HPP Board 2014

[hppwatchdog]

Janet you are (as usual) 100% correct. How can the board the board use the conduct policy against an owner if the owners don't know what the rules are?

Also remember that the same kind of letter was issued to Joan Galante barring her too from any meetings. The board said that they were going to sue her but never did.

Without a court order they can't bar any owner from a meeting they are entitled to attend.

The board is there to govern not to operate the Association.

I have requested a copy of the 2013-2014 audit including the managers letter and I have been told that it is not available.
According to the bylaws every owner in good standing or not has a right to this document. Go ahead and ask the office for a copy and see what they say.......

[caveat emptor]

Thanks Mermaid for your reply, it is appreciated.

Mr./Ms. hppwatchdog, I would like to add to your comment that referred to Joan Galante's situation (she was the previous Treasurer for the HPPOA), "Without a court order they can't bar any owner from a meeting they are entitled to attend.". Joan was also voted into the Finance Committee by the Association membership at the June 30 Membership Meeting. Joan is also one of a very few people who actually knows anything about the Association's finances... every dollar, up till June 2014. The current BOD removed her from all committees as well. Why remove such a valuable and knowledgeable person from continuing to serve the Association? It seems obvious to me, they wanted her out of the way.
If any one doesn't know the sordid story, she is claimed to have hit Susan Escobar (who works in the office) on the knuckle with her clip board. You also should know that Joan at 77 years, in my estimation, is about 105 lbs and around 5'3", has to walk with a cane because she has had hip surgery and finds it very difficult to get around. Susan on the other hand is 200+ lbs and around 5'10ish" and much younger at maybe 40 something. It is beyond believe that Joan would do any thing to hurt Ms. Escobar. And by-the-way, it is rumored that Joan has a black belt in the ancient art of "Cane Fu". If Joan wanted to "attack" Ms. Escobar I would think she would have used her cane.

If I can, I will ask and try to post her "nasty gram" from the BOD on ponohpp.com as well.

[hppwatchdog]

quote:

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Originally posted by caveat emptor

Thanks Mermaid for your reply, it is appreciated.

Mr./Ms. hppwatchdog, I would like to add to your comment that referred to Joan Galante's situation (she was the previous Treasurer for the HPPOA), "Without a court order they can't bar any owner from a meeting they are entitled to attend.". Joan was also voted into the Finance Committee by the Association membership at the June 30 Membership Meeting. Joan is also one of a very few people who actually knows anything about the Association's finances... every dollar, up till June 2014. The current BOD removed her from all committees as well. Why remove such a valuable and knowledgeable person from continuing to serve the Association? It seems obvious to me, they wanted her out of the way.
If any one doesn't know the sordid story, she is claimed to have hit Susan Escobar (who works in the office) on the knuckle with her clip board. You also should know that Joan at 77 years, in my estimation, is about 105 lbs and around 5'3", has to walk with a cane because she has had hip surgery and finds it very difficult to get around. Susan on the other hand is 200+ lbs and around 5'10ish" and much younger at maybe 40 something. It is beyond believe that Joan would do any thing to hurt Ms. Escobar. And by-the-way, it is rumored that Joan has a black belt in the ancient art of "Cane Fu". If Joan wanted to "attack" Ms. Escobar I would think she would have used her cane.

If I can, I will ask and try to post her "nasty gram" from the BOD on ponohpp.com as well.

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I can, I will ask and try to post her "nasty gram" from the BOD on ponohpp.com as well.
[/quote]

Please do. You are correct they banned her from meetings because she would hold their feet to the fire during finance committee meetings.

It's nice to have another set of eye's watching this board.

[mermaid53]

Let's be fair now....Please keep in mind that this Conduct Policy was approved by the previous board and the previous board didn't notify the members that it existed.

As we can see, there are different versions of the incident between Joan and Susan. I saw the injury on Susan's hand and Joan would be very capable of lifting a clipboard and hitting the boney top of someone's hand, "if" she wanted to. We're not talking about a 3# hand weight here, which Joan could equally handle if she wanted to.

Joan offered her help to the potential Treasurer at a Finance Committee mtg while Joan was still Treasurer. The new Treasurer welcomed her assistance and reached out to Joan who was unresponsive. This may have been after the terminations occurred. As for Joan's expertise as a Treasurer..where did you get your information?

The Conduct Policy should be available to any member who's interested, and I would advise you to contact your district rep to send you an electronic or hard copy.

[hppwatchdog]

quote:

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Originally posted by mermaid53

Let's be fair now....Please keep in mind that this Conduct Policy was approved by the previous board and the previous board didn't notify the members that it existed.

As we can see, there are different versions of the incident between Joan and Susan. I saw the injury on Susan's hand and Joan would be very capable of lifting a clipboard and hitting the boney top of someone's hand, "if" she wanted to. We're not talking about a 3# hand weight here, which Joan could equally handle if she wanted to.

Joan offered her help to the potential Treasurer at a Finance Committee mtg while Joan was still Treasurer. The new Treasurer welcomed her assistance and reached out to Joan who was unresponsive. This may have been after the terminations occurred. As for Joan's expertise as a Treasurer..where did you get your information?

The Conduct Policy should be available to any member who's interested, and I would advise you to contact your district rep to send you an electronic or hard copy.

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I can't even get last years financial audit from the board which is guaranteed in the bylaws good luck getting the conduct policy!

The conduct policy was approved by the board at a meeting in the beginning of 2014, it wasn't done in private.

As far as Joan's ability as an accountant and being very honest comes from my detailed review of the finance information put forward by the board. Anyone with a half of a brain can follow the monthly financials.

[Kenney]

What bothers me is that the conduct policy goes two ways. It takes some gall to pass out the Members part of the conduct policy (like was done at the Member's meeting if memory serves), but never the Board's conduct policy. There IS a conduct policy for the BOARD, but it seems to hidden somewhere. Wonder if the BOD ever read it? I have (in the past) and from what I can tell, the BOD is NOT following the any of the policy which delineates THEIR conduct! (sorry to be a grouch, but this situation is disgusting.)
I'm pretty tired of some of these self serving power freaks. Still wishing they'd just resign. They know who they are and so do we.

[mermaid53]

There are differing views of the previous Treasurer's work and ethics by previous board members and members who've had experience working with her. HPPWatchdog has his own view and that's ok.

Kenney, the Conduct Policy we've been discussing has w/in it's contents what is expected of the board as well. It has 8 pages total. Did you see a different version?

The previous board should've used the Conduct Policy during a harassment incident between a male board member and a female committee member who was harassed electronically and verbally. So this policy also protects members from offending board members.

The policy stipulates exactly how the President and board are to respond to this especially when there is clear evidence. ie. electronic harassment email was sent to all board members. The previous Treasurer and President were also witness to the verbal harassment that occurred at a Finance Committee mtg. The President was also witness to the bullying going on at another committee meeting. There were other witnesses that could've been brought forward if needed.

In other words, there was plenty of evidence. No action was taken even though the victim asked the President and board on several occasions to reprimand the board member. The President and Treasurer dragged their feet so their friend could retire quietly, and continue his participation on ongoing committees. 3 male board members' pressed the President to do something even to the point of one of them commanding publicly at a board mtg for his resignation to no avail.

This current board took care of the matter following the conduct policy to protect other volunteers who were equally disturbed w/his being on their committees. It's great there is a policy now that protects members from offending board members although it took a different board to enforce it.

HPPWatchdog, could your being denied access to the latest financial audit have anything to do with evidence in the lawsuit? Lots of things come into the picture that aren't normally present when there is a lawsuit on the table.

[janet]

"... Joan was also voted into the Finance Committee by the Association membership at the June 30 Membership Meeting. ... The current BOD removed her from all committees as well. ..."

Thank you, caveat emptor, for bringing to light what might be another example of this Board's disregard of the Bylaws. I hope you don't mind a few questions about the removal of Ms. Galante from the Finance Committee.

According to the Bylaws (emphasis added):

ARTICLE X – COMMITTEES
Section 5. Removal of Committee Member or Chair.
(a) Member. At any meeting of a committee of the board or membership, any one or more of the committee members may be removed with or without cause by vote of the majority of the committee members.

Therefore, the Board itself does not have the authority to remove any member of any committee. The only way for it to engineer such an action would be for it to "convince" the other members of the subject committee to do so.

Do you know if it was the Board or the members of the Finance Committee that acted? Is there some way to find corroboration of this? Do you know if the removal occurred before or after the incident with Ms. Escobar?

On a related note, does anyone know the current membership of the Finance Committee? I cannot find anything on this committee on the HPPOA website after the minutes of the 14 June 2014 meeting.

And I still cannot access the Minutes of the BoD meetings on the website (more than three weeks now!)

[hppwatchdog]

[quote]Originally posted by mermaid53

There are differing views of the previous Treasurer's work and ethics by previous board members and members who've had experience working with her. HPPWatchdog has his own view and that's ok.

Kenney, the Conduct Policy we've been discussing has w/in it's contents what is expected of the board as well. It has 8 pages total. Did you see a different version?

The previous board should've used the Conduct Policy during a harassment incident between a male board member and a female committee member who was harassed electronically and verbally. So this policy also protects members from offending board members.

The policy stipulates exactly how the President and board are to respond to this especially when there is clear evidence. ie. electronic harassment email was sent to all board members. The previous Treasurer and President were also witness to the verbal harassment that occurred at a Finance Committee mtg. The President was also witness to the bullying going on at another committee meeting. There were other witnesses that could've been brought forward if needed.

In other words, there was plenty of evidence. No action was taken even though the victim asked the President and board on several occasions to reprimand the board member. The President and Treasurer dragged their feet so their friend could retire quietly, and continue his participation on ongoing committees. 3 male board members' pressed the President to do something even to the point of one of them commanding publicly at a board mtg for his resignation to no avail.

This current board took care of the matter following the conduct policy to protect other volunteers who were equally disturbed w/his being on their committees. It's great there is a policy now that protects members from offending board members although it took a different board to enforce it.

HPPWatchdog, could your being denied access to the latest financial audit have anything to do with evidence in the lawsuit? Lots of things come into the picture that aren't normally present when there is a lawsuit on the table.

[/quote
The bylaws make no mention of any restrictions on receiving a copy of the audit, you don't even have to be in good standing to receive a copy. It clearly states that EVERY member is entitled to a copy of it. Your argument has no merit regarding the distribution of this document.

[mermaid53]

[quote]Originally posted by hppwatchdog
The bylaws make no mention of any restrictions on receiving a copy of the audit, you don't even have to be in good standing to receive a copy. It clearly states that EVERY member is entitled to a copy of it. Your argument has no merit regarding the distribution of this document
______________
Not an argument, just a suggestion that this may be the reason.

Joan was removed from participating in HPP functions after the incident with Susan.