SECTION 1: CONFLICTS OF INTEREST
Following is a list of members that served on the Election Committee during Candidate selection earlier this year:
Bob Mackey, Pat Gogolin, Tracy Critchett, Mark Newton, Tim Towle, POA Employee Liason Tim Moran, and Board Liason Bob Littell.
Following are the Candidates they selected and approved as “Qualified” to run for the POA Board:
Elton Gogolin, Tim Moran, Jill Philmon
According to the May 14, 2021 Election Committee Minutes, “Several residents are expressing interest in running”. According to a May 27, 2021 ITG News Article, “seven potential board candidates” attended an informational seminar on running in this year’s elections. What we got instead were (a) the husband of an Election Committee member, (b) the POA Employee Liason to the Election Committee, and (c) a previously terminated, former General Manager, who was to many, one of the most divisive and disastrous GM’s in the history of Big Canoe.
SECTION 2: DISQUALIFICATION OF CANDIDATE
Following is a direct quote from the current Big Canoe By-Laws, Section 3.6:
Beginning with persons elected at the annual meeting in December 2007, no director shall be an employee or contractor of the Association.
Tim Moran is an employee, the Communications Manager, of the Big Canoe POA. Candidate statements, Board statements, and Election Committee Statements have been diligently searched. There is no reference to any promise by Candidate Tim Moran to terminate his Employee Status if elected. Granted, there is a proposed By-Laws change being voted on in this same Ballot, to allow an employee to serve on the Board, but the legality of this approach is in question. The fact is….. the Election Committee failed to put forward a Qualified Candidate according to the current rules in place. The wisdom of this entire approach by the Elections Committee and the Board is beyond belief. To “ASSUME” in advance that the necessary changes to the By-Laws will be approved is the height of folly and irresponsible governance. For example, what happens if Tim Moran wins, but the By-Laws change fails?
Sadly, we know the answer, and it has already occurred.
SECTION 3: DISQUALIFICATION OF THE ENTIRE ELECTION
The issues of potential “conflict of interest” between the Election Committee and Candidate Selection are indeed unseemly, and raise a red flag for Members to question in regards to the wisdom, competency and honesty of their current governing leaders, but they do not disqualify the Election.
But the fact that the Ballot is already printed, and mailed, and includes a currently unqualified Candidate, and that the Vote will undoubtedly be diluted as a result….. DOES DISQUALIFY THIS ELECTION BALLOT.
SECTION 4: A PRECEDENT OF INCOMPETENCE
The Elections Committee has one primary responsibility, “Qualifying candidates”. They miserably failed.
Unfortunately, it isn’t the first time. The 2019 POA Board Election had to be Recalled as well, after it was discovered that another candidate at that time was not qualified. In that situation the discovery was made (a) after the ballots had been mailed, but also (b) after the election had already concluded. The Candidacy Qualification process had to be redone, the Ballot was substantially changed, and the entire process had to be redone several months later – at great expense and embarrassment to the community.
SECTION 5: CONCLUDING THOUGHT
This is the POA Board that wants you to vote to change the By-Laws, which give them more power, less oversite. Members probably need to start looking at these “hand-picked” Committees as well, that do little but run point for the Board, and serve to give public cover to maintaining the status quo in the small exclusive club that runs this community, and decides how our monies are spent. If people only knew how much money went into studies, polls and reports solely to manipulate property owner opinion, I think they would be outraged. But maybe not. Nothing really surprises me any more. Here we go again.
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Peace,
– david / publisher
Focus on Big Canoe, GA
* a publication of The Mountains Voice
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