapable of keeping a confidence, somebody who stands proudly on their record of service, Third Board is suing PCM specifically with regard to the incentive plan that was initiated by PCM without knowledge or permission of any of the boards and then when it was accidentally disclosed quickly denied and an attempt to make light of the removal of funds from our pockets began.

What are all the secret meetings about, you ask. Well, Virginia, since they seldom even post a reason for them it’s hard to tell but I’d be willing to bet that many before the recent Third election had to do with trying to get the other boards to join in the suit against PCM. Considering the flurry of activity including a letter written by Marv Rosenhaft and signed by several others, sent to the Disbros and Olsen in Lake Forest, it probably means there was a very close margin between getting support for such a suit and not getting support. Frankly, those who didn’t support the effort, or any effort to discover the actual facts behind the incentive plan, are now going to have to face the possibility of being held personally responsible for the cover up and expenditure as well. They can no longer claim being uninformed. This also explains Carol Moore’s President’s comments at the November Third Board meeting where she discusses how that Board had been threatened and ultimata delivered by PCM. You remember the one where Milt Johns appeared to be angry that “confidential” information was being disclosed.

Virginia, the issues being addressed today are far more than mere “personality conflicts” as you call them in your letter. These are the very core issues of responsibility, honesty, integrity and morality. Ethics are a basic outline of what should be done and morals is the actual execution of what is right. Both seem to be missing.

My questions to you are: Why haven’t YOU asked to have an accounting that is full, open and complete from PCM? Who exactly got these bonuses? Were the proper tax reports filed? Were the bonuses grossed up so the employee didn’t have to pay taxes on the income? When were the bonuses awarded? For what precisely? How often? By whom? When did it become necessary to award a bonus/incentive to a salaried employee whose JOB it should be to find ways to save money for the client? Are the employees who manage the incentive awards awarding themselves bonuses as well? How was Janet Price awarded $100,000? How many don’t we know about?

Are you aware that Noel Hatch, now again on Third and Bob Hatch now on GRF are responsible for writing the management agreement that is being used on a month to month basis because THERE IS NO CONTRACT? Why are two people who have no business writing a contract helping the general manager write the contract that will pay for his and his employees services and “ANY AND ALL EXPENSES”?

Why haven’t YOU done something to find answers to the valid questions about this management company and the boards who simply walk in lock step with them because they seem to be too lazy to get off their complacent butts and actually accept the responsibility that is theirs whether they accept it or not. Why do YOU simply accept as absolute truth anything that comes out of the mouth of management without even caring to listen to others concerns? Why don’t YOU actually investigate some issues? Why don’t YOU pull your head out of the sand long enough to realize that this isn’t a new problem but a pervasive one that will only grow and become worse. Why are YOU part of the problem and not part of the solution? Are you one of the “special people” for whom there are “special rules”?

Instead of just criticizing and casting aspersions why haven’t YOU gone out and investigated alternatives to PCM? Why don’t you quit comparing apples to oranges when it comes to assessments and other HOAs and dig beneath the surface?
Why don’t you ask about the disappearance of security which is the main reason most people moved in here in the first place? Why don’t you ask about threats, intimidation and assault? Why don’t you INVESTIGATE? Why don’t you ask REAL QUESTIONS?

What you seriously don’t want to hear, Virginia, is that PCM has GOT to go. By that I mean everybody from Russ Disbro and his cohort Jeffrey Olsen and Baby Donnie down through the executive level of managers here including Janet Price, Chris (Trapp) Robinson, Jerry Storage, Kurt Rahn, Russ Ridgeway, Judie Zoerhoff, Milt Johns. Any employee who feels the loyalty and need to follow them out the door with empty hands would be welcome to go. They don’t want to work here anyway. ANY OTHER EMPLOYEE could start with nothing to lose but their jobs if they chose to stay and actually DO their jobs and be held accountable by the new management. New management can be in place in a New York moment and the people worried about whether their grass is mowed, their trees trimmed or their leak stopped wouldn’t even notice a ripple. The people concerned with honesty, integrity, responsibility, morals and actual attention to the laws governing corporations and non-profits would notice a huge and beneficial change. You think living here is a bargain now? It would be even better.

You’re old, you’re not brain dead. Use it.