ARTICLE VII, BOARD OF DIRECTORS, Section 6, Organizational Meeting, of the WPA By-Laws states, "The first meeting of each Board of Directors newly elected by the members shall be held at such a place and time as shall be fixed by the Directors and as soon following the Annual Meeting as is practicable provided a quorum is present. No further notice of the meeting shall be necessary."
It has been over two weeks since the annual meeting and I've been checking the WPA website for an announcement notifying the membership of the 2013 WPA Board Officers. So far it hasn't appeared. I am unsure whether they had the meeting and failed to notify the membership, determined somehow that the officers would remain the same, or they just haven't held the meeting. Most boards have held the organization meeting within a few days of the election.
I'm hoping that the boards silence isn't an indication that the officer positions will remain the same. While I'm interested in all of the positions, I'm particularly interested in the president. I'm hoping for a change. Originally, I was a strong supporter of Jacky Walton. When the 2011 Board was attempting to remove him as president I, along with many others gathered to attend the meetings. If you recall, we'd get there and several of the board members wouldn't enter, cancelled the meeting, and once met in the parking lot to avoid the residents watching their underhanded tactics. The issue was that the president has the privilege of naming committee chairs. Walton had named McBride as Legal Chair. Five of the board seats were held by Concerned Citizens who were in the middle of the lawsuit brought by Zieske, Wilson, and Thomas. One of the board members said , "it was all about legal." Walton wouldn't remove McBride and replace him with one of the Concerned Citizen board members. They removed Walton and made Wilson president.
The 2012 board made Walton president. He named Garrison as Legal Chair. Since then Garrison has added a resident Concerned Citizen to the committee. We can't see legal files. We can't view legal invoices. We often receive critical legal opinions verbally. Some sources say we have over $5,000 of unapproved legal expenses that no one will take issue with. None of this is good.
Consider the fact that Walton had named Barrier as Community Liaison. He rarely, I mean rarely has a report and residents have not had questions answered in months (many, many). He also named John Walton chair of communications which includes welcome committee, special events like the holiday lighting. There haven't been reports there either. 24 families have not been welcomed over a long period of time.
Based on performance, I don't know who could support Walton as president. Will your board? We'll just have to keep watching for a posting. Maybe the announcement hold up is due to the fact that the board has no confidence in who they selected, or it is slim pickings to find officer material amongst this group.
