||| FROM MICHAEL RIORDAN |||
The March 2024 EWUA Board meeting proved to be even more contentious than the disorderly December 2023 one. Right at the outset, Secretary/Treasurer Carol Anderson read a petition she had prepared with fellow Board members Ron Claus and Jim Cook to recall three other members — President Teri Nigretto, Vice President Jim Nelson and Leith Templin. The principal reasons the petition cited for their removal were that these three had “conspired [with Board legal counsel Joel Paisner] to restrain necessary information from the EWUA membership, for approving unreasonable expenditures of funds and for attempting to impose bylaws on the members without proper member review or approval.”
As one can imagine, the reactions were abrupt, frustrated and downright rancorous. But there has in fact been significant, accumulating evidence for two of these charges.
As recounted in a detailed article just published in Orcas Currents, “The Culture of Secrecy at Eastsound Water,” several special Board meetings and “working sessions” have occurred since December from which EWUA members were absent but at which important decisions were made affecting the association’s governance and policy — for example, the elevation of Jim Cook and Templin to the Board. What’s more, no minutes (or even a video) of any Board meetings have been published on the EWUA website since November. To quote directly from the petition, “There was a concerted attempt to keep Jim Cook off the Board until Leith Templin could be appointed.”
Another area discussed in the Orcas Currents article was concerned with general manager’s compensation, which now exceeds that of all but one other non-profit manager on Orcas Island, despite only middling annual revenues of about $2 million. “Dan Burke’s salary has risen from approximately $100,000 to $170,000, including bonuses in less than four or five years,” reads the petition. “The salary awarded is not considered fair and reasonable for the General Manager of a water association on Orcas Island.”
Jim Nelson, who has been chairing the Bylaws Committee since last summer, challenged the assertion that they were not following the proper procedures in obtaining member input and approval on the amended bylaws, which require ten days’ notice to the full membership before they can be approved by the Board. After that, the Board voted unanimously on Tuesday evening to publish the current Board-approved draft on the EWUA website so that members can review the proposed amendments.
And despite all the rancor in the room, the Board was still able to make progress on financial matters. Anderson said she had reviewed the 2023 year-end financial statement (as prepared by Burke and a certified public accountant) and could approve it, but that she had to rely on the figures available “from his computer screen” and could not dig deeper for backup information. The Board then voted unanimously to forward the statement to the EWUA tax accountant. Some opposition was expressed to the idea of posting the financial statement on the EWUA website, but a motion to do so passed with majority support.
A scheduled discussion of the 2024-2025 budget was limited. Burke questioned the need to do so, but Anderson said that so many things had changed that it was necessary to take another look at the 2024 numbers before proceeding. That discussion was postponed until the regular April meeting.
With that, the Board took a break at about 6:30 pm and returned ten minutes later to go into executive session.
This meeting did indeed take some surprising twists and turns, which I hope might be resolved in the near future. As Michael and Carol have pointed out, there were possible issues with the way in which two of the new Board members were appointed; at least one of them should have been included in the slate us members voted on, and frankly the two Board members who resigned just before the annual meeting should have ceded their roles to a general election as well.
I don’t fault any incoming Board members – facing complex circumstances – the time it takes to get up to speed with all the details involved in an organization with a lot of moving parts. However, it is critical to have a Board that has proper oversight of the activities of the General Manager, including the ability to fully audit how he is spending the funds that belong to all of us Members. Summary financial statements may be what their CPA wishes to see, but otherwise unacceptable or profligate spending can easily be hidden in some otherwise bland category. As an example that doesn’t apply: could that Porsche be just another capital expense?
This is an important time for all Eastsound Water Members to be paying closer attention. In particular, to the coming suggested Bylaws. If we don’t exercise our collective power to affect outcomes when we can, well then get ready for your water bill to increase again in the not so distant future.