Improper Voting Procedures

January 30, 2014

This is for Member information:

I agree with Members that all this nonsense about the interim board is very exhausting and we are all tired of the lies.

Members, this letter is written to Dave West in regards to the cover letter that was in the mailing of the pros and cons.

Subject: Association Membership Vote on Ownership of Motor Grader.

At the end of this letter a complete word for word of Article II Section 2 is there for your information.

Dave, your cover letter that you enclosed in the mail out in regards to the grader you have misleading information and you have wrongfully interpreted the Bylaws that you are quoting.

#1 – You stated and I quote “Note that your lot number(s) are on the back of the return envelope. Do not substitute a different envelope for your ballot return.”

You cannot change the by-laws on your own regarding the voting process. It has to be voted on by the membership. As stated in the by-laws Article XIV. “The Board of Directors may amend these Bylaws to comply with current Arizona Statutes (as they may be revised from time to time) without the approval of the members. For any other purpose the Board may only amend, adopt or repeal these Bylaws with approval from two-thirds (2/3) majority vote of Members meeting forty percent (40%) quorum and in accordance with the provisions set forth in Article II, Section 2 and 3. In no event may these Bylaws be amended in such a way as to create a conflict with or violate Arizona law.”

#2 – Your last statement in your cover letter you said and I quote “Return ballots must be received on or before February 14, 1014. Hand ballots will not be accepted. (See Bylaws, Article II section 2.”

Action requiring a vote by the Members that the Association may take at any annual, regular or special meeting of the members may take place by written ballot cast IN PERSON at the meeting and/or by absentee ballot received prior to the meeting by U.S. Mail, overnight courier, facsimile, or other electronic means.

The Association shall deliver a written ballot to every Member entitled to vote at the same time as Notice of the meeting is given which states that the completed ballot must be received prior to or At The Meeting in order to be counted.

THEREFORE THE BALLOT YOU MEMBERS WILL BE RECEICING REGARDING THE MOTOR GRADER IS OUT OF COMPLANCE WITH OUR BYLAWS BECAUSE NO NOTICE OF A MEETING WAS STATED AND THEREFORE THERE WOULD BE NO ACCOUTABILITY OF YOUR VOTE EVER BEING RECEIVED OR RESULTS COUNTED..

Article II

Section 2. Voting. Action requiring a vote by the Members that the Association may take at any annual, regular or special meeting of the members may take place by written ballot cast IN PERSON at the meeting and/or by absenteeballot received prior to the meeting by U.S. Mail, overnight courier, facsimile, or other electronic means. Votes may not be cast by Proxy. The Association shall deliver a written ballot to every Member entitled to vote at the same time as Notice of the meeting is given which states that the completed ballot must be received prior to or At The Meeting in order to be counted. Absentee ballots must comply with all of the following: a) Set forth each proposed action; b) Provide an opportunity to vote for or against each proposed action; c) Valid for only one specified election or meeting of the Members and expires automatically after the completion of the election or meeting. D) Does not authorize another person to cast votes on behalf of the Member; and e) Specifies the time and date by which the ballot must be delivered to the Board in order to be counted (at least seven days after the date the ballot was delivered to the Member). WRITTEN ballots shall provide for the name of the Member voting, set forth each proposed action and provide an opportunity to vote for or against each proposed action.”

Let’s break this down. 1) It states that when a vote is required by Members it has to be done at a meeting. 2) When you deliver a ballot to a member you must included a notice of the meeting. 3) Written votes can be cast at the meeting. It says nothing about having to turn your vote in prior to the meeting, but at the meeting and prior to the votes being counted. 4) Absentee ballots must be received by a certain date. That’s logical. 5) It also states that a Member can write a ballot as long as their name is on the ballot and the proposed action is stated.

So with all this being said, Dave you have sent out a ballot that is out of compliance with the Bylaws and therefore the vote should be null and void. You have wasted POA money by trying to mislead this Association once again. I find this appalling and not in the best interest of our Association.

Dave, no one in this association ever had a problem that I know of with vote counters. The issue of you receiving the mailed ballots has the concern of the members. We asked that a neutral party receive them. This was brought to your attention at the last special meeting. However your board meeting minutes did not reflect this issue.

Sheri Johnson (Lot 249)

Open Letter of Disappointment

January 17, 2014

Dear Member’s,

Disappointment has occurred once again with our sitting interim Treasurer.  An email was sent to him on January 6, 2014 asking him (Rich Kelly) to provide me (Sheri Johnson) a member of this association the financial records for the year end of 2013. As stated in Article XI of our by-laws that he has 10 days to produce these records to any member for any  proper purpose. He did not comply.  His excuse is that he did not read the email that was sent to him and his wife Karen along with 91 other members at their gmail account which is listed as Rich and Karen Kelley karenkelley9@gmail.com and he said I did not give him a proper purpose. Who gave him the authority to decide what is a PROPERpurpose is. My purpose was to see where our membership monies had been spent and to double check his accounting.  More excuses on his part than cooperation. Therefore, he is was in violation of this article. 

So my question to the members is that when we have a board of director that is in violation of the by-laws and one that is running again for office is this someone we want as leader of our association?  My answer would have to be NO.  It is of my opinion that the current sitting board is picking and choosing what they want to comply with and what they don’t. 

Another problem with our current Secretary is that I brought to his attention at the Special Board meeting on January 12, 2014 that he is also in violation of the by-laws for not including in the minutes the comments and concerns and objections of the members that are in attendance of these meetings.  When this was brought to his attention (Dave West) his answer was it was his choice of what he wanted to record as minutes.  So in reality the minutes that you members have been reading for the past several months is only partial information.  You are not getting the views of the members that are in attendance.

At the January 12^th meeting our President Al Duff said to the members that it is was in his opinion that we legally own the grader in question. He had been out voted by both Dave West and Rich Kelly.   The members present at that meeting and previous meeting have been very out spoken as to why Rich Kelly and Dave West have been on this vindictive quest regarding the grader.  You have only heard the board’s side and what they think is the best interest of the association. Unless you were in attendance at these meetings you would never know that the majority of the members who did attend think that this issue with the grader has gone on long enough and that this has become a personal vendetta.  It will be very interesting to read the minutes from the meeting that was held on January 12, 2014. UPDATE- The minutes did not reflect the members comments or concerns. The excuse was we did not ask them to be included. Another excuse.

Just to keep you up to date at that January 12th meeting, once again it was the agenda of the board to send out to you the members a ballot to buy a grader that we as an association have already purchased.  They voted to do this and you will be receiving in the mail the pros and the cons of owning and operating a grader that we already own, and you will be asked to vote on keeping it. The board is trying to push this agenda through really fast so that when the elections are done in February and if they are not re-elected this agenda will already be set in motion.  This did not sit well with the members at that meeting.  We kept asking why the rush to vote on something we already own.  I would ask you the membership to really think about the one sided information that you have been receiving in the minutes and why does the board have a problem with including the objections and concerns that members have?

In closing, I hope that I have given you a hint of what has been going on.  If you would like more information please email me with any questions or comments. My email is katsz06@live.com. 

I would love to hear from you.

Sincerely,

Sheri Johnson (Lot 249)

Tony's Letter

I just read the recent letter from Rich Kelley.  Thank you Rich for communicating with us.  Your contribution of volunteering your time is much appreciated by me and, I'm sure, my fellow land owners as was the contributions made by your predecessors.  I usually try very hard to avoid criticizing the efforts of those who volunteer their time for the betterment of their community for I myself have been in that thankless position as Secretary/Treasurer of a Montana Fire Service Area, Secretary/Treasurer of a Volunteer Fire Department, and Captain on that fire department for almost ten years.  My experience during these years taught me yo respect the efforts of others who are striving to achieve the same goals as I.  I noticed at the last meeting I attended, when new officers were voted onto the board, there was never a "thank you" to the leaving officers for their service. To the contrary, Rich Kelley exhibited an angry, finger pointing display of emotion.  As a newly elected officer, representing friends and neighbors, you should carry yourself a little more professionally.

It's true the previous officers made mistakes, as we all tend to do.  I had issues several times over lack of communication and other issues but to verbally assault them with accusations of deliberate negligence and profiteering is counter productive, to say the least, in our efforts to build the community we all dream of here.  I have noticed that since the new board has taken office, attendance by property owners has drastically diminished. Has Rich or Dave wondered why?  After talking to my neighbors, I can tell you why.  It is because of the emotional outbreaks and displays of anger Rich and Dave have expressed at previous meetings.  This attitude is hurting us all.

Finally, we come to the road "improvements" recently attempted.  Rich, please do not insult us by insinuating this work is comparable to that performed last year.  Last year, a professional road construction crew was here for weeks with a variety of equipment.  Dump trucks hauled in good road mix for days on end, covering the rocky areas and filling in the low spots.  Skid Steers moved more fill to strategic locations to optimize every precious cubic yard hauled in.  A grader was in my area alone for many days planing the road surface and building a base for even more improvements in the future.  You hired a man to come through the roads as quickly as possible in order to show the property owners that you were not a liar when you quoted outlandishly low prices for future road work.  As a result, most of the material hauled in last year was simply scraped to the shoulder, in many cases filling in the drain gutters.  That grader must have been flying because it wasn't here long enough for me to even notice.  I'm not saying the contractor did a poor job... he did  what he was paid to do...but I am saying that the cheapest work is not necessarily the best choice in the long run.  Roads demand a yearly scheduling of quality improvements in order to avoid being washed away.  There is a lot more to it than running a grader over the surface and scraping off the fines.

In conclusion, let me reiterate one important thought.  Rules and laws are an important ingredient when building a successful community but they need to be interpreted and abided by in such a way  as to not create disruption within the society.  Criticism can be a beneficial tool in tweaking mistakes but it should never be used to purposely hurt others... especially to the point the quality of life is lowered for everyone within the community.  

Whoever is elected in the upcoming election, I hope they lighten up and respect those they represent with a little more dignity.  I hope they communicate their intentions as well as their actions.  I hope accurate records are kept of all transactions and that these records are made public to all property owners.  And I hope they receive the support, understanding and gratitude they so rightly deserve for donating so much of their valuable time.  Thank you all, both past and present, for your contributions to our community.  Right or wrong, you are all trying and that is more than most of us can claim. 

Note:  Tony requested his letter be posted.     

WOW, A New "Technical Term" Designed To Decieve You, "Ranch Grade Road"

Hi Neighbors,

Bert Hume & Greg Anderson who told you for the last three months that it WASN'T POSSIBLE to grade our roads for $3,000 have been proven wrong and rather than admit that they were not telling you the truth they have invented a new term, "Ranch Grade Road".  NOW, they want to tell you that grading the roads without first putting down a lot of loose dirt, (which washes away in the first heavy rain, and costs thousands of dollars), actually makes for a better road.  If spending four or more TIMES the money for a road that is now less compacted actually makes sense to these people you can now appreciate why the POA members voted them out in November.  Making the roads flat by grading them ONLY enough to make them flat, leaves a compacted surface which then compacts further as it is driven on, instead of leaving loose dirt on the surface that washes away with the first rain.  Ask the people who work the county roads out here and you'll find that's the way they do it.  "Fine Grading" the road is what you do before you PAVE IT.   Sure, it looks good, but you have to spend thousands more to do it again next year and it doesn't hold up as well during that year.  For the last three or four months this group has been very vocal in saying that the roads were TERRIBLE and needed grading.  They graded the roads in March of 2013.  It's been about nine months.  Why were they so terrible?  It was a year and three months before the March 2013 grading when they graded them in November of 2011.  Why were the roads in so much worse shape after nine months when they spent even more money on them in 2013?  The weather can affect this, yes, but there was no unusual adverse weather that year, or this year.  The most interesting question I have encountered was this:  All six of the graders I have spoken with have told me that to go over the roads more than one pass (each side of course) breaks down the "crust" and leaves the road vulnerable to turning to "flour".   So why were we billed for 80 hours of grading in 2011 by D Fenn (Bert Hume's friends) when it only takes about 22 hours to grade 22 miles of road?  This is gross overkill, detrimental to the longevity of the road, or, at worst case, a padded bill.  It is common sense that a grader moves at LEAST 2 miles per hour when cutting and usually a bit faster than that.  With two passes on each mile that still means that it takes about an hour to grade a mile.  So, 22 miles..... 22 hours.  Why 80 hours of grading?  That's OVER THREE TIMES what it should take.  Something is very wrong here.  The rest of that bill was for moving large amounts of dirt.  That dirt was replaced again in March 2013.  I see this as an incredible waste of our money.  They tried to sell us on the idea that we could save money by buying a grader.  What were they going to do to move all the dirt each time?  (A grader won't do that)   I don't see where we could save a great deal of money on this as they claim.

I see two choices here:

Spend $12,000 - $15,000 to grade roads that are not as compacted or resilient

OR

Spend $3,000 to grade roads that are every bit as flat and hold up better.


Gee, I wonder which one you'd prefer?

Rich Kelley