Our Village

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An owner strolled up at the last Coffee Meeting, turn and ask the audience who knew the Association lost the lawsuit to Maurice O. Berry. The Directors looked surprised and apparently nobody knew. VP Pelletier put Ex-President Chapa on the spot to comment and he reluctantly said the jury decided in Berry’s favor but he didn’t want to get into details because there is still some rulings yet to be made by the Judge.
Here are some details I understand to be true. Few owners knew this was a two part lawsuit. Pat Burke in her capacity as Board Member was individually sued for Defamation and ten jury members on February 10th deemed her innocent. Our Association lost on February 10th to the same jury who concluded that our Association shall pay Mr. Berry for damages to his physical property, the decrease in his property values, and the loss of enjoying his property, his distress and his mental anguish to the tune of $147,000. It may be more after these last few details wrapped up.
The Activity Center parking lot will cost somewhere near a quarter of a million dollars.
At our Annual Meeting our GM was asked what the approximant dredging assessment would be. I’m not sure why Director Steffensen started waving her arms frantically but the GM didn’t see her and said the cost should be somewhere close to $1000.00 per owner. He also made it clear the intercostal area and Canal H which feeds to the back canals will not be dredged.
Owners should appreciate that whether its good news or bad news, our GM always gives us straight answers when asked, something we lacked from his predecessor. I don’t know what else will be involved with the upcoming assessment, but just the above makes it a tidy sum.
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This year the Owners were scratching their heads over the election process. A surprise that switched into concern was the  pick to have Reta Priest and Leroy Mulch as Election Committee co-chairs. In 2008 these two demonstrated just how far they were willing to circumvent the electorate by pushing their influence upon six directors they just happened to disagree with. They sued them, a Board majority, in order to squelch their power to legislate and it cost our Association thousands of dollars in the process. 
Owners were clearly amazed to learn they could no longer ask a Candidate a question in front of the “Meet the Candidates” audience. Owners were allowed to do this in the past or given the opportunity to submit a written question in order to vet a candidate on the subject that concerned the owner the most. Instead owners sit and labor through softball questions the Election Committee decided were in our best interests. 
Owners said no-way when hearing the Election Committee had to pay people for the first time to work the election. In the past acquiring volunteers never was a problem so owners should ask what on earth necessitated this and does this expenditure have to be approved by our Board in an open forum?
Owners were then stunned for not being informed that this Election Committee decided to forgo years of Annual Meeting protocol by no longer allowing owners the right to nominate a candidate from the floor or be given any opportunity to write in a candidate of their choice on the ballot. 
What seem to put the icing on this proverbial election cake was Secretary Vasquez demanding a closed meeting to hold the selection of Board officers. Once again this has never been done before but after pressure Secretary Vasquez eventually relented. Why the Village Attorney who was clearly foreign to the selection process had to then be involved in the selection was anybody’s guess.
Those Elected and Terms.
Dr. Wilma Jo Smetter (3 yrs.), Richard Ramirez (3 yrs.), Ken Waller (3 yrs.), and Robert Champion (1yr.). 
Our Directors and Positions.
Joe Guerra (President), Don Pelletier (Vice President), Raul Vasquez (Secretary), Robert Champion (Asst. Secretary), Mary Steffensen (Treasurer), Dr. Wilma Jo Smetter (Asst. Treasurer) Flora Gunderson (Dir.), Richard Ramirez (Dir.), Ken Waller (Dir.).
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