THE DISCREDIT & MARGINALIZATION OF BOARD NOMINEES
A Factual Account History
An active resident and a number of former board members/leaders wrote disparaging and false accusations in emails about candidates running for the 2022 Board Election The emails were sent via club member email lists, which are restricted information and are not to be used for campaigning.
~ Clubs, Regulations & Procedures / Article 4, Section 4.5 f,ii; "No campaigning shall be conducted in club meetings or events and no use shall be made of club email lists for campaigning purposes."
~ BOD Policy ELE-002/4.0; "No campaigning shall be conducted in club meetings, and no use shall be made of club email lists for campaigning purposes."
~ BOD Policy OPR-004 / #4.0; "The record of member resident addresses, phone numbers and known email addresses are strictly reserved for uses authorized by the Board. These are uses intended for SCOV matters only".
The nominees were not in alignment with their beliefs. The candidates who were disparaged did not deserve the untruths and maligning comments meant to sway people away from voting for them. Some resigned from the race and one candidate moved away from the community as a result of this type of harassment. The few who stayed in the race were given no chance to counter this attack on them. No one from leadership attempted to helped to set the record straight. They did not call for kindness and honesty. This was a very disappointing and upsetting precedent that was set for subsequent elections.
Attacking, maligning and telling untruths about nominees who run for the board is an unethical and unprecedented strategy. Our leadership permitted these actions to occur, without stopping or counteracting the infringement to the nominees' reputations. This represents bias and favoritism which defies basic rules of board fiduciary duties. Fiduciary duty is the obligation a party has to act in another party's best interest.
Investopedia:
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A fiduciary duty involves actions taken in the best interests of another person or entity.
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Fiduciary duties include duty of care, loyalty, good faith, confidentiality, prudence, and disclosure.
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A breach of fiduciary duty occurs when a fiduciary fails to act responsibly in the best interests of another.
In addition to this particular letter, there were others that were distributed among resident emails during the 2022 campaign period. These letters are posted below.
FACT
It was revealed by (2) past running board candidates from previous elections (3 to 5 years back), that when board nominees with opposing viewpoints were up for election, they were taken aside by the standing board members at the time and told that they will be expected to "tow the line or they will be marginalized" and other condescending remarks to discourage them from campaigning and running. This indicates there has been a not so distant history of downgrading candidates who have differing ideas about the running of the community.
Scroll down to read some of these disparaging letters sent to residents, while our board sat by and permitted the behavior, even though they were in direct violation of our BOD Policies #ELE-002-Election Guidelines, the #OPR-004-Mailing List and the Club Rules & Regulations Handbook Section 4.5 f, ii on campaigning.
The letter written to residents by the person described above is posted below.
The information it relays, is blatantly false and is based on untruths and exaggerations.
Underlined in brown are the false statements and accusations.
RE: 2022 Board Election
Dear Residents,
I have lived in this community for several years with a family member. I have enjoyed meeting many of you through the years. I am saddened by the disruption and negativism being brought to our community by a handful of residents, many of which have lived here a short time. Their Discussion Facebook group is full of fake news and misinformation. Whenever they are challenged they attack the commentator to discredit him or her and remove their comments. They don’t want open discussion. Only a platform to espouse their misinformed and false information. It is time we said enough! We can do that with this election.. John Balaco has aligned himself with this small group. I have nothing personal against John Balaco but I believe he is not the right person to move our community forward. He is not the right person to elect.
John Balaco:
- Absentee owner - he lives here less than ½ the year.
I don’t think he can fully fulfill the duties. His wife states they live here less than 6 months to take advantage of Florida tax laws. The time he is here is when the board and committees do not meet. All meetings do not use Zoom. Most meetings occur when John is in Florida (his designated state of residency.)
- He filed a complaint against our HOA. John Balaco has stated he supports a wine and coffee bar in the Activity Center, but I question his motivation to file a complaint with the state of AZ. This has cost us, our HOA, over $6,000? The HOA attorney advised that no resident vote was needed on the AC (Note: ADVISED WRONGLY by the attorney) but John Balaco wanted a new vote.. I believe that when he complains about an offer from him to mediate he is just grandstanding as he knew there was nothing to mediate. (Note: John asked the board to work through the issue via mediation, but the board as advised by the SCOV attorney proceeded to take it to a court hearing instead! Lots of payment to the lawyer, no doubt! We have been i informed it cost the association $30K.)
- Obstructionist – It is good to have differing views on the Board. We have that now. But I believe John Balaco’s goals include being an obstructionist to the operations of our HOA. We don’t need or want that.
- Lack of leadership experience. John Balaco has never chaired a committee or been President of a club. He is not present enough here to be involved. Why was he not appointed to committees? Why was he removed from a committee?
Elaine Deeter, Rocky Gedrose and Tim Kelley are interested in creating a community we want. It involves the environment and community atmosphere we purchased our homes here to enjoy.
· They may not always agree, and
· They don’t all think alike but
· They are all wanting to keep our HOA headed in a positive direction.
These three candidates have diverse opinions. They will bring a variety of proven leadership experience to our board. They bring:
· Transparency
· Fiscal Responsibility
· A spirit of cooperation
· A willingness to listen to ALL residents
Please think about what you want this community to look and feel like in 3-5-10 years. Who will do the best job to get us there? We all need to make a definitive statement with this election.
Vote! Tell your friends and neighbors to vote too!
Note: The above 3 candidates campaigned together as a group, which is an unorthodox and illicit protocol within our election policies for the community. Also note, during the board's term, Tim Kelly stormed off a board meeting and quit his service.
The following are (2) more denigrating letters sent to homeowners on Dec. 8, 2021 during the 2022 campaign of Board Nominees - written by an Election Committee Chairman, who breached the rules of the Committee. The claims made against nominees are false, biased and not accurately stated. The action of mailing these campaign letters was a violation of our governing documents, but was allowed by the Board of Directors.
Underlined in brown are the false statements and accusations.
LETTER A:
FYI and consideration:
Please share (these) comments with your e-mail friends.
Please let me know if you prefer to be removed from my group list (or receive multiple mailings.)
This got to me via a source whose name I did not recognize. I hope some newer residents will receive this. I am forwarding it along to my group lists. Thank you for an excellent write up on our candidates. I intended to write something similar, so you saved me the time.
This informal communication will hopefully help us maintain some sanity voting in March. I have heard way too much from some new residents who seem to believe that we should turn over our association to a property manager to save in administrative salaries / benefits / space in their quest to eliminate our hardworking GM. They don't seem to comprehend the increased costs and loss of BOD / resident control over our future destiny. Past BOD members helped shape our financial debt-free stability with long range planning which should appeal to every resident. We need to keep learning from the past successes, while being open to accept new ideas for fresh outlooks, where appropriate.
I hope this won't be considered campaigning, as officially it's too early for that. I am sending all my forwards BCC to help protect from spammers. Hope you will encourage others to do the same.
LETTER B:
Note that they already have (2) candidates lined up for 2023!
Re: 2022 Board Candidates
Here is my summary of how I believe the candidates for the Board stack up.
To date we have identified three well qualified candidates that will be running for the three open Board positions in 2022 and two qualified candidates for 2023. The known 2022 Board Candidates will be announced on Thursday, December 9th, 2021. The candidates are:
John Balaco – He ran for the Board in 2021 and finished 3rd out of three candidates. John typically spends the winter season in Florida. He is a member of the “disrupters” and filed two complaints with the AZ State Liquor Board dealing with the “grassy” area. Both complaints were dismissed. Most recently he filed a complaint with the AZ State Board of Realtors about the “change in use” for a portion of the Activities Center Renovation Project. This complaint deals with a change in use claiming that the vote approving the renovation did not specifically state that there would be a change in use for a portion of this facility as required by our bylaws. There will be a hearing on December 29, 2021, for this complaint. John has a history of being critical of the restaurant operation and has suggested that it should be a profit center, with no apparent understanding of the concept of community amenities. (Note: John owned and operated several restaurant / bars in his lifetime career. He has the perfect qualifications required to critique the restaurant 's operations!) His harassment of the association has cost our association in legal expenses and excessive administrative staff time.
Leo Belardinelli – He ran for the Board in 2020 and finished 5th out of five candidates. Leo currently serves on the Architectural Compliance Team and Food and Beverage Committee. While currently an alternate for Long-Range Planning Committee (LRPC), if approved by the Board on December 9, 2021, he will be a member of LRPC. Others told me that he was difficult to reason with on the ARC committee. (Note: This is a libel statement.)
Elaine Deeter – Elaine has owned homes here since 1998 and a full-time resident since 2009. She has been very involved in Emerge (Domestic Abuse) now Women of Charity as well as a leader of the group for several years. She is active in the artisan community, and past Chair of the Gift Shop for almost 8 years. Elaine has served on the community Foundation and Dog Park board as Secretary/Treasurer for 5 years. She is currently serving on the Artisan Center Renovation Task Force. Elaine was also involved in a Homeowner’s Association in the Sierras of California for several years. She is well known within the community.
Rocky Gedrose – A homeowner since 2013, Rocky became a full-time resident in 2020. He was the President of a homeowner’s association in Georgia. He is well known within the golfing community. He is on the Men’s 18-Hole Golf Club Board and will become President in 2022. He is also co-secretary of the Golf Advisory Committee. His mother, an aunt and an uncle as well as his sister and brother-in-law also own homes here. Rocky spent 34 years in commercial finance, primarily with GE Capital. He has extensive experience in budgeting and monthly projections managing a portfolio in excess of $300 million with a staff of about 25 employees. He was responsible for maintaining key customer relationships with major marine and motorsport corporations including Yamaha, Triumph, Ducati, BMW, Century Boats, and Skeeter Boats to name a few.
Richard Helmuth – Is new to the community having purchased his home in May 2021. He is a member of the “disrupters”. He has stated that while living in another HOA, the restaurant operation was outsourced, and the result was financially positive. He has only lived here a short time but wants major changes in our association structure and the amenities, which I feel could negatively impact our home values and disrupt our wonderful community.
Tim Kelley – From 2017 to 2020 was a level-headed member of the Board and for 2 1⁄2 years served as Treasurer. While on the Board He was liaison to the Properties Committee. Previously he served on the Marketing, Golf Advisory (Chair for two years), Mountain Vista Plaza Purchase Evaluation (Chair), Solar Systems Purchase Evaluation (Chair), Artisan Center Renovation Task Force (Chair), and Finance Budget Committee (Chair). He also served as a “resident representative” for the Green Reconstruction Project that was completed on time and under budget. He has a degree in Electrical Engineering and his business career included electrical manufacturing, electrical contracting, control systems design, project development and management, marketing, and strategic planning.
It seems that the disrupters have at least two goals.
1.) to fire our GM
2.) to challenge every item in the budget , looking for ways to reduce the homeowner annual dues, regardless of the loss of amenities and our secure financial position.
The candidates to support, in my mind, are Elaine Deeter, Rocky Gedrose, and Tim Kelley if homeowners want to continue our fiscal strength and stability, support our lifestyle and amenities.
All three of these candidates will benefit from your consideration for hosting candidate coffees during the early days of the campaigns that will be starting in early February. It is not too early to start planning for the coffees!
These three candidates are running and campaigning individually.
Note: The above (3) candidates campaigned together as a group, not individually, which is an unorthodox protocol within our election policies for the community.
Additional information for each of the candidates will become available over the next few months as the Election Committee guides the candidates through the process, development of information sheets, conducts interviews, and conducts forums. I believe we want to support candidates who spend our money judiciously and wisely while maintaining and improving our community.
We will need to spread our ideas and understanding far and wide throughout our community . Please communicate your opinions to as many others as possible.
Reactions by many to these unjust, inaccurate and belittling letters which had been distributed to residents against our community rules was one of shock and amazement. Our leaders are required and expected to act in good faith to every Homeowner. They take an oath to perform their fiduciary duties to the utmost of honor and respect. Violating and defaming residents of our community in this manner was an atrocious act of wrong-doing. Statements made against the candidates were outright lies. But nothing was done to overt, stop or retract these violations. Why?