ANOTHER STAGED WPA PRODUCTION?
The Wedgefield Examiner has listened to the Treasurer's Report presented during the July 15th WPA Board Meeting. We'll provide an overview of the meeting, and at times, direct quotes, to the best of our ability. Please go to the Wedgefield Times and listen to this portion of the meeting to verify for yourself. The Treasurer's Report begins approximately 19 minutes into the tape. Direct quotations will be underlined. COMMENTS will be provided in RED.
Treasurer DeMarchi begins the report thanking the Legal Committee for bringing the Crosby Law Firm on board as Board Attorney of Record. He goes on to say that he received more information from the firm in three days, than he had in three months from our previous attorney. The WPA is continuing to pursue delinquent accounts and collect money. All lien and lien releases have been filed. There are 29 past due accounts with lien releases and new liens have been filed with updated amounts past due. There are 40 new liens to be filed for 2014. One property due to settle and close July 17, with the settlement amount which is approved by the board at the June 27th meeting, in the amount of $3,500. Comment: There was a June 17 and 26, meeting. Where did the 27th meeting come from, and why weren't we noticed? Was the entire board noticed, according to the By-Laws, because, the ones on the 17 and 26th, were invalid because the President didn't follow the By-Laws? It should be noted, that even though the By-Law was quoted by a board member in the meeting on June 26th, and it was so clear any layman could understand it, that your Legal Chair and President, put on quite a show running the question around the flag pole, and your Legal Chair refused to get a legal opinion from the board attorney, just as he refused to do several times, regarding conflict of interest, and in the end he was wrong. Back to the Report. There is another settlement that has been offered to a resident to settle a past due account by July 23rd, in the amount of $3,839. He goes on to say that the Legal Chair has been provided a list to pursue by any and all legal measures. The list has been forwarded to the attorney.
We start a new paragraph because we will provide a direct quote on the last section of the Treasurer's Report. Treasurer DeMarchi, "The current status of the canal lots that have not paid their accounts...... This should put out rumors that have cropped up recently regarding the canal loan and their status. This spread like a little wild fire and we've got too many people running their mouths. So here's the status. Four canal lot owners have outstanding balances. Two out of the four are currently making payments. WPA has a judgment on one property owner and a payment plan is currently being negotiated. One owner has refused to pay. this case has been turned over to the attorney to be pursued. This case has already received board approval for the expenditure of funds. The current outstanding balance on the canal loan is $15,675." Legal Chair Garrison asked the Treasurer to clarify the report to refer to assessments, rather than loan.
COMMENTS: First, we'll remind you that the Treasurer is also the Compliance Chair. There was no Compliance Report provided at the July meeting. This is significant because Board Member McBride had sited a By-Law regarding notice of meeting to board members, during the June 26th meeting. In fact, he had blatantly told the board that the June 17 and 26th meetings were invalid, because the June 17th meeting hadn't been noticed to board members according to the By-Laws, making both meetings invalid. Our gods, our officers, our committee chairs, have clay feet (God in lower case on purpose.) Where there is integrity, openness, and true commitment to responsible governance, wouldn't you think that if the President and Legal Chair had failed to act, that your Compliance Chair/Treasurer, would have assisted board member McBride, in resolving this, by bringing it to the board table? In my not so humble opinion, in his role as Compliance Chair, our Treasurer/Compliance Chair (not really compliance), failed, with our President and Legal Chair. They can appear to be a team, driven by the silence of the rest of the board, one of which an officer, asked in July, if they could just apologize??????????
Second, and we should pause for a moment, our Treasurer failed to answer the RUMORS, CREDIBLE RUMORS. When you are governing in an open manner, you don't shoot blanks and pretend that you have addressed the RUMOR/ISSUES! The RUMOR, CREDIBLE RUMOR, was that we have a canal lot owner who refused to pay the $5,000 canal lot owner Individual Assessment. They were sued by the WPA Board. The case was sent to a referee. The referee, initially found in favor of the WPA. The canal lot owner appealed. The WPA, or their attorney at that time, failed to follow through, and the referee ruled in favor of the canal lot owner, because of failure to follow through. ADDRESS the issue and give the whole story, sorry story, or not.
Half truths, whether it is the By-Laws, Financial, Legal, or any other kind of report, leads any entity, in this case our governing entity to RUMORS, in this case CREDIBLE RUMORS. The manner in which the board handles it, speaks volumes to their credibility, OR NOT!
Before we end it should be noted that once again, during the July WPA Board Meeting, a sitting board member, noted that they weren't provided the same information in their communication with the board, regarding the hiring of the board attorney. I witnessed this PARTICULAR (?????) situation at the monthly meeting, when the road contract was voted on. The silence and capitulation, deviation, by the rest of this board is sickening. Can they be impeached? Well, it would be a recall. This board has left us in such disarray, that we don't know what law they would allow it under.
Next, a Road Report.
