The July board meeting was the best one we’ve had in two years. I joined in the applause for board members, management company representatives, and attending owners at the end (and have praised board members in the past, both publicly in the meetings and here on City Walk Talk, whenever they’ve done well) and I want to repeat that praise now: we got more done, in a more orderly way, than ever before, and did it without any of the out-of-nowhere vehemence or attacks on owners that we’ve seen in past meetings.
There was just one strange (but civil, and even amusing) out-of-nowhere insistence that puzzled many in the room, that I’d like to explain and express my opinion about in this post: Jo Drain moved that committees be renamed to something other than “committees.”
This caused a lot of confusion over exactly what she wanted, but it was eventually established that all she wanted was a change in the word. Nothing about the two currently existing committees (Social and Garden) would change, except they’d be called Volunteers now instead of Committees.
So it was easily passed with good humor on every side but continued confusion about the Why. At one point, though, Jo made a passing reference to “problems” that the board had had with committee chairs in the past.
Here’s the history of those problems.
Some will object to “rehashing” these past events, but this is not a rehashing but new information for a lot of people. There’s an old saying that “those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it,” but those who never knew about the past in the first place are at even greater risk. And when there are board members who have tried (in the past, but hopefully not anymore) to suppress speech or impede general discussion about the state of things and their history, it’s all the more important to push back against that.
Starting some time in 2023, objections began to arise among some owners about the tactics used by supporters of Ray Aguirre and Bob McLean to get them elected to the board, and later to get Deb Flies ousted from the board, and then over the secretive and autocratic way the new board majority governed. Some of the objectors were the chairs of committees, which led to hostility against the whole concept of committees by the board majority. Some committees were dissolved completely, and former or current chairs were attacked or denigrated by board members in public board meetings.
I hope that the trivial nature of the change from “committee” to “volunteers” and the good humor with which it was received and passed are signs that this past hostility is in the process of petering out. It would be great to have a board that valued their fellow owners’ contributions, getting more done for the building by delegating tasks to committees in accord with the principle that “many hands make light work.” (Like nearly every other HOA or non-profit organization out there.) It would be great for board meetings for the rest of the year to go like this last one did.
Some might worry that this post itself will only exacerbate the hostilities, keeping them alive longer than they might otherwise last, and this could be true. However, in addition to the old saying about the dangers of forgetting the past, there’s also a saying that “there can be no peace without justice.” I don’t believe that peace that comes through forgetfulness or lack of awareness is a real peace. Real peace is when the facts of the history are available for all to examine, and those who committed past wrongs own up to them and commit to their community to do better in the future.
The board meetings have been getting better and better. We should credit every member for the improvement so far, hold them to this new standard they’re setting for themselves, and encourage them to continue improving.
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