SPECIAL ELECTION MEETING
September 26, 2020
Could you please introduce yourselves.
Gary Long – Past board member for 3 years. Past lake security for the same length of time. I’ve been on several committees. I’m very concerned about the community. I’m glad to see so many people show up for this important meeting and I think everyone concerned votes. I look forward to seeing the results.
Rick Smith – I live across the lake, the other side. Regular dog walker. I’ve lived here about 19 years and occasionally help out with projects around the lake. Lucinda: Rick is one of the people on our election committee so I want to give a special hand to our election committee. This has been our forging a head so I really appreciate that.
Jeff Toffer – Owned property here for over 47 years. We built that log home 4 years ago. We love the community. I’ve been on the previous board for three years and I thoroughly enjoy doing things for the lake and helping out. I need to get out and meet more of you and I plan on it. I hope the best for this election. Lucinda: Jeff has also been on the election committee. Let’s give him a hand.
Bill Pease and my wife, Barbie, have owned lot for 15 years. I’m retired now and Barbie’s going to retire at the end of this year so we’re going to have time to get involved and help out for the benefit of the lake and the community. Lucinda: Bill is on the ballet so he’s willing to serve big time. Barbie: I am retired now.
Diana Kenworthy – my husband and I have been out here for about 16 years. We love it out here. I’m on the election committee also. I believe that everyone should have a voice. This is a community and we should work together. I’m so thankful to have and election.
Vonnie Hutchison – On the prior board I was the secretary. I spent a lot of time trying to make sure everything was correct and understand what was happening at the time. I’m just here today to help and I did help the election committee about ½ was through the process. I’m here taking the minutes and I always tried to make sure they were posted on the website. So if anyone wants to read them, at least going back as far as I was on the board you should be able to pull them up and read them. Lucinda: I have to tell you, I was the secretary for maybe 1.5 years or 2 but when I read Vonnie’s notes I felt thoroughly intimidated. Thank you Vonnie.
Susan Weeks.
Trish Tachell – dog walker.
Heather – I walk my dogs a lot. I’m here because I’m nosy.
Elisabeth Syverson – I thought it would be a good idea that we have third party count the vote so there’s no question.
We have two special people that are here. Our two non RLCA members that are here . I’m Elondra we’ve lived in the area for 10 years. Love that it’s so close and this is my community. When you do lake cleanup I bring my kids because I want them to learn to give back. We’re so close I’ve had neighbors that watch out when they get off the bus. So this is my community even though I’m not officially part of it.
Amanda – Dunn Rd. We bought an old homestead up there. We’ve been there about 3 years and just wanted to help out. We love our community and want to see everyone happy.
Lucinda Wiser – The meeting is called to order at 10:06 in the community association building. We are recording this meeting for accuracy and so they can be transcribed. Thank you all for coming out to our election meeting. There’s really only one item, two parts. For this special meeting there are two purposes, one purpose is to remove the current appointed board members and the second purpose is to elect a board. The people that have been on the appointed board, if they chose to, they are also on the ballot so you can elect the appointed board to be on the elected board. There are also the people who have stepped up and said that they would like to be on the board, they are also on the ballot. The purpose of this meeting is only to do those two things. The ballot box is down on the street. Once you have dropped off the ballot you are free to go. The meeting will not be adjourned until 1:00 so people when they come by or drive by they can drop off their ballot. At that time we will finish the vote count and we will post it on the website, facebook and on reader board. We will also email everyone and let them know who gets elected. I don’t know when the elected board is going to meet, it could be today. They will want to pick officers for the coming year. We will have our annual meeting in July and get on cycle. We have been accused of being illegal and we have tried to hard to do everything by the book. 5.5 says that we have the right to have our appointed board members replaced by elected board members. It doesn’t say 1, 2 or 3 of them it says appointed board members, at our annual meeting or a special meeting. We didn’t have an annual meeting, we’re having a special meeting. Bylaws 9.2 say that members can call a special meeting if they have 40% of the vote. With our petition that we went out door to door to everyone, we had 70% of the vote said that we want to have a meeting and that it’s a vote of no consequence for those members of the board that are opposing the election. 3% said they don’t want to have an election, the rest we didn’t have good contact information. So only 3% said they don’t want to have an election. We went back around and we gave every single person the results of that petition. This is what the community has read: we had a zoom meeting for the board to tell the board that this is what the community said. So we went door to door to every board member and had them sign saying they got the results of the petition and will you support it? Of that board 3 people said yes, we have reservations about the election but we’ll honor the results of the election. The other board members refused to turn anything in, one board member said I don’t ??? for this election. We were working with James Powers and we asked to be put on the agenda in June to set up this mail in ballot. We thought it was going to be going out in June. In July he shut it down. We asked to be put on the agenda in August and September. In both cases we were not put on the agenda, and in fact in September he stated that there was no other business. I think there is, I think this community is here to say that there is.
We’ve counted how many ballots there has been in the mail and there is over 50 ballots that have come through the mail. We expect more people. If you know some people who haven’t voted, I hope you encourage them to get out and vote because this is an American right. We have the right to have elected people representing us who will listen to what we have to say. There’s 3 other things that I want to throw in. As we’ve been going through this process I have found that RCWs (Revised Code of Washington) those that have to do with the homeowners association are 64.38.025 section 4, says that there are some express things that the board of directors cannot do and one of them is that they cannot elect a board of directors. That has been something that has been expressly left for us to do. The board cannot elect a board and that law is posted out here on the bulletin board if you’d like to see it. The second thing we saw as we were doing the research is Proclamation 2061 when the governor in April said, that even though it does not expressly say in bylaws that you can’t have a mail in ballot, or do electronic or do an in-person because of COVID, we are removing the so homeowners associations can continue to do business that they need to do and elections. Susan Weeks: I never saw that. Lucinda: I’ll show it to you. I’ve got it right here. Susan Weeks: I know that’s what people were trying to follow was the governor’s orders and I kept checking that to see what was going on. Lucinda: I have it printed out and I’ll show it to you. Is there anything else for the good of the order? Susan Weeks: You mean as far as the voting goes? Lucinda: We’re not going to adjourn this meeting because the voting is going to continue until 1:00 so we aren’t going to have anymore meeting or talking unless there is something that people want to say right here, right now.
Susan Weeks: I have a concern. I don’t know about the special meeting. I’ve listened to you and see whether that’s appropriate or not but I think having all the people who didn’t know what was going on. Had their vote voted by their election committee sounds hokey. Lucinda: so I’m not understanding. Susan Weeks: I think they should have had to sign a specific proxy to a specific person. Lucinda: On the proxy ballot it says “I assign this proxy to the election committee” and it names ??? We didn’t name every person on there, like Jeff is on the election committee. Rick is on the election committee and he is not named because he was running. Diana and Randy were named because we were on the election committee and we were not running. So us 3 specifically. Susan: That is not my point. My point is the people who started the campaign had a certain agenda that they wanted to accomplish so to send all those votes to the same people seems inappropriate. Diana Kenworth: Our only agenda was to have a fair election. Susan Weeks: I’m talking about the proxies, just the proxies. Rick Smith: You have to assign them to someone. Susan Weeks: That’s what I’m saying, you have to… I think that’s where you’re going to get caught. I think those votes aren’t going to be legal. They’re assigned to a committee? Lucinda: No it names, specifically who specifically is on the committee we’re assigning it to and it’s 3 people on the committee that we’re assigning it to. Elisabeth Syverson: And you guys have been very open this whole time, no secret meetings. There’s been nothing of that nature and thank you for that. Susan Weeks: So on the record I’m saying that I’m not sure that that’s legal. I want that noted in the record.
Lucinda, anything else for the good of the order?
Casey Lambert – have a question. As far as an appointed board, I understand that one board member is still on the elected board? Is official business being conducted with the appointed members? Lucinda: Official business has been conducted up until today and when there is a new board that has been legally elected today then the board will take the business from here on out. Casey Lambert: so if there was anything done officially like the meeting a few nights ago, so changes can or cannot be legally made? The whole thing was a water rights thing. Lucinda: I’m going to expressly say that this is not about water rights. I think that needs to be addressed at the first board meeting and they should have it the first Tuesday of October. Come with that issue. I will also pass it on to the new board because that is a burning issue in our community. I’m trying very carefully to have this be a one item agenda because that’s what the law says. It has to be a single item and that is to elect people, so if you have strong feelings about the board, if you have strong feelings about the water, vote for people who will support your feelings.
Thank you. You’re free to go but we’re not adjourned.
ELECTION RESULTS
Jeff Toffer – 83 votes
Rick Smith – 83 votes
Joe Dickinson – 79 votes
Bill Pease – 73 votes
Charlie Bennett – 72 votes
Jim Boothby – 71 votes
Chris Cato – 56 votes
Mike Brown – 33 votes
That concludes the people that have been elected to the board.
Russell Bishop -23 votes
Rob Lee – 20 votes
Jim Case – 18 votes
Write-in Candidates
Vonnie Hutchison – 16 votes
James Powers – 10 votes
Dan Freas – 1 votes
Chad Boyd – 2 votes
Jerry Parker – 5 votes
Lucinda, Dan Loos – 1 vote each
Neil Kimball – 4 votes
Gary Long – 8 votes
There you have the election. I want to thank you guys so much for doing all the tallying and triple counting. We are currently waiting for the notary to certify the election. Please call the winners.
The meeting is adjourned.
Certified Copy of Election Results
Mike Brown’s withdrawal letter handed to Rick Smith on 9/26/20