Why so much time spent on this by The Wedgefield Examiner? First, and most important, it isn't the role of the board to physically construct monuments to individual board member dreams/castles, at the expense of good governance, our covenants, and restrictions' Second, every resident would have to view this McMillin monstrosity - his back hand to our governing documents, as they enter our association, and for those residents who live on portions of Wraggs Ferry, and Haig Court - it will be in your back yard. Look at the association map. It will be constructed behind the office building, in the association's vacant lot! I'd start writing letters!
START OF QUOTES FROM ARTICLE PUBLISHED
AUG. 22, 2013
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THE WEDGEFIELD EXAMINER HAS TRANSCRIBED THE GROUNDS CHAIR'S WORDS. ARE THEY ABOUT TO START BUILDING AGAIN? THE GROUNDS CHAIR WOULD LIKE TO HAVE A MAINTENANCE SHED BUILT ON LAND WE DON'T HAVE ROAD ACCESS TO. DID I REALLY HEAR HIM ASK ABOUT CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS AND USE THE WORD "POOL"
We enter this discussion when the WPA Grounds Chair has capital improvement questions under old business. The board is advised that they each have a projected 2014 budget in their board packets. They are to review it and if they have questions they are to take them to the Treasurer prior to the September board meeting. The board will vote on the 2014 budget at the September meeting.
I have transcribed this section of the board meeting tape to the best of my ability. Listen to the tape yourself at The Wedgefield Times. The tape at that site is clear and posted quickly. Thank you Wedgefield Times! The transcription will be in quotes, underlined and printed in blue ink. Comments will appear in red.
Transcription:
McMillin, "One other issue, I hate to drag this up. We have no where here where we can do any sort of maintenance, or store anything for maintenance. There was talk about the disposal area out there. I don't know if that ever went any where or not. There is some property out there that we could possibly be used to erect some sort of a MAINTENANCE BUILDING that we could possibly use that we could keep like our Christmas decorations in, or if we were TO PURCHASE ANY OF OUR OWN PIECES OF EQUIPMENT....like that. There is a scenario here that WE tossed that if we were to have a truck load of mulch come in we could buy it in quantity and save some money and that sort of thing. There is nothing for that in the budget as well, correct?"
COMMENTS: Yes, we are in red ink - comments. Listen to previous meeting tapes. This kind of thing happens again and again. It could appear that it was a plan of the behind closed doors operations of this old boys network. If you were at the meeting, NOT ONE BOARD MEMBER SAID, 'WHERE DID ANYONE EVER TALK ABOUT A MAINTENANCE BUILDING OR EQUIPMENT AT A MEETING IN THE PRESENCE OF RESIDENTS, SUPPORTED BY A COMMITTEE'S RESEARCH? Most of these board members just let things slide by, so they can place their next idea on the table without interference, or sound back up.
Even if there was road access to this piece of land, why would our association need a maintenance building, maintenance equipment, or a place to store a great deal on mulch, or associated personnel to use such things? We elect board members to oversee our assets, not start home grown operations. Next we'll have to add bull work to board and committee job descriptions - on second thought this is a lot of bull. We should have board members who solicit bids to do our maintenance. A word your board loves - it is precedent here. The precedent here is to contract the work out. Why would we build a building and buy equipment for board members to use? Save a couple hundred dollars on mulch? McMillin kept us two meetings on his current ground maintenance contract, and added mulch and the spoil site to the maintenance contract.
This section of the meeting was disheartening from an administrative, good governance, good boardmanship, perspective. I'm not sure why, but maybe it was just the final icing on this miserable poorly, half baked, Wedgefield administrative cake.
I have transcribed this section of the board meeting tape to the best of my ability. Listen to the tape yourself at The Wedgefield Times. The tape at that site is clear and posted quickly. Thank you Wedgefield Times! The transcription will be in quotes, underlined and printed in blue ink. Comments will appear in red.
Transcription:
McMillin, "One other issue, I hate to drag this up. We have no where here where we can do any sort of maintenance, or store anything for maintenance. There was talk about the disposal area out there. I don't know if that ever went any where or not. There is some property out there that we could possibly be used to erect some sort of a MAINTENANCE BUILDING that we could possibly use that we could keep like our Christmas decorations in, or if we were TO PURCHASE ANY OF OUR OWN PIECES OF EQUIPMENT....like that. There is a scenario here that WE tossed that if we were to have a truck load of mulch come in we could buy it in quantity and save some money and that sort of thing. There is nothing for that in the budget as well, correct?"
COMMENTS: Yes, we are in red ink - comments. Listen to previous meeting tapes. This kind of thing happens again and again. It could appear that it was a plan of the behind closed doors operations of this old boys network. If you were at the meeting, NOT ONE BOARD MEMBER SAID, 'WHERE DID ANYONE EVER TALK ABOUT A MAINTENANCE BUILDING OR EQUIPMENT AT A MEETING IN THE PRESENCE OF RESIDENTS, SUPPORTED BY A COMMITTEE'S RESEARCH? Most of these board members just let things slide by, so they can place their next idea on the table without interference, or sound back up.
Even if there was road access to this piece of land, why would our association need a maintenance building, maintenance equipment, or a place to store a great deal on mulch, or associated personnel to use such things? We elect board members to oversee our assets, not start home grown operations. Next we'll have to add bull work to board and committee job descriptions - on second thought this is a lot of bull. We should have board members who solicit bids to do our maintenance. A word your board loves - it is precedent here. The precedent here is to contract the work out. Why would we build a building and buy equipment for board members to use? Save a couple hundred dollars on mulch? McMillin kept us two meetings on his current ground maintenance contract, and added mulch and the spoil site to the maintenance contract.
This section of the meeting was disheartening from an administrative, good governance, good boardmanship, perspective. I'm not sure why, but maybe it was just the final icing on this miserable poorly, half baked, Wedgefield administrative cake.
P.S. Don't build a shed. Clear the junk out of the house at the landing and the gate house. Get rid of some of those old decorations. As you drive in, take a look at the gate house which is a land mark piece to our entrance and clean the little trees out of the eves.
END OF PORTIONS OF ARTICLE PUBLISHED AUG. 22, 2013
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HERE ARE YOUR BOARD'S SANITIZED MINUTES FROM THE AUG. 20, 2013 BOARD MEETING:
"Old Business:
The vote to accept the 2014 budget will take place at September meeting.
Larry McMillin stated that there is no money for capital improvements or a storage building, he
stated he would like to have a building constructed for storage at the end of Wraggs Ferry. Jacky
stated that would have to be suggested for the 2015 budget. " COMMENTS: Notice that these sanitized minutes fail to mention that they weren't sure the WPA even owned the land he wanted to put his SHED on, and they didn't have ROAD access to it. They don't include the equipment he spoke about either. YET, THEY LET HIM KEEP GOING, AND VOTE FOR A 2016 BUDGET THAT INCLUDES A SHED, AND LET HIM PLACE IT ON THE FEBRUARY 2016 AGENDA, AND HE'S OFF!
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