As many of you may remember, in early April, I shared a copy of a proposed amendment (see attached amendment and post) that was approved by the By-Laws and Covenants Committee. They, in turn, submitted it to the Board for consideration immediately after. When I shared it, I asked the community for their support in reaching out to the Board to share their thoughts. Sadly, this proposed amendment seems to have disappeared into a black hole, along with many other requested items the Board continues to choose to ignore.
This proposed amendment was directly related to one of my most important beliefs as a candidate for the Board. I believe that our community should play an active role in the decisions that our Board is called to make. At this time, it appears that our Board does not feel the community should have any say in future decisions or changes to our rules and regulations. As the board president said to me directly, once the community votes for their elected officials, they should have no subsequent involvement in future Board issues. I disagree and this is an issue I will fall on my sword for.
The community is the ONLY reason why the Board is in power. They are called upon to represent the community and, to be clear, should welcome and seek out what residents want. While there may be some decisions the Board will have to make without community involvement (i.e. personnel issues and contracts), a majority of decisions should be allowed a reasonable amount of time for community feedback before it is voted on. The feedback might not change the outcome, however, encouraging involvement and input will build the trust needed between our community and our Board, which is sorely lacking right now.
Community comments should be respectively listened to without judgment, questionnaires and surveys should be used frequently to seek input, and town hall meetings should happen more than right before the election season. If you believe this, please vote for me! Voting starts tomorrow! Every vote counts, so don’t let yours go to waste! Vote for change!
