Post by Admin on Oct 11, 2019 20:03:25 GMT -7
Candidate Profile - Clare Parker for South Glastonbury Director
Clare Parker has lived in Glastonbury for 28 years, since 1991. Pre-1998 Glastonbury was an exclusive Church Universal and Triumphant (CUT) community. CUT owned all the property and sold leases to "landowners". Private property rights were almost non-existent, and CUT could sell your property lease at any time. It was a dark and foreboding time when bomb shelters dotted our community, provisions were stockpiled and everyone was preparing for the Apocalypse.
Politically, pre-1998 Glastonbury was a closed community. Residents willingly forfeited their Constitutional rights to live in a CUT community. Homogeneity was enforced and eventually came to be described as the virtue, "harmony". Dissenters were ostracized and any form of criticism was strictly condemned. Park County officials, elements of the press, and in general, anyone outside of CUT control was labeled a "church hater" and treated like an enemy if they criticized Church actions and methods. In 1998, the Covenants governing Glastonbury were rewritten and the community was opened to "outsiders". The Promised Land was sold and CUT severed many legal ties with Glastonbury. In particular, road maintenance responsibilities were passed from CUT to the GLA in 1998.
According to Park County land records and Forum research, by 2019 almost 60% of our community consists of landowners who did not live here before 1998.
In her 2019 bio, Candidate Clare Parker states that she is "passionate to defend America, freedom and liberty—the family, our private property rights, the Constitution and Bill of Rights." Clare views "Glastonbury as a vital part of a grand blueprint for preserving liberty". She also describes herself as "an activist".
For many years, Clare Parker maintained a website named "Clare's Chronicles". In an article titled "Changing The Road Policy?" Clare writes that the GLA wants to replace the existing Road Policy with one that will result "in equal maintenance for ALL Glastonbury roads" which she sees as unfair and thus opposes. Parker argues that in the past when CUT owned the community they would not guarantee winter access to High South. Clare said, "We have resident landowners today who wanted to buy beautiful land in High South, but did not because they felt it would be irresponsible because they knew it would cost a lot to snowplow, and so they bought more expensive property with less land in the lower regions". She continues "Today many people in High South want these same landowners and the rest of the community to subsidize them in maintaining their roads". Clare concludes "I think this is patently unfair. What do you think?"
In another Chronicles article, Clare Parker addressed the deterioration of Dry Creek Road. Clare admitted that Dry Creek Road is a county road, and that the Glastonbury Covenants do not require landowners to maintain it. She then states that historically "Dry Creek Road was maintained by the Church and then later by the GLA – up until the time the GLA paved it at a cost of approximately $128,000 plus interest to South Glastonbury landowners". Clare continues, "However, the Covenants do not prohibit the GLA from maintaining it, either – just as Covenants did not prohibit the GLA from paving it at the GLA's expense". Undeterred, activist Clare Parker gathered signatures on a petition and brought them to a GLA Board meeting with the demand that landowners pay for Dry Creek road repairs. At the September 12th, 2016 GLA Board meeting Director Kevin Newby announced that he negotiated with Park County on behalf of the GLA and they agreed to repair Dry Creek Road using only county funds. Newby saved landowners almost $150,000.00 in road maintenance costs.
Parker's activist skills were in force again in a letter dated November 27th, 2017. Clare Parker was a candidate then, as well, and presented the GLA Board with a petition that called for the December 2nd, 2017 GLA Annual Election to be suspended. The petition claimed that the Covenants and Bylaws were violated, and landowners were disenfranchised as a result. Her son and 2019 candidate Ed Dobrowski, and 45 other landowners signed the petition. The lawsuit was eventually settled and cost landowners over $21,000.00. The District Court ordered a new election to be held and it was scheduled for June 2018.
Clare Parker ran for the GLA Board in the fall 2017 election. That suspended election was eventually held in June of 2018. Parker garnered 49 votes and lost by 12 votes. She ran again in the fall 2018 election, captured just 40 votes and lost by 11 votes.