Tag: Friends

Fooled again by Proxies

I am saddened to again see our democracy plagued and failing.  Two issues hit home.

First, our new President is like the last one – failed to win through achieving the popular vote but winning on the back of the King’s Proxy power.
Like Greg before (who won by two votes) Brooks won by a single vote.  Now you can bet your whatever that none of the King’s proxies went to Jamie so they all went to Brooks as they did for Greg in the past.  That means 20 to 30 votes from one political party made the difference.  Another way of saying this is that 20 to 30 more people voted for Jamie than Brooks – the Friends and the King made up the shortfall with proxies.
I would like to point out that the King won his Board Seat by only one vote when Greg was elected, same count issue to bypass our democracy.
Second disappointment comes in two parts.  First in an effort to get rid of a motion by Cindy Wyatt, Greg tried to pull a fast one and suddenly change us from a homeowner vote to a voice vote, which he did and his front row peanut-gallery of supporters out yelled everyone else.  Just as he tried to pass his judgment the crowd of homeowners figured it out and stopped the scam (it is all in the recording for you to listen to).   A regulation vote was taken, the entire board voted against it but the motion was passed by a 40 to 30 vote. The most emotional board members demanded a recount, we did it with the same result.
What was most sad with all this, was it showed the world how out of touch with the community the Board really is.  They live in private isolation and don’t want to hear from you. Now we have a President who again is highly influenced and in debt to the King and Friends and not the people.
As the Who said, ‘Hope we don’t get fooled again”.  But we did.

Deja vu – The Park Gate and How We Got Here.

We are now being pushed to install an electric gate for the Park.  An interesting way to get control over the King’s backyard.  He tells us he will have the power to bar anyone from using it electrically if he decides.  So not only will your picture be taken while you access the park but then you will be monitored and moderated too.
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What is most interesting is how all this came about – that is the problems with the Friends, the Proxies, the Board, all come from an electric gate for the Park proposal from years past.
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In the old days we used to have meetings, even held annual meetings, in folks homes.  We had to move to the Water District (neutral grounds) when one of the home owners became so vial that no one wanted him in their home.
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At an annual meeting in the then President Zbasnik’s house, Dick Thompson offered up a plan for an electric gate that had been floated in the community.  He did a nice presentation and as an engineer he did the details.
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It was voted down; not a popular idea.
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Dick took it personally and thus fired up the rage smoldering in him, all that you see today is the revenge for that vote.
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And again we are being pushed for an electric gate.
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This time your agreement is not needed.
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Why?  Simple.
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A year and a half ago Dick’s #1 Stooge, the president, set in motion the resignation of 5 Board members over his belief that the rules covering his office let him do anything in the name of the community.
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Now he does the King’s bidding and the King wants to avoid the potential embarrassment of a second failure to get the votes for the gate. So all he has to do is direct the president to sign off on it and it’s done.  Once the work on the gate is contracted, then between the King and the Friends they can pressure the rest of the Board members to go along because of the obligations of the signed contracts to do the work.
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Thus you will get an electric gate regardless of what you want.
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This has a second advantage for the King.
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This will take your mind off the Proxy issue that will affect the next election in May.
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Simple math here if you understand the variables.

More hot stuff from the Board

At this last Board Meeting The Friend’s Power grew through the appointment of founding Friend John Blanton to the Board by the Board; he now represents you.  Did anyone ask you?  Was that your intent?

The question of the Proxies used in the recent Bylaws meeting and election brought up asking was there a record kept of who collected what proxies and voted them?

The King turned red and began a verbal attack on the questioner about a matter that had nothing to do with Proxies or Voting.

Suppressed rage shocking all present – and the President did an immediate end-of-meeting action.  The King blew a gasket and all his people needed to rally around him. Very volatile people we have running this show.

The trick Dick used to dodge the Proxies question is called a Tu Ou Coque Retort. It is frequently used by Communist regimes and was a favored tool of Marx. Immature humans use it a lot to in an effort to get the spotlight off them.

It involves:

1 – Distraction – Deflect the subject away from the question by accusing them of something else, change the subject and point a finger of guilt.

2 – Domination – Aggressive attack, be loud, bully, and take control.

3 – Distortion – Make it so emotional that no one really knows what is going on anymore; it just becomes yelling with no rational thoughts.  The loudest now has control of the day.

Blew the meeting apart, no chance of getting a rational answer to the question.  A great dodge Your Highness, very successful although expensive in terms of political capital – you had to reveal the inner you for a few seconds and it was as usual, ugly.  So much for Arab Anger Management courses, eh?

I see three things that will probably happen –

1 – The Board will get more recalcitrant.  Time for them to circle the wagons while going on the attack.

2 – Look for an outright assault on the Architectural Committee (AC).  The New Friend Board Member along with Thompson, Dobson et al. will go after the AC as the tool for enforcing their wills on the community per the By Laws that didn’t change and the Deed Restrictions that might change.

3 – Look for a major spring cleaning in the Park and redefinition of the areas of use along a more Friend’s vision.  The Board needs a rally point to regain control and prestige – from Roman times Public Works hve been used to distract and unite things, so why should not the Board do the same.

Final note – I had wanted to stop this blog because I feel that it has been successful in some of its original intent of behavior modification.

But these clowns just keep handing me the best possible material to write about, and no, they have not changed. The rage, fury, and hubris have not abated, just changed tone to be less obvious, and the slow creep of complicity is bonding them like glue.

A final thought from Edward Abbey -“A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.”

Is there such a thing as ‘Neighborhood Patriotism’?

 

Are we being set up again?

An amazing number of property owners are now complaining that they never received a mailed notice or proxy form for for the upcoming By-laws meeting.

Hearing this and knowing some of folks who got nothing in the mail, some investigation was in order.
What a surprise!
We find that the Secretary did the email notification and did it right, everyone got one they way it should be.
The mailed version with proxy was in the hands of the President Greg and his team (the Friends).  An irregular and unaudited process at best.  We are pretty sure that everyone who gives proxies to the King and Friends got their copy, maybe two.
We are seeing that many of you who are not loyal followers of the the King and the Friends didn’t get one.
How is that everything involving voting for the last few elections has involved irregularities and become dodgy as if there is a hand of power in the dark background?
There only thing in common of course.  That is the emergence of the King, his stooges including the President, and ‘The Friends’.
“Deja Vous all over again” (thanks Yogi Berra)
You can connect the dots if your democracy matters to you.  Stick with the party line if not.

Suspended Democracy – The King is back

As noted in our September entry to this blog, our President Greg di Donato had a terrible time in front of the ‘guests’, that is you and I attending (we are a guest in his house of power and not recognized as the source of his power).  His ‘force of will’ did not prevail, even King Dick threw him under the bus (on the phone), he was yelled down by everyone there. He was wrong and the will of the people swept through.

What is most remarkable is the record of all this was destroyed and no one was told (more of the the Friends-type transparency).  Our technology-hip President set up the recording and checked it before the meeting, later he told the Secretary that the recording was blank. She had nothing to do with this ‘Nixon Moment’ but it saved Greg.  Should I wonder what happened?  Where is Duane when a real scam is pulled off in front of him? Oh I forgot, he says that Greg is a man of great character.
Second item is that I see his Majesty, King Dick, is back in town.  Have I seen him?  No.  Have I heard him, oh yes.  I received a classic Thompson self-promoting email telling us how great he is, how he single handedly can save us each $17.45 a month on our garbage bill.  Our champion!
Gosh, no mention about how Dick’s Dream Team and associates are disintegrating, how he is losing control of his minions, how his actions directly have created a leaderless governing body for us.  How this has generally exacerbated the mess we have which he created before you put him in office.  How he has used the process to gain power and position.  These are all classic moves from a little book written about 500 years ago by Niccolo Machiavelli called “The Prince”.  You should read Dick’s playbook so you know what is coming next.
All we hear is how great he is, how we need him (this reminds me of the movie ‘V for Vendetta’, same leadership style).  If you missed it don’t worry, you will get a lot more of it from him as he tries to save face – again.
Meanwhile democracy is suspended here in Travis Landing, no more meetings means no public pressure on our boys. Have you learned anything about politics and voting in this community?  Perhaps you will wake up, it is happening to our whole country now.  Is there a real difference between ‘the Donald’ and ‘the Dick’ or is this the national Dunning-Kruger effect in action?

Anyone see a Leader around? We need one for the Board.

“He who can not be a good follower can not be a good leader”    Aristotle

At the Tuesday TLPOA Board Meeting I watched a revolution occur in the first 15 minutes. I watched a man who so desperately wants to be the leader, fight a loosing battle with everyone else about who is in control, not leading, but controlling. He had the King on the phone and they did their best to control their people.  Problem is that most of the Friend’s or Rick’s Dream Team activists is now gone.  So. . . .

They failed. The people won.

As you know, a petition for a Special Meeting was presented to the board months ago.

The President and the King have tried to squash it from the beginning and engaged every delaying tactic they could. They starting with questioning the people who signed it. Then they canceled board meetings to not have to face it and hoping it would fade. Finally, we got to the first 15 minutes of this Board Meeting.

A beguiling soliloquy by the Present with those warm puppy-dog eyes and fresh looking innocent face, he us tells to look at how he saves us all from the issue and we can drop the matter, his only leadership is the way forward.

But the heart of the matter is not about the by-laws and issues of the Petition. It is about the Petition itself. It is in fact someone else’s will, not the President’s or the King’s – but the will of the honest and ethical home owners who pay for this all and were deceived into putting these guys in power.

The President has made it clear that only he has the final word. That confrontation first hit us last year when the Five Board Members walked after the his verbal actions and declaration of Presidential Sovereignty vested in him by the by-laws. Want to see the resignations, they read like it just like happened yesterday and not a year ago, nothing has changed, send me a request to TLPOA.INFO@gmail.com for a PDF.

Now it happens again. Listen to the minutes, listen to the Guests and Board Members yell at him to do the will of the people. Listen while every manipulation of his is rejected, listen to how the King throws him under the bus to get politically free of the obvious revolution at hand. Listen to even his strongest advocate Duane yell at to him let the people have their way.

What have we got here you ask?

For one thing we the wrong person to be leader.

We were fooled, an successful organized political effort by the Friends and now a, year later, we have this, a Board run by two men only interested in person needs and stature, men who will tell you anything to get to fulfill their needs. What the Community wants means little, what they want means all.

And this is not the end – it is only a skirmish in their efforts to run the show. They are the reason this website exists, because they will never tell you what is happening. I hear the Queen yelling, ‘Transparency’, but their’s is more than a bit smokey, or is it those darned mirrors?, Hard to tell while tripping over all the red herrings.

Board On The Run

Sung to the Paul McCartney tune “Band on the Run” that is what we have, a Board on the Run. I waited to talk about this until it had matured a bit.

Running from what you ask?

The Febuary Board meeting 25 of your neighbors signed and delivered a petition to the Board for a special meeting to discuss a problem. This is all in exact compliance with the By-Laws and the State Property Codes. It was essentially ignored.

The Lord of the Board and his minion the President decided that they didn’t believe the signatures because they know that everyone loves our Board and no one would complain. They had the Secretary of the Board call each person and confirm their signing. That delaying tactic came to an end when everyone stood by their signatures.

The next tactic was to cancel Board Meetings so the Board didn’t have to hear the petition/complaint and take action. I look at this as spray-painting the transparency that the King claimed the last Board lacked.

How many of you knew such a petition to the Board had been posted? I can still hear The Queen yelling ‘transparency’ for the election a year ago. I doubt that the whole Board even knows this is going on.

Now they have turned on Duane the Inquisitor,oh-oh,change in title – The King wanted a change in tactics, now it is to be the “Beguiler” just like the King and and the Prime Minister (look it Up) rather than the Star Chamber. This is to work on the TLPOA Forums to create FUD (that is Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt) to dilute and obfuscate the issue and make it go away.

These are the are all Standard Operating Procedures for King Rick and his Prime Minister Greg, but most of you know the tricks by now and are willing to wait them out.

So when you hear that there is no business to conduct and Board meetings are not needed, know that you have again been intentionally misinformed. Let’s get the right word in here, LIED to by persons of very questionable character; the Friends you gave control of your community to.

Do you feel any responsibility?