This is going to be quick. Articles will follow over the next several days. Tonight, I will simply focus on the resident comment section of the meeting. Tonight, during the meeting the board made a motion to "officially commit" to spending up to one third of the cost of dredging, not to exceed the amount in the canal reserves, if the canal residents raise the balance. Additionally, partial costs for the controlled burn of the neglected spoil site were discussed. For my purposes, it is also noted that Anderson, community liaison reported that there was no correspondence since the last meeting.
A resident had questions, and comments about the WPA website. Another resident had continued flood issues since the storm.
I addressed two areas. One, I had written the board since the last meeting, received no response to my questions, but a nasty letter from Anderson. It should be noted that he is even nastier in the meeting setting. I explained that there was a second resident who also hadn't received an answer from a letter that had been hand delivered to the office. The board claimed they had not received any correspondence, and Anderson stated he had given me his email address. I explained that when a resident writes the board the letter should - as requested, be distributed to every board member through the board office, and their system was failing. I was treated like a liar. At the end of the meeting, Anderson stood in my face, and stated he had checked in the office, and there were no letters. It should be noted that I published my letter on the blog the day I had sent it. I also shared the hand delivered letter from the other resident who had sent it to me, and advised the board that they had sent it to me. I also shared their follow up letter advising me that they had not received an answer from the board.
Two, I addressed the dredging and spoil site neglect. I explained that I found the dredging process to be illegal. The board promised the money to the canal lot residents in writing, in a private meeting in May 2016 (never reported from the board table), and verbally during the closed canal lot owners meeting last August, without a public, at the monthly board meeting, discussion and vote. It was illegal. Anderson said laughing "call the police". Mr. Anderson, unless there was THEFT, it is a civil matter. Mr. Garrison spouted at one point that he was glad Anderson was handling it because he wouldn't be as nice. As I tried to explain the fact that in the last dredging the "promise of by a board" in regard to the dredging permit, with voluntary payments to securing the permit from canal residents, and then the board's (another board) withdrawal of the right to seek permit, was the only RULING we had ever had from a judge that said the canal lot owners won, because they had collected based on the promise of the board. Board member Cline said that wasn't this board, and she didn't want to hear it. At some point in this mess, I told the board I wanted the canals dredged legally, not in this half assed, illegal manner. Their vote this evening was an illegal farce.
Water amenities chair, John Walton had reported during the meeting that during the last dredging that more money was spent on preparing the spoil site than the dredging itself. He also reported that the spoil site was very over grown. I asked how the board could knowingly let that happen. I explained that McMillin had reported last month that everyone at that board table knew why it got that way. I asked why everyone at that board table knew, and yet we didn't, and asked what they knew. McMillin wouldn't name names, but said he had trusted someone that was no longer there.
President Walton shut the meeting down.
Residents, do yourself a favor, and go back and read the minutes from the last dredging, from the point of approval of the permit, right on through the dredging. It isn't that it was so perfect, but it is all detailed, every public from the board table vote. Lawsuits followed - CIVIL LAWSUITS MR. ANDERSON. We have a mess, an illegal mess. Canal lot owners, this was billed as the last dredge, the last use of the spoil site - neglected with full knowledge of this board. Their handouts stated you could enjoy the dredge for 10-15 years. Really? We have had a natural disaster for each of the last two years that have destroyed much of the benefits of the 2010 dredging. Are you so short sighted that you will contribute to a plan with no future, illegal as it is, as poorly planned as it is, and risk the possibility that it all comes to an end if we have another disaster, a year or two, after this dredge? Only 46 of the 79 canal lot owners have paid. Tonight, one of the board members asked if the 46 would be willing to pay for what equals 2/3 of the actual dredging cost?
PS: Tonight, I forwarded my letter from email, and the other resident letter - with resident name removed, to the board.
