PLEASE NOTE: Before we begin, please don't miss the very end of the article. An officer of the board attempted to shut down my member comments, during this meeting, the only meeting of the year, that members may speak.
I attended the WPA Annual Meeting, held on November 21, 2015 (today). I will present what occurred to the best of my ability, over the next few articles. Please go to The Wedgefield Times, when the tape is available, to verify information for yourself. Today, we'll provide a few highlights.
*214 members voted.
*197 of those who voted, voted by proxy.
*17 of those who voted were walk ins.
*The uncontested board members who ran for another term (3), received the following # of votes:
- Anderson 172
- DeMarchi 168
- John Walton 166
We have no explanation of how 214 people voted in this uncontested election, and how these 3 candidates got less than 214. This is not an accusation of error. A few individuals received votes as write in candidates. I received 30 + unsolicited votes. Some wrote "no", by the candidate names.
*The following By-Law Amendment passed, receiving 158 yes votes. "The Treasurer shall have custody of all property of the Association including funds, securites and evidence of indebtedness. He/she shall along with Board contract the services of a Certified Public Accountant to keep the books of the Association in accordance with good accounting practices and shall perform other duties incident to the Office of Treasurer as may be required by the Board."
We'll see what this inhouse accounting board does with this. I'm sure there will be more to come on this subject.
*The following Covenant change failed. "IT IS UNDERSTOOD AND AGREED that the conditions, restrictions and limitations are made solely for the benefit of the grantor and grantee herein, and may be changed by a 60% vote of eligible voters (total of all members in good standing) at an annual meeting at which a quorum is present. Voting may be done in person, by proxy, or by mail-in ballot." This is what I've said about this in the past, and I stand by it. "As I stated before, you should all be very concerned about what your board is about to pull off here. It has taken quite sometime for our Legal Chair to get us to this point, but he and his support group (Concerned Citizens), backed by the blind eye our President (He appoints board chairs.), and the balance of this board - don't question each other, so we can get our pet projects approved, our vote on this issue doesn't count. You can vote, not vote, and it won't make a difference. Currently, it takes 100% of the membership to vote, in order to change the corner stone of our governing documents - the covenants. This is a safe guard intended to keep boards from going after the promises of our property deeds, etc. - the promise of Wedgefield, as a development, to the buyer. Our Legal Chair has stated that the WPA lawyer, reviewed, and approved this. Don't make me take the treacherous trip down this President, and Legal Chair's lawyer shopping. Go back and read the articles on the blog, listen to the tapes of the meetings, etc. Why would anyone trust this board to under take this, and work to break the promises intended with our property purchases? Do what you will, I voted NO, NO, NO, on principle, but it is too late to do anything about it, THE BOARD WINS WHETHER YOU VOTE, OR NOT. "
* The Secretary of the WPA Board attempted to silence a member in good standing - me, during the meeting. Our WPA President. and at least two other board members, reminded the membership more than once, that this is the one meeting a year, that members have the opportunity to speak throughout the meeting. I, all the others present, and your board sat quietly while the spouse of our WPA Treasurer, spoke on several items, as is her right as a member in good standing. I raised my hand, waited to be acknowledged, as is appropriate, and spoke on 3 items. One of the items was the conflicting legal orders signed by Beverly (See article titled, "No Real Title For This, Let's Just Call It Injustice, At The Hands of The WPA Board", published on this blog on November 5th. I won't go into the discussion at this point, but part way through my questions, and response to answers from our Legal Chair, our Board Secretary said, "THIS IS A WASTE OF OUR TIME". I reminded her that I had a right to speak. The P.S. to this is that our Board Secretary had plenty of time to listen to our Board Treasurer's spouse. Please note, NOTHING AGAINST THE BOARD TREASURER'S SPOUSE SPEAKING, ON MY PART.
Stay tuned!
