RMA Secret Meetings

[Martha]

Luke, I think you about covered it. Thank you!

I have some thoughts that I can't seem to collect and my mama always said, "if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all." But let me say this, Jim, you can't imagine the lack of confidence I have in this board that is led by you. You agreeing to send ranchomurieta.com from the meeting has done more damage, in my eyes, than you can possibly imagine. To say I'm disappointed doesn't even capture my feelings.

And Ted Ryon, if you read this message board, please do us all a favor and withdraw from the running of Director. You are so out of touch it's not even funny.

How do we begin a recall? Of four sitting directors.

[nana]

Like Candy Chand, I am not a great fan of t.v.; however, I am a huge proponent of the First Amendment.
While the Davis-Stirling Act covers RMA meetings, etc., the Brown Act is a little more stringent and applies to meetings of public bodies.
In true recognition of the media's right to know, the Brown Act provides that, should a public meeting get unruly, the meeting room is cleared of all in attendance except for media covering the meeting.

[Golfingbear]

The Rancho Murieta Association’s Ad Hoc Cable Committee met Wednesday night in a session that wasn’t announced to the membership or open to members.

Let’s start with “What the Hell is going on?” I thought I was a member of the RMA BOD and I received no notice or invitation to this meeting. Holding an unannounced committee meeting is a violation of ARTICLE VIII, Section 1.of the Bylaws of RMA.
Committee Chairman Ted Ryon and the committee are totally out of line in calling such a meeting. Perhaps it would be a good idea if the Chairman and members of this committee made themselves familiar with the governing documents of RMA concerning the powers of committees before such actions are taken. This committee with three board members participating has overstepped their charter sixteen ways to Sunday on several occasions in the past several months. This particular action is a slap in the face of the membership and elected members of the BOD.

“In a phone interview Thursday night, Ted Ryon, the committee chair, said he asked RM.com to leave the session because that’s what RMA President Jim Moore and new General Manager Nick Arther wanted.” “In a separate phone interview, Moore, who attended the meeting, said closing it was Ryon’s idea. “Ted made the call and I let it go,” Moore said. “The general manager had nothing to do with it.” I couldn’t reach Jim Moore or Nick Arther this morning to confirm who did what but after interfacing with this committee I think I’ll go with Jim’s statement. Maybe Chairman Ryon needs to get his stories straight.

.…” Another reason to close the meeting was the report hadn’t been released to the membership, Ryon said. The report has been provided to board members and members of the Ad Hoc Cable, Finance, and Communications committees.” As a member of the board I don’t recall the board authorizing the release of this report to any committee. When you release such information to any committee you have in affect released it to the entire membership and therefore there is no reason to close an unannounced committee meeting to media or the general membership of the. Association. The Ad Hoc Committee is also not authorized to let bids on anything that is the province of the BOD. The BOD will decide who and when bids will be let for association work. Who will hold discussion of strategy on those bids is the sole province of the association BOD. This is another area in which the Ad Hoc Committee has overstepped their charter. The BOD has the Peregrine Report and is now solely their responsibility to decide what they want to do with it. The Ad Hoc Committee has provided much interesting work and pointed out several areas the BOD should consider for action, however, their work is finished and their further involvement as a committee should end. Much of what they have done is work that should have been given to our Communication Committee and that’s where it has belonged and should be.

The boards of this association in the past and present have been accused of operating in too much secrecy. The actions taken by Chairman Ryon and his committee have only added to that belief. Transparency is what I as BOD member have always expounded and what we as a board should be demanding

[Martha]

Amen, GB.

I am still so outraged by this that I can't even see straight.

Seriously.

How do we recall those four?

[Zebra Top]

Originally Posted by pingtheduck

We're not a fiefdom for crying out loud.

I'm sure Andy Keyes' reference to "Palace" Intrigue, over on dotcom, didn't slip past anyone.

[Matthew]

I sent this letter to the RMA BOD a few minutes ago.

RMA Board of Directors,

I am very disappointed in the direction the RMA seems to be headed. First we have Directors violating the Code of Conduct and now I see we have secret meetings. What is going on over there?

Jim, as President, I am not seeing the leadership that is needed. I urge you to talk with the other Directors about the Code of Conduct. Directors should not be speaking on behalf of the Board unless authorization has been given. I fully support and encourage Directors who give their personal opinion, but that does not appear to be the case here.

Also, closed meetings are one thing, but secret meetings are unacceptable. Why was the meeting unannounced? Why was an RMA member asked to leave? While Karen may be a member of the media, she is also a resident and RMA member. Asking her to leave the meeting was inappropriate. If a board or any committee meeting is determined to contain sensitive information then asking a resident to leave for a short period is one thing, but Karen was asked to leave before the meeting even started.

Ted Ryon is a committee chair, and Jim as President, it’s your call to ask members to leave, not his. I see there are a couple of versions of what occurred and I will take your version at face value, but in my opinion it was still your call to make. You can delegate tasks, but you cannot delegate responsibility. I do however appreciate the fact that you would do it differently next time.

I am also curious why there is even such a thing as the “Ad Hoc Cable Committee” at this point. The “Summary of Final Ad HOC Committee Findings and Recommendation Report” dated September 10th was turned over to the Board on September 15th. Did that not conclude the need for this committee? If not does this committee have a new charter?

I appreciate all of you volunteering to serve as a Board member and I really do not enjoy being critical. However, I also believe it is my duty as a member of this association to speak up when I see these types of issues.

Matt McGuire

[Golfingbear]

Quote from Andy Keyes on rm.com. “So let’s look at the facts. The GM and President of RMA along with 3 members of the association have a conference call to discuss questions with a communications company over a report they provided to the association. When dollar figures regarding execution of an eventual repair plan are broached and the meeting closed then suddenly we have the latest red herring conspiracy ginned up courtesy of RM.COM. When costs associated with repair of the Cable TV system are discussed its inherent that those numbers not be advertised as it will taint any future RFP which several companies may be asked to bid on. There is no conspiracy to my knowledge.”

Andy there is no conspiracy!!! You just don’t’ seem to get it. This is about violating the Association Bylaws by calling a meeting of a committee, that doesn’t any longer legally exist, and then deciding to exclude the media and membership from attending. This is something you also don’t seem to understand.

Why are the President and GM having discussions with three committee members concerning this report when it hasn’t yet been discussed in either executive or open secessions with the BOD? The Ad Hoc Committee has given their “FINAL REPORT” to the BOD and their charter has come to an end. At this point in the game it is no longer their job to evaluate what will or won’t be done with the TV system. Those decisions have passed to the BOD. Until the BOD has evaluated the report and decided whether or not they want to go out for bids, none of the figures should have been discussed with anyone outside the board. When you share sensitive information with members of a committee that really doesn’t exist anymore you are taking a chance of sharing that information with any and all of the general membership. There is nothing wrong with that if that is what the board decided to do, however, the board has not made that decision.

[toddster]

It's getting comical.

So many course changes, fumbling and it will continue. I have already posted how I think this could be eliminated.

As they say...In the valley of the blind, the one-eyed man is king!

[Zebra Top]

I have got to stop reading a certain someone's comments. What the heck, am I the only one that finds something inherently wrong with this statement. (Andy Keyes' quote brought over by Golfingbear)

The GM and President of RMA along with 3 members of the association have a conference call to discuss questions with a communications company over a report they provided to the association.

[judylm]

You know what else is interesting? I was at the Parks Committee meeting just prior to the "secret meeting"

I am certainly glad that Karen learned of this meeting and tried to cover it. It was mentioned in the Parks Meeting that there are other meetings that need to be attended after the parks meeting - but no mention to what those were.

Thrashing around the GM in this debacle is horrendous. I met him at the Joint Security Meeting on Wednesday and he is a very nice - progressive thinking gentleman. He is very open to idea's - and there were (3) representatives from RMA - sadly, not a one of them introduced the new GM.

Mr. Dick Cox I too am appalled at this - This entire incident stinks.

I am just sorry that things are this bad. People volunteering their time for the betterment of the community are people to be applauded. They spend numerous hours on a project. However, when you have such discension in a group it is appalling!

Just had to give my shake on things. And Thank you to all of you commenting and hashing thru this latest episode.