||| FROM MICHAEL RIORDAN |||
Given the circumstances and prior encounters, Friday evening’s EWUA special board meeting to draft a recall mailing and proxy form was a remarkably civil affair, with most of the board members present plus an audience of some 30 member-owners. And despite several differences, the documents drafted seemed acceptable to both recalling parties — the “dominant board faction” of Teri Nigretto, Jim Nelson, Michael Cleveland and Leith Templin, and the opposing minority faction, consisting of Carol Ann Anderson, Ron Claus and Jim Cook.
During the public comment period, former board member Fred Klein objected to “use of the EWUA email communication system by only one of the two groups subject to recall” as board President Nigretto has been doing. “I consider it blatantly unfair,” he said, “if one faction of the board denies its use to the other faction.” That constitutes misuse of EWUA resources to favor one faction over the other. And Klein argued “strenuously” for confidential balloting during the recall voting process.
Another likely misappropriation of EWUA resources was the fact that the dominant faction was represented (via Zoom) by attorney Rochelle Doyea of the Seattle law firm Cairncross and Hempelmann, ostensibly compensated by member funds. In contrast, the minority board members were personally paying for the advice of Orcas Island attorney Shawn Alexander, who was present in person.
The two groups nonetheless agreed on the appointment of retired Judge Stuart Andrew of Orcas Island to serve as an independent Election Inspector — who will receive and open all proxies, and preside over the recall vote on Saturday evening, September 28. And if desired by any individual members, their votes will be kept secret, known only to Judge Andrew and the two designated proxy holders. Former EWUA board president Brian Ehrmantraut will serve as the proxy holder for those voting for removal of dominant members, while Mike Stolmeier will do so for those voting to remove minority members.
There was much discussion of — and confusion about — the proxy form, taking up most of the rest of the meeting. What happens, for example, if a member wants to vote for the removal of all seven directors? Which I have heard some expressing a desire to do. And it was generally agreed that EWUA members could bring a signed proxy form to the meeting if they missed the formal September 14 deadline for mailing it. Those wishing to be present and participate in the meeting, it was agreed, must bring a photo ID with them.
Still to be resolved were the actual wording of a cover letter to be mailed with the proxy forms, containing detailed instructions on how to use and where to return them. Such a mass mailing is now scheduled to occur on Monday, August 26, but that deadline seemed optimistic (to this observer), considering all the work still needing to be completed and agreements reached on the contents.
I’m glad Fred mentioned the skewed use of EWUA communication systems. In particular I found the “Letter From Your President #4” “From the Desk of Terri Nigretto” to be highly frustrating with its cherry picked facts regarding Dan Burke’s overpayment to himself. It is distressing when people who I believe to be generally reasonable make poor conclusions because they have not been able to process all the facts available. This distress compels me to fill in vital gaps like the following:
Claim:
“Burke’s payroll record carried an accrued-but-unclaimed paid time off (PTO) liability. ” -Terri Nigretto
Response:
” I found that during the entirety of his employment, Mr. Burke never allocated any of his time to paid time off. This included sick time, holiday time, and other personal time taken. It is my professional opinion that at least a portion of Mr. Burke’s payout of PTO was effectively an overpayment of payroll (because there were more hours to “cash out” than should have been available had he properly deducted his personal time during the previous two years of employment).” – Acuity Forensics
Note – Former employees who resigned under Burke all claimed his chronic absence was very problematic. I also have documented evidence that shows Dan did in fact take days off in 2022.
Claim:
“All three of them reviewed the Employee Handbook and concluded that Burke was entitled. ” -Terri Nigretto
Response:
“EDO (Earned Days Off) not used in a particular year may be banked for later use up to a maximum of 30 days. No additional EDO can be accumulated in excess of 30 days, and no other compensation alternative is available. Employees leaving Eastsound Water in good standing and providing the recommended advance written notice will be paid for accumulated time off at their most recent compensation rate.” – Employee Handbook
Note – I would like to emphasize that the employee handbook explicitly states no other compensation alternative is available for PTO unless Dan left Eastsound Water in good standing. Given the fact he remained employed at EWUA, Dan was not entitled to a cash compensation for his improperly accrued PTO liability.
Claim:
“The Board reviewed Dan Burke’s action in exhaustive detail, including open and executive sessions. Burke acknowledged that he should have sought Board approval and apologized for the oversight.” -Terri Nigretto
Response:
Note – If this happened, it was after Burke hired legal counsel to threaten me and EWUA with lawsuits after I discovered the checks he had written to himself.
Claim:
“The Board legally settled the matter in an agreement with Burke that is still binding.” – Terri Nigretto
Response:
Note- This was done by the same Board (which included Jim Nelson and Micheal Cleveland) that supported Dan’s legal threats by contributing board-only emails and executive session conversations to his counsel’s argument. I have been told that the Membership paid Burke’s legal fees as part of this agreement. This means as an EWUA member, I get to pay for part of the lawyer used to intimidate me off the board. So that’s not awesome.
Thank you for that detailed response, telling us what really happened.
What I don’t understand is this. If this meeting of the minds between General Manager Dan Burke and a contract employee and contractor (both dependent on Mr. Burke for their employment) occurred when they said it did, if there was so much confusion about what the Employee Handbook says, then why didn’t Mr. Burke come to those whose responsibility was to oversee him and his actions, his employers — the full EWUA Board – and ask for their help in interpreting the Employee Handbook that seems so straight-forward to others? Why didn’t he come to then Secretary/Treasurer Joe Cohen and simply ask him for clarification about what he could take and what he could not? If it had been okay, then Mr. Cohen could have signed the checks. Maybe since there was a state of confusion, Mr. Burke could have also asked for clarification of what could and couldn’t be charged to the company credit card.
By the way, Mr. Burke omits this when he quotes the Employee Handbook:
“Overtime is not paid to salaried employees. Salaried employees may be compensated for working more than 40 hrs in a given week with additions to their Equivalent Days Off (EDO) pool. Compensation will be awarded as time off, with no additional moneys being paid to the employee. Employee Handbook Page 3.3”
I was thanking Tenar Hall for her detailed response regarding what really happened.
Having served as Treasurer for four non-profit organizations, two of them on Orcas Island, and on the Finance Committees of another two, I am baffled by what I see happening here. Several pressing questions occur to me:
– How is it even POSSIBLE the the former Secretary/Treasurer Joe Cohen didn’t realize that two extra checks for $6,071 and $4,262 had been written and signed by General Manager Dan Burke in October and December 2022?
– And how did these payments come to light only in early 2023 when Tenar Hall reviewed the previous year’s financial records as she stepped into that office?
– Didn’t Joe notice an unbudgeted $10,000+ leaving the EWUA bank account in late 2022?
– And didn’t he compare monthly expenditures with budgeted amounts?
– Or was he not getting accurate monthly figures from the general manager (or bookkeeper)?
These are serious questions that demand serious, credible answers.
And no matter what the answers, this whole sorry episode clearly illustrates the exceedingly troublesome lack of oversight being exercised by the EWUA Board then (and ever since). Why were two EWUA contractors analyzing the employee handbook and approving PTO payouts? Duh, I thought that’s the role of the EWUA Directors — the majority of whom still are trying to justify this unacceptable behavior.
That’s why the Concerned Eastsound Water Users are now calling for the recall of Teri Nigretto, Jim Nelson, Michael Cleveland and Leith Templin. We need to wipe the EWUA slate clean and begin over again. We hope the majority of EWUA Members will join us.
Good grief, I hope the majority of EWUA doesn’t join recall water. Your group reminds me of the current happenings in our world; if you repeat things over and over enough, they become “truth”.
Recall Water has cost the EWUA members more than enough in legal fees. If you sincerely cared about preserving our water system, then stop with the lawsuits. Stop with attacking our majority Board. Stop with attacking our Manager.
Even though there are several claims that, no we can’t/won’t/do not intend to take our water system to be privately owned or majority owned, one really wonders what is your purpose? To me, it appears that you don’t like the answers from the majority Board or the Manager, don’t like the Judges answers, so you seem determined to continue until you bankrupt and/or tear down our water system. Why? What purpose does that serve?
Please Stop!
Again, I will vote to have the three board members who have turned against our water system to be recalled: Anderson, Cook and Claus.
Why, because they have been supporting recall water and NOT our EWUA.
Unfortunately, some people are impervious to factual, documentary evidence. I hope they are in the minority.
I find the use of the EWUA membership email communication system to support only one of the two dueling recall efforts before the membership to be most distressing and fundamentally unfair…especially when the President of the Association directs the General Manager…likely at the members’ expense…to write his version of alternative facts about the fundamental reason for this recall effort…and have them distributed to members via the EWUA mailing list under HER name.
Of course, publishing the GM’s views under the President’s name via the EWUA mailing list avoids those pesky comments which tell another side of the story…a story which in my opinion is often more accurate.
Sadly, another baseless claim!
This is how you “solve” problems? Lawsuits, misleading statements and slander? How disappointing.
I read all recall water’s issues, read the white paper, and was very concerned… then I reached out to hear the other side, which is why I am in support of EWUA, the majority Board, Dan Burke our GM and his entire staff.
It’s very clear to me that the recall water group’s actions and words are intent on destroying our independent, community NON PROFIT water system.
Vicki, perhaps you would be willing to share the explanation(s) you received that caused you to change your opinions about the concerns raised by RW.
You suggest the motivation of RW is the “ [destruction of] our independent, community NON PROFIT water system”. Could you elaborate on this motivation as you understand it?
Keith, I would encourage and suggest you reach out to EWUA. If you are a member of EUWA, then you likely have received emails from Teri, the President of the Board. Also, Dan Burke and Leith Templin have both welcomed members to meet with them.
Recall has cost our Non Profit water system lots of money in legal fees filing frivolous lawsuits… two of which they lost.
I can’t imagine how difficult it is to work there right now or serving on the Board majority with these constant attacks.
Vicki