Post by Town Crier on May 20, 2024 10:28:00 GMT -7
Doug Gill Resigns as President of the GLA
Doug Gill resigned this morning as president of the Glastonbury Landowners Association (GLA). Gill was elected president after Alicia Roskind Dearing quit in January. He instituted many positive changes to the GLA. Gill brought in a Consent Agenda which gave more power and responsibilities to the committees while reducing board micro-management. Monthly board meetings plummeted from 9 hours in January to just 3 hours in February. Gill sought to fill vacant director seats and was successful in attracting new landowners to the board. But a majority faction fought him from the beginning. They argued that a management firm should be hired to run the GLA. 10 directors was too many; the board could be run more efficiently with even fewer. From January on many of those who opposed Gill refused to do any work. Alicia Dearing quit as president. Jewel Wieczorek resigned as Treasurer but retained the trappings of power. Jaylyn Jensen resigned from the committees she promised to serve on. Eventually, President Gill was able to call a Special Meeting where several landowners volunteered to serve on committees and the board. All committee volunteers were accepted. But board candidates were soundly rejected. Power was not to be shared even if it meant the board would continue to sink. Recently four email motions were made. Each one failed because a majority of the directors chose not to vote.
At 8:55 am President Doug Gill resigned with the following statement:
The monthly GLA board meeting is scheduled for May 22 at Emigrant Hall. It is not clear if that meeting will occur.
The GLA Bylaws do not allow the sitting Vice President to automatically become President in the case of a resignation. A board election will decide the next president. The new board will likely advocate strongly for a management company to take over all day-to-day GLA responsibilities. Landowners may lose what little voice they now have and should expect annual assessment increases.
At 8:55 am President Doug Gill resigned with the following statement:
Board,
I have been around a lot of boards in my time, profit and non-profit. Never have I seen anything like this board. The hypocrisy and duplicity is unrivaled. Truly.
Each and every board member was elected by the landowners. How dare you think you can decide that a board member "can't be trusted with information." You don't have that right. Every board member has a fiduciary responsibility to review financial and other information on behalf of landowners being represented. So if a board member requests something, they should have it immediately. Guess they didn't teach you that at board school.
One of the most disgusting and saddest moments of my tenure as President is the sham of a Special Meeting we had May 9th. How utterly embarrassing. And Alicia actually wrote about embarrassing the candidates??? Are you kidding me? It is the board that should be embarrassed. You all fought tooth and nail to avoid adding directors from the very beginning of the year, then when you realized that you couldn't get away with that, you simply colluded and voted them down. Clever.
Do any of you realize that Jack had a single write-in vote? Let that sink in. Yep, it means both board candidates at the Special Meeting got more landowner votes than Jack did. What a joke. And for those of you who fought tooth and nail against the 4/30 Special Meeting were hiding behind your slogan, "we need more time for due diligence, to get to know who these candidates are." Another total joke. Liars. Which one of you reached out to either candidate in the extra week you had to "get to know them?" The fix was in. Shame on you. Then as a further transparent move to maintain your coveted voting control, Scott nominates Jaylyn to be on the Roads Committee. Why hasn’t Jaylyn been on the committee all year? Could it be that someone you can't control was voted on? You want to neutralize his vote?
You want to censure Tim for writing to landowners? You show me anywhere in any GLA Governing Document that it prohibits a director from writing to landowners. We do it all the time. But because you got exposed, you don't like it. It was ok for Alicia to do it. It was ok for John to do it. John responded to a landowner protesting board action and had ZERO approval from the board to do so. Why no concern about that? Uh, total hypocrisy. We endured 60 emails debating how we should answer a landowner’s question about their lot, and Jewel was royally offended that the PRC sent the reply without her final consent as a board member. Then she praised John for his reply to Deb! Again, John had ZERO board input. Both members of the GovDocs committee were silent. Silent about both Deb’s protest and John’s answering of it without authority. HYPOCRISY.
And on the topic of GovDocs, Scott speaks and writes of "Caspari subdivision." Another joke. Scott knows perfectly well that no such legal entity exists. But, he thinks if he recites the phrase enough times, like beating on a drum, that someone might actually believe it. He also cites the 2008 Road Policy as a governing document. And then talks down to the rest of us for "not understanding." Well, if Scott understood or cared, he would know that board policy is NOT a governing document. Only that which landowners vote to approve is a governing document. So, this 16 year old relic from when Bush was president is nothing more than what the 2008 board thought was appropriate at that time. If the do-nothing board of 2023 had actually focused on accomplishing something for landowners, there would be a 2023 Road Policy. A few things have changed in the world since 2008. Wake up.
I could write another ten pages about the many absurdities, but as you read this all you are thinking about is your response to me instead of reflecting on how you have failed the community. So, all of these words of mine are ultimately falling on deaf ears. I was so absolutely naive to think that this board could move forward and get its house in order. How sorely mistaken I was. You have no intent to do the right thing, only to do your thing.
I have no desire to waste any more of my precious time trying to lead you where you do not want to go. And I certainly do not want anyone confused that I condone your behavior. Therefore, I hereby resign as President of GLA effective immediately. I have never quit anything in my life, so this action is a new one for me.
In short order, my fellow landowners will be very clear about who you are and your systematic, reprehensible tactics.
Sincerely,
DG
I have been around a lot of boards in my time, profit and non-profit. Never have I seen anything like this board. The hypocrisy and duplicity is unrivaled. Truly.
Each and every board member was elected by the landowners. How dare you think you can decide that a board member "can't be trusted with information." You don't have that right. Every board member has a fiduciary responsibility to review financial and other information on behalf of landowners being represented. So if a board member requests something, they should have it immediately. Guess they didn't teach you that at board school.
One of the most disgusting and saddest moments of my tenure as President is the sham of a Special Meeting we had May 9th. How utterly embarrassing. And Alicia actually wrote about embarrassing the candidates??? Are you kidding me? It is the board that should be embarrassed. You all fought tooth and nail to avoid adding directors from the very beginning of the year, then when you realized that you couldn't get away with that, you simply colluded and voted them down. Clever.
Do any of you realize that Jack had a single write-in vote? Let that sink in. Yep, it means both board candidates at the Special Meeting got more landowner votes than Jack did. What a joke. And for those of you who fought tooth and nail against the 4/30 Special Meeting were hiding behind your slogan, "we need more time for due diligence, to get to know who these candidates are." Another total joke. Liars. Which one of you reached out to either candidate in the extra week you had to "get to know them?" The fix was in. Shame on you. Then as a further transparent move to maintain your coveted voting control, Scott nominates Jaylyn to be on the Roads Committee. Why hasn’t Jaylyn been on the committee all year? Could it be that someone you can't control was voted on? You want to neutralize his vote?
You want to censure Tim for writing to landowners? You show me anywhere in any GLA Governing Document that it prohibits a director from writing to landowners. We do it all the time. But because you got exposed, you don't like it. It was ok for Alicia to do it. It was ok for John to do it. John responded to a landowner protesting board action and had ZERO approval from the board to do so. Why no concern about that? Uh, total hypocrisy. We endured 60 emails debating how we should answer a landowner’s question about their lot, and Jewel was royally offended that the PRC sent the reply without her final consent as a board member. Then she praised John for his reply to Deb! Again, John had ZERO board input. Both members of the GovDocs committee were silent. Silent about both Deb’s protest and John’s answering of it without authority. HYPOCRISY.
And on the topic of GovDocs, Scott speaks and writes of "Caspari subdivision." Another joke. Scott knows perfectly well that no such legal entity exists. But, he thinks if he recites the phrase enough times, like beating on a drum, that someone might actually believe it. He also cites the 2008 Road Policy as a governing document. And then talks down to the rest of us for "not understanding." Well, if Scott understood or cared, he would know that board policy is NOT a governing document. Only that which landowners vote to approve is a governing document. So, this 16 year old relic from when Bush was president is nothing more than what the 2008 board thought was appropriate at that time. If the do-nothing board of 2023 had actually focused on accomplishing something for landowners, there would be a 2023 Road Policy. A few things have changed in the world since 2008. Wake up.
I could write another ten pages about the many absurdities, but as you read this all you are thinking about is your response to me instead of reflecting on how you have failed the community. So, all of these words of mine are ultimately falling on deaf ears. I was so absolutely naive to think that this board could move forward and get its house in order. How sorely mistaken I was. You have no intent to do the right thing, only to do your thing.
I have no desire to waste any more of my precious time trying to lead you where you do not want to go. And I certainly do not want anyone confused that I condone your behavior. Therefore, I hereby resign as President of GLA effective immediately. I have never quit anything in my life, so this action is a new one for me.
In short order, my fellow landowners will be very clear about who you are and your systematic, reprehensible tactics.
Sincerely,
DG
The monthly GLA board meeting is scheduled for May 22 at Emigrant Hall. It is not clear if that meeting will occur.
The GLA Bylaws do not allow the sitting Vice President to automatically become President in the case of a resignation. A board election will decide the next president. The new board will likely advocate strongly for a management company to take over all day-to-day GLA responsibilities. Landowners may lose what little voice they now have and should expect annual assessment increases.