A PLACE TO BE

A PLACE TO BE

Thursday, March 6, 2014

OUR MUDDLED ELECTION



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.).

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Not only was the election the worst in years, I understand the Village--Vasquez--purchased three new computers for the election committee. In the past, the election committee used their own, registering at 6 stations, with a backup computer in case of a failure. Our by-laws were clearly thrown out in this election, but what can you expect from this group!

Anonymous said...

OMG, so unprofessional. These people, for the most part, were v er y pleasant but had no idea what they were doing. I could have shown them my neighbors id & voted for whomever I wanted & I have heard som e did. When I was in there no one was watching the ballot box. Isn't that standard election protocol? And.....what took them so long to count 400 votes? It looks to me like in the past few years LIV took several steps forward and this year we took a giant step back. Sad..

Anonymous said...

There is no hope for this place .I think the election meeting was done very unprofessional . we don't go to any meeting any more . this is the last election that we well go to just let Rita and Leroy run it let them pay the bills.