Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA)
I have a document dated Feb. 19, 2019 from a Federal Agency in Washington DC. It is a reply to a member requesting information "pertaining to criminal or civil investigations of the following persons and organizations". ___ ___ ___. ___ ___. A person who is listed by name, is a member of the Surfside Executive Committee. (President, Vice President, Secretary & Treasurer) This information is being sought under the Freedom of Information Act.
The document reply requests more time "to give adequate time to obtain the documents you requested and provide them to you" The member agreed to a date of Tuesday, March 19, 2019. This is public information and will be disclosed here.
The above is in addition to a request for information from Pacific County under FOIA . That information is also being gathered as requested. This will also be made public. The criminal investigation by the EPA continues also.
The Surfside Board attempt to keep information from the members is only making them look worse. Their actions make it appear that they have something to hide. Their secrecy has prompted members to seek information from other sources. A member has proven that if you want the truth, you have to seek it. Thanks to another member who has made the effort and is considerate enough to share it with the rest of us. Hopefully when all this is settled, we can rebuild our association with trust and transparency. The members deserve no less.
6 comments:
I realize that this topic is a little off subject. The board last Saturday is preparing to approve a 20,000.00 contract to survey Sea Breeze lake. Apparently this is just the first installment on what may be a 5 year plan, for no other reason than to get over height trees cut. They have no idea what can of worms they maybe opening. It is yet another example of the board starting a project without knowing the final cost.
The corruption has hit an all time high in Surfside. My hope is with these investigations, the whole board will be forced to resign. Let's start fresh in efforts to save this HOA. As we stand now, all members are losers in property values and reputation of SHOA. No one is exempt to the damage done! Fed Up
The community does not have $20,000 to waste on this survey, nor is such a thing a priority so long as the BOT cannot predict how much the legal matters we are yet to resolve will cost. This shows how dillusional Mr. Williams and crew are. They see the membership as an endless source of money that they can spend at will on pet projects and trivial enforcement matters. There is this obsession with showing owners whose boss, while the community goes down in flames.
We have yet to hear of a single Trustee speaking out against the abuses of this Board - the unbridled legal spending, unwillingness to admit to their complete incompetence, and continued secrecy that in no way serves the members as they are bound by the covenants to do.
And what leaves the membership so powerless is that they failed to recall any of the Board last July, failed to vote for member empowerment to vote on covenant changes, and failed to support online voting, all intended to draw more participation of disenfranchised owners into the process of governance. This is a community of well over 2000 households, and we have only about 300 households voting annually.
There really is no body of folks who have expressed interest in making this a better community, and more than half of those who vote have no ability to do anything but follow along supporting the BOT. The Board does not care about this community, and continues to burn through our community funds as if it is theirs to waste.
I agree with your factual comment.
Mike Reilly
11:49 There are many of us seeking help from public agencies and asking what they are doing about the violations and illegal activity of the HOA. Once again, the BOT met on Sat and offered no updates or information to those present about the existence of those investigations, the resulting fines, the payment of those fines or the cost of legal counsel to the HOA. Even crooked politicians and political hacks make comments about their criminal conduct or investigations of such conduct, but not our BOT.
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