HPP Board 2014

[csgray]

Mermaid53 (amazing how we have all these brand new posters on the HPP threads):

I am so far opposed to everything this new board has done, particularly:
1. meeting in secret to conduct HPP business
2. not posting minutes or a record of motions made and passed since they were seated as board members
3. firing the top 3 employees, apparently without following any proper procedures (hard to tell with no minutes) within days of being seated
4. not making any efforts to provide HPP with the kinds of support other subdivisions got during the Hurricane Iselle aftermath until most of HPP was back on line (ice, water distribution, information, meetings with Helco and so on)
5. board members who refuse to answer emails that are not sufficiently worshipful to that member's exalted status
6. putting a board member's husband in charge as acting manager
7. not understanding their role is to make policy and allow staff to enact that policy
8. completely jettisoning all systems to supervise operations by becoming the people in charge of operations

For the record, I am not any part of a "cabal" and I have never handled HPPs money other than to write checks for my road fees. You may have legitimate gripes about some of those who oppose this board and have a lot of history with the HPPOA, but don't use that to dismiss all the rest of us who no longer have any faith in this board at all, due to their actions since they were seated, not due to anything else anyone not on the board has done.

Carol

Every time you feel yourself getting pulled into other people's nonsense, repeat these words: Not my circus, not my monkeys.
Polish Proverb

[Seeb]

Another brand new sock puppet using the word "Cabal". in 10 years of living here I have never heard anyone use that word until this thread

[Tom.Yost]

I've been a lurker on this forum off and on for 7 years, a property owner in HPP for the past 4 years, and a resident for the past 9 months. I am not a part of a "cabal" and have had minimal interaction with the HOA. My desires from the HOA have always been "keep my fees reasonable, pave my road when you get around to it, and keep the drama to a minimum."

This forum is a great source of information for absentee owners and a great way to feel connected to the dream that came true for my family. In the past, I've been able to get a sense for where the middle ground is on a conflict, but this one has me stumped. The version of "truth" I'm getting through private channels closely aligns with the points Carol made. This makes me wonder what drives the other side of the conflict. Open meetings and transparency would go a long way towards helping me understand their actions.

I signed a petition asking for the special meeting because I was hopeful this matter could be addressed with further communication. I was unable to attend the meeting, but the accounts I have read on this forum would lead me to believe that the meeting process has completely broken down. IMO the meetings that I have attended in the past were 2/3 venting and 1/3 the board taking care of business after the people venting left. Maybe I am missing something, but it seems the new board majority could have done whatever they wanted if they just went about it the right way.

I'm left with three main concerns. The first being is what exposure I may have due to the current board's actions. Secondly, I see a breakdown in the current operating process. I don't see this being corrected without legal action or an election. I'm not sure what is broke can be fixed before either of those events occur. I'll have to just be patient on that one. My last concern is that I believe the board is now in direct control of all HOA funds and the accounting for the HOA's finances. Perhaps this isn't a change from before, but I would expect a certain amount of control through separation of duties to be in place.

I also understand that most of these actions were taken by a slim majority of the current board. This makes it important to me that if even if I disagree with the current actions of the board, there is still a minority that could have the same objections being expressed by the membership.

[james weatherford]

Tom Yost.
You seem to have picked up pretty well what the situation is.
How to get on course? [not sure it is about 'back on course', since the HPP governance arrangements have never worked that great].

Membership participation, en mass, in real time, and regularly is missing and desperately needed --- for better accountability, more oversight of board conduct, and to get people on the board who can and will exhibit conduct that is responsible.

[mermaid53]

Carol and Tom, you have some good points. Cabal was used by a previous poster and it perfectly describes what's going on here with this opposition group to the new Board. I think this new board had very good reasons to fire these people. Some have already been discussed. Who gets up one morning and decides to fire 3 employees for absolutely nothing? JC is a good friend and family to those terminated and is still seated on this board. So there's that aspect to the picture.

Ask yourself if you could be boots on the ground running on an HPP board from day 1, especially when you have opposition from previous board members. JC, the most experienced of all current board members, even though she often didn't follow HPP ByLaws, policies or sidestepped having the full board in the loop about the management of our money, wasn't helpful in mentoring the new board. Instead she passed out propaganda about the new board's violations of their first board meeting. I heard it can take up to one year for a board member to learn everything they need before they can really start making some headway which is why the term is for 3 years.

Previous board members and their faction, have been disrupting all meetings this new board tries to have and could be part of the reason you're not hearing what you need to hear. This faction is scared, follow the money. Who do you think is spewing propaganda about secret meetings and legal suits? Instilling fear works well, doesn't it? It got a lot of you to that meeting behaving like a mob which was their goal. I heard some of the people at the district recall tables were telling members that it was the sign in sheet,when in fact it was a petition. How low can one go?

The board member's husband, has been working long hours ever since the terminations, for free, until someone is hired. The HPP ofc and hui weren't accessible right after the storm because of the downed power lines blocking access. No previous board or management has set up guidelines for any emergency and with a newly seated board, what do you expect? Could you have done a better job? The previous management didn't maintain our equipment so there was inadequacy with that.

The volunteer board's business is to maintain roads, not instaneously be an emergency relief center. I heard a handful of volunteers passed out water and ice for 4-5 days at the hui. When some couldn't drive to pick up, volunteers drove to them delivering water and ice. Did you help out Carol? Or maybe you could be of assistance in setting up an emergency relief system so when we have another storm, there are HPP management guidelines in place in getting the office and hui set up immediately serving lot owners. Maybe you could spearhead a committee so we'll be ready next storm.

Mr James Weatherford, you are right. More people need to start attending meetings regularly so they can follow the story and get their own truth, not yours or the rest of your faction. Too bad the police weren't there to escort you out at one of the recent meetings. I hope you'll be better behaved at future meetings.

[flyingsurfer]

Mermaid53:
Very well put.

[Rob Tucker]

mermaid53,

Try to break your post up into paragraphs. Much easier to read. Use the edit button.

Assume the best and ask questions.

Punaweb moderator

[csgray]

That was really hard to read with no paragraphing, but I did wade through it. The lack of any real formatting makes it hard to answer specific points, but I will try, however I will ignore any sentence that begins with "I heard":

There are no minutes, or record of motions made, votes taken, amendments, and motions passed since this board was seated. That leaves the membership of HPP without an actual record of what has transpired to reach an understanding of what this board has and hasn't done since they were seated. Anything else is hearsay.

It was the new board members responsibility to educate themselves on how things work, instead they jumped right in with both feet and were very active right off the bat, especially with the firings, instead of easing in and learning by observing. They dove in and went totally off the rails, and to castigate the old board members for not preventing that is really a bogus argument.

The board would not have had to be "boots on the ground" if they hadn't fired all the employees who run things. Operations is not what a board, seasoned or brand new, is not supposed to do, they do not run the organization, they are supposed to set policy and the employees are supposed to enact it. That is the whole problem here, the board was acting outside of their mandate and failed miserably at it.

Everything negative I've heard from this board about the employees were things that were discovered after the firings, I want to know what was the basis of the firings, AS KNOWN AT THE TIME OF THE FIRINGS, not what the people who did the firings dug up after the fact to justify what they did. I am still very concerned about the spouse of a board member who was part of the firings now running things, talk about someone being in a position to change or destroy records! The board is supposed to be the oversight body, they, or their spouses, cannot be running things and have honest accountability for what is happening.

After Iselle I got up at 4AM every day to dress by flashlight and then go to work to provide my students who were shell shocked from a hurricane with as normal as possible experience every day, my husband who is a substitute teacher was unable to work due to lack of phone lines spent his days tracking down food and water for neighbors who did not have vehicles or were too elderly or infirm to do so themselves. We live right up the street from the HUI and these people could all have easily had their needs met within walking distance, instead of relying on neighbors to help them, if the HPPOA board had been more proactive. Instead they had to rely on the neighbors to get their needs met. There were power lines all over HPP, that is a totally lame excuse for not just moving the dead line aside and opening up the HUI for the people who paid for it. This board was unable to even get that organized and meet the needs of the people of HPP.



Carol

Every time you feel yourself getting pulled into other people's nonsense, repeat these words: Not my circus, not my monkeys.
Polish Proverb

[flyingsurfer]

csgray
the new board has never been given the chance to speak. Everything you say about them can be said about past boards.
What do you call the meetings 2 of the old board, meeting with the GM almost every day. Behind close doors. You make accusations.
Not facts.

[csgray]

Show where in HPPOA public records I am shown to be wrong based on facts. Oh right, you can't because there are none!

edited to add: I was at the first meeting after the firings where board members talked over members when they tried to talk, cut them off after less than 3 minutes and generally spoke every time they wanted to.
Carol

Every time you feel yourself getting pulled into other people's nonsense, repeat these words: Not my circus, not my monkeys.
Polish Proverb