HOA1 Board Dissension over 5 year Plan
VIA SBINSIDER| January 27th, 2024
A routine HOA1 Board meeting got testy when the time came for Board and resident comments regarding the proposed draft of a 5 year plan for SaddleBrooke. The plan was generated by new Board member Joe O’Connor at the behest of President Jo Ann Ellison. The Board was made aware of this task at a January 18th meeting.
The conflict arose when two of the Board members, Dr. Kathleen Sartoris and Don Taylor, objected that the entire board had not been involved in the development of the plan. Specifically Dr. Sartoris spoke at the January 25th open BOD meeting. SBINSIDER received this statement from Dr. Sartoris that she shared at the board meeting: I had no knowledge of and more importantly no opportunity to contribute to the “plan” . It is known that I was on the Official Long Range Planning HOA1 Cmte and have extensive experience as a leader in a professional environment …
Further she wrote in the email: “A Strategic plan is a serious undertaking with a formal professional process involving many people and iterations to make sure it’s truly robust.” <This> “is not our best effort for the Community or the future of SaddleBrooke.”
Don Taylor had these remarks at the meeting: “I was totally unaware of the development of this 5 year plan until last Friday, when I was copied on an email rebuffing Kathleen’s request to meet with the board and provide input on the plan that she had not yet seen. I received this 5 year plan in an emailed board package late Friday afternoon. I then received a substantially changed second revision on Tuesday afternoon. My goat is simple: Permit Kathleen, Don, as well as other board members, to present their ideas on the 5 year plan to the rest of the board and have a quiet discussion.
Residents also had comments on the plan and the process by which it was created. Bruce Landeck emailed SBINSIDER with the gist of his public comments:
Taylor then made a motion to table the report until the regular February 29th Board meeting to give all the Board members input to the plan. This motion failed. The Board then moved and passed a motion to send the plan forward.
SBINSIDER spoke to President Jo Ann Ellison and asked her for comment on the dissension. She replied by email: “During January, Joe O’Connor at the Presidents request, prepared a discussion draft. The draft was sent to the entire Board on on January 19. Comments received from Board members prior the January 25 meeting were added to the presentation draft on January 25. Please bear in mind that this in only a straw man draft meant to start the process. We are have scheduled an additional meeting on February 22 for further input from all Board members. An initial 30 day review and comment period was approved by the Board at the January 25 meeting, which will start on January 29.”
SBINSIDER then asked why a 5 Year plan was needed when only two years ago, the prior Board voted to end the Long Range Planning Committee. President Ellison replied that “All the prior planning documents are available to the residents and as a mature HOA, a standing long range planning committee was deemed unnecessary.”
The entire audio of the meeting will be available to the residents next week in the HOA1 website.
It sounds like people are urinating into the wind on this issue. It seems to me that an initial plan is merely a starting point for the board discussion.
Hoa 2 residents did not have input into their plan. A close friend was in one of their focus groups. We discussed this morning after church. The focus groups was not on the plan. Done before survey only, The focus groups members only asked to say a few things like why they moved here before survey sent out. Survey looked a lot like HOA 1 survey.
They said “There were NO town halls on a strategic plan” .
They also said Their board does not like open discussion or comments that they don’t filter first for a powerpoint show. No input was done on plan. It was done by board at away locations with the professional group. Plan had no resident input into a draft and no town halls on plan. They got it presented as the final and totally done deal.
At least HOA 1 not spending fortune on a professional fee to write some simple mission statements and say about the same thing.
It seems, not unlike the Federal Government, an executive order stands even at the lowest level in politics. If this is going to continue, then we people have the right to recall these outrageous Board Member. The nerve of these people to exclude other Board Members from any conversation should out rage the whole HOA1 community.
Sharon Walker you really read the comments the board president made regarding the 5 yr plan. What is outrageous is behavior of 2 board members airing their complaints in public rather than with the board in private.