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Post by Admin on May 27, 2016 10:45:37 GMT -7
GLA Newsletter - Phone-in Board Meetings and PRAYER
Administrator's Note: Debbie Blais requested that we post her open letter to the GLA Board. Her letter follows:
The GLA Spring 2016 Newsletter has a Board Meetings by Phone article that says the Board has “made several attempts to make in-person meetings there (St. John’s) a success. But we cannot control the behavior of people …”; that the “use of St. John’s is off the table until there can be some guarantee from the interrupting landowners that they will amend their behavior.”; and that “The Board finds these unproductive activities puzzling in the face of our efforts to move forward in… collections, …project review procedure, …road maintenance plan”; and finally “We look forward to being able to get together in Board Meetings with the same level of order and neighborliness that is exhibited in the smaller, more convivial committee meetings.”
Well, to whichever Board Member wrote this article, and to those Board members who reviewed and approved it: let me help you in your puzzlement – or is it simply ignorance, your failed memory or your wish to white wash the real issue at the root of Phone-in Board Meetings?
- The April 11th Board Meeting immediately fell into disarray when Board Members attempted to PRAY. Those landowners attending who didn’t want to hear it, chanted over it, which then spurred President Mizzi to call in the Sheriff!
- Let’s be real: collections, project review procedures, road maintenance, etc. had NOTHING to do with the disarray at the April 11th Board Meeting!
- Not one of the Board’s “several attempts to make in-person meetings a success” has ever considered taking PRAYER off the table, making this statement a complete, 100% sham!
- The real SOLUTION to successfully conducting the business of the GLA Corporation in a Board meeting, is to remove the CUT insistence on opening it with PRAYER. A small contingent of Church Universal Triumphant landowners (who usually are not in attendance at the Board Meetings) strive to keep their religion in this corporate business meeting that is no longer a part of CUT.
- GLA Committee Meetings are not begun with PRAYER. Revelation! That is the real reason there is a “level of order and neighborliness” exhibited in Committee Meetings! This is NOT due to their smaller nature. The PRAYER is not allowed to be an explosive factor in Committee Meetings, that sets off non-CUT landowners like a keg of TNT, when CUT seeks to impose their religion on landowners who do not belong to it, and who are attending a business meeting!
- The Committee Meetings are also OPEN MEETINGS, where landowners may participate and give input, as President Mizzi is clear to point out. This open aspect of Committee Meetings – which are not subject to the MEETING DECORUM rules in force at Board meetings – are a 2nd prime factor in the reason for the level of order and neighborliness exhibited in them. Whoa, another Revelation! Board Meetings were unceremoniously SHUT DOWN to meaningful landowner input when Mizzi took over as GLA President in January this year.
- The “Guarantee” the Board is looking for: Cease beginning each GLA Board Meeting with PRAYER. Then we can all return to in person meetings at St. John’s church.
So, please do not insult the intelligence of the entire GLA landowners community – all of whom know the REAL REASON the GLA Board wants to go to Phone-In Board Meetings – it is so Board Members may meet in-person, themselves, at un-disclosed locations, in secret, and MUTE the landowners who disagree with your PRAYER. Allowing you to get thru those first critical 5 minutes of the meeting, during the PRAYER, and then conduct your meeting “in order”.
I challenge any Board Member who has any integrity on the issue of excluding landowners from IN-PERSON Board Meetings, to also attend the Board Meetings by phone, at their home, as all landowners are now forced to do – and see how well it works for YOU?!! Any Board Member who attends a Board Meeting IN PERSON and then puts forth that PHONE MEETINGS are an acceptable way for landowners to attend, shows a real lack of integrity and needs to try it for themselves – each and every time! I think if you do, you will not be so sure that the PRAYER at Board Meetings is worth the Phone-In Meetings price!
Debbie Blais, SG 40-C
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Post by Admin on May 27, 2016 11:26:48 GMT -7
GLA Board violates our Constitution while abusing The Teachings and landowners The GLA Board once again violated the US Constitution. The First Amendment allows for Freedom of Religion. The GLA shadow board members, headed by Church Universal and Triumphant Priest Charlotte Mizzi, insisted on opening every Board meeting with a prayer. Many landowners resent having a prayer forced upon them that comes from an employee of a Church, that once owned and ruled all of Glastonbury like a medieval monastery. A moment of silence would be far more appropriate and was once voted in. Intent on keeping the Church in firm control of GLA Board meetings, the Board voted to reinstate a spoken prayer. Bitter feelings ensued from landowners; both church and non-church. Many church people saw prayer as an abuse of power and an attempt to further divide the community into "us vs. them" encampments. The Teachings are sacred they stated, and should never be used as a club to batter political adversaries. Non-church landowners are disturbed and upset by GLA Shadow Board behavior that favors one group over another, and attempts to use director's board power to benefit Church Universal and Triumphant. Past due assessments owed by the Church are rapidly moving to a point where all interest and penalties will be forgiven by the GLA Board. Landowners will lose tens of thousands of dollars.
Landowners have been excluded from Board meetings, been muted on the phone, told to shut up in person, and are often mocked and disrespected by shadow board members. The Board's lack of respect extends to the US Constitution. Recently the Forum was sent a letter from the GLA Board demanding that Official Minutes be removed from our public website. We see that as a direct violation of our Freedom of Speech. As stated above, the GLA board will use it's power to force Church Universal and Triumphant prayers on all landowners at Board meetings. In effect they are enforcing a state sponsored religion.
The Forum applauds those who have the courage of their convictions to defend their Constitutional rights via civil disobedience and the power of the pen. Let the words flow and the chanting continue. We will not be overcome. On this Memorial Day weekend and for all time we will not give up our Constitutional rights which so many have fought and died to preserve. We will not live in darkness and fear. Let the bright light of freedom shine upon our struggle and guide us to a community where we can all live in brotherhood.
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chris
Full Member
Posts: 175
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Post by chris on May 27, 2016 12:13:17 GMT -7
Thank you, Debbie, for your thoughtful observations and comments. The Spring Newsletter was full of board propaganda and defensive rhetoric with absolutely no recognition of personal or board responsibility for anything! This rift between certain directors and landowners will never start to heal until those directors either leave the board or learn the art of respectful and honorable action with integrity. As certain directors like to parrot that I and other dissident landowners are but voicing our "unsubstantiated opinions and allegations," I will further address the failings of the newsletter and the board's actions in a separate post here on the forum. I hope others will also.
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Post by leokeeler on May 27, 2016 22:43:52 GMT -7
I agree with Debbie and can see why things are getting worse for Landowners. Three Board members appear to be free thinkers on all issues, two are free thinkers on many issues, three seek control for personal reasons or beliefs, and four seem to just float along supporting those seeking control.
I have found it interesting how selective reasoning, personally-devised definitions, and objective-oriented questions to attorneys continue to run the GLA Board.
Immediately upon taking the President seat, Charlotte set up new procedures for running the meetings. The Conduct of Meeting policy established by a Board vote in May 2015, after a 30 day Member notification and months of preparation prior to that, was totally ignored and has never been mentioned again. Then the Board discussed and voted to have a pledge of allegiance and moment of silence instead of the prayer in response to Landowner requests. I never really understood if either the Conduct of Meeting policy or New Decorum were acts amending or appending to the Bylaws, but until the court cases begin to fly, that doesn't really matter.
When a Member petition concerning reinstating a prayer before the meeting was received, rather than following the Bylaws statement "A Special Meeting (of Members) must be called when a petition signed by five percent (5%) of the Membership Interests," the Board chose to vote on the issue again. The justification for another vote and for not following required procedures was not the petition itself, but having a new Board member appointed to the Board. Funny that in December, with a totally new Board, no vote was ever taken to replace the Conduct of Meeting with the new DECORUM. The petition was, and has never been discussed in front of Landowners, provided to them, and there still has been no vote on the new Decorum.
Now we find out, in an announcement in the Spring 2016 Newsletter, that all future Board meetings will require all Landowners to call in via "conference call" and listen by phone, while all the Directors meet in person, in an undisclosed location, to discuss and act on Landowner business.
It was said that an attorney told the Board (most likely just Dan since it does not appear to have been in writing or willingly shared with Landowners) that "if Landowners can hear the Board, the meeting should still meet the intent of the open meeting requirements in our Bylaws." I wonder how many other attorneys would agree with that or see their challenge to it as a slam dunk?
I also wonder if there was a "legal meeting" and vote by the Board to go to this conference-call type phone meeting. Will that motion/resolution show up in any Board meeting minutes? What other motions (business of the Landowners) has been done in secret? What personal risk does each Director take every time they cast a vote that is not shown to Landowners?
Also, as to the topic of motions showing up in the minutes - who made and seconded the motion to establish a new rule changing the 18% interest rate on delinquent accounts to "12% or the highest rate the law will allow" in Covenant 11.06? How did each Board member vote? Where is this crucial vote recorded in the minutes? I've never seen any minutes or evidence of what took place in any Closed Meeting. Since the Covenant 11.06 change was discussed in a closed meeting that was called because of the fear of a lawsuit, will fear be used to justify hiding who made the motion and how each Director voted?
It must be nice to essentially claim "the fear of a lawsuit if anyone finds out how we made this decision" as a justification to withhold information AND use that same fear of a lawsuit to also justify not giving anyone the specific information required to file the lawsuit. This is a perfect "REVERSE CATCH 22."
Leo Keeler SG 26-A1
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chris
Full Member
Posts: 175
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Post by chris on May 28, 2016 7:46:18 GMT -7
Leo - I hope you will make your post's observations "official" by sending the board a link to it here on the forum or, better yet, by sending the contents directly to the board in a letter! We don't know how many board members actually read the forum without prejudice and misconceived conclusions that "it is only a small minority questioning our actions so we can ignore them." None of them ever comment here or make themselves known. I call that cowardice.
The recent actions of the board to further isolate themselves from their constituents by going to phone meetings only, to circle their wagons in defensive positions, to perpetuate the "us versus them" mindset, along with their newsletter which has morphed into their propaganda organ, all indicate that they are feeling threatened by the opposition to their power plays. The time has come for full disclosure of their despicable actions. More and more landowners are paying attention and realizing the folly of their ways. Now is the time for positive change and healing in this fractured community! I have zero confidence that this board can or will lead in this direction.
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Post by change on May 28, 2016 20:04:25 GMT -7
Dan Kehoe has been talking of having quarterly GLA board meetings via conference call instead of the monthly live meetings since last year while he was president. At one point, he rationalized that doing so would make board work easier for board members. It is ever more obvious that when a director slips in a comment here or there on the sly, the matter has either been decided or is being decided. Now, the shadow board has a "legitimate excuse" to hold phone only board meetings: their excuse is that the landowners are out of control. No culpability on their part, of course. It's not important that both Mizzi and Kehoe told a landowner at the April meeting to shut up and Kehoe even stuck his tongue out at one landowner. It's not important that Mizzi uses her gavel as a weapon of mass silence whenever a landowner brings up a concern or makes a comment that doesn't fall within her definition of "being respectful to the board". It doesn't matter that, one way or another, Mizzi routinely dismisses any and all landowner comments. It doesn't matter that at her first monthly meeting as president she brought forth a gavel and a new illegal meeting decorum policy, which was passed out at the door and effectively gagged all concerned landowners, as well as committee chairs and members of the project review committee in order to ram through a "favored son's" project. NO! There is absolutely no reason whatsoever to think that the board creates the circus. It is entirely the fault of those dissenting landowners.
After the unruly and poorly led April board meeting it was announced that the May board meeting would be by conference call. As it turned out, board members met live and unannounced at Mizzi's house while landowners were able to try to listen in over a poor telephone connection, having initially been led to believe by the board that everyone attending was via conference call. More deception. When a landowner was unmuted and permitted to speak during her three-minute allowed comment period, she asked which board members had signed the recent petition to reinstate prayer at the board meetings, after the board had recently voted to honor landowner requests to replace prayer with a moment of silence where all in attendance could honor their own belief systems. After a moment of pause, and amid muttering cross-talk, one board member suggested that it is not against the law for a director to sign a petition. After another moment, Mizzi admitted to signing it.
Normally, this action would not be suspect or questioned. But in this case the petition was circulated at a church service where Mizzi is a minister of the church while also a director and president of the GLA. It is obvious to observers that Mizzi is often in conflict with her role as a minister versus that as a supposedly impartial officer of the board. In this case it is clear that she had an agenda to have prayer reinstated without going through the proper protocols per our governing documents. She first tried to introduce the petition at the end of a very long board meeting in March when the petition had not been on the agenda in the first place; this despite the fact that she had been trying to close the meeting for a half hour or longer. The matter was dropped when Kehoe said that the board had already voted on the matter and it was settled. The petition was brought up yet again by Mizzi at the April board meeting when she put it on the agenda. Mizzi claimed then that since there was now a new board member the prayer issue could be re-voted (yet another church member who had been hand-picked and appointed by the board to fill a vacancy). The board then voted to reverse their prior decision to replace prayer with the minute of silence and to have both instead.
It should also be noted that most of the signers of the petition are church members who rarely, if ever, attend board meetings and some may not even be landowner members of the GLA! Furthermore, Mizzi and those board members who voted to reinstate prayer intentionally disregarded the fact that the landowners who regularly and consistently attend board and committee meetings had requested not to have a prayer as part of the monthly board business meeting.
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Post by Fed up on May 30, 2016 14:37:49 GMT -7
While reading your post, one easily recalls the incident at last summer's board meeting, when former President Dan Kehoe yelled and swore at landowners. The board of St.John's Church got word of Kehoe's foul language, spewed forth in the vestry of their church. Former Vice-President Ross Brunson also had a reputation for assaulting landowners with his tongue. The Reverend of St.John's and Board of Directors sent a written request to the GLA Board asking that they behave in a civil manner when conducting community business. The content of the letter was reasonable and fair, the terms being that the GLA Board behave professionally and politely.
The next thing landowners knew was that we forced to hold our monthly meetings by phone.
In what has become the norm, the board twisted the facts and diverted the blame onto landowners for being kicked out of St.John's Church. The president's tantrum was the real reason.
"The more things change, the more they stay the same."
Alphonse Karr
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Post by chadstone on May 30, 2016 21:37:34 GMT -7
Not only does Mizzy violate our 1st amendment right freedom FROM religion she also violates our 14th amendment which guarantees equal protection under the law and she is possibly violating the fair housing act. The entire board needs to do the right thing and resign immediately siting their own petulant behavior as the resaon.
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