||| FROM STEVE SMITH |||
Member money has been lost. The General Manager took more compensation than authorized. The Board has chosen to excuse the GM’s actions, hide those actions from the forensic investigator and the members of the Association, and has given in to the GM’s demands to silence those who tried to protect the members.
This has impacted members. Member rates were raised 22% in 24 months (11% for 2022 and another 10% for 2023).
The Board has also failed to implement the anti-bullying policies it agreed to as a part of a settlement agreement with a former employee.
We ask you to review the evidence of malfeasance, sign the recall petition to remove existing Board members, and sign the proxy form to assure a quorum at a meeting of the members to vote on the recall.
This is the only way to protect our Association.
Continue reading at RecallWater.com
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I urge everyone reading Steve Smiths post to consider the source very carefully. Steve is not a credible source to rely on in this situation. He has used my email address, and presumably everyone else’s who is a member, without my permission and I am curious how he got a hold of apparently every ESWU members private email? Did he also get other information on me when he was Board Chair? He is not currently even a member of the Eastsound Water Users. He may be trying to regroup on damaged reputation after being fired by the Board earlier in the Spring.
Martha Farish, Good thing his letter is not the only proof at this site, but the hired auditor and a letter from one of the workers, and for those of us who have had issues with the EWUA, now questioning many things. This is a very detailed presentation of facts and information on the situation. We are talking about money and the treatment of the females.
Steve Smith served as ESWU Board President in 2021 and 2022, and as Vice President in 2020. It seems to me he should step up and take responsibility for any problems with how budgeting and accounting was handled those years rather than blaming all on manager Dan Burke. The Acuity Forensics study commissioned by current President Clyde Duke and his board provides useful and important information but is dated one month ago, so why not give the current board time to properly respond, rather than setting up a website accusing Burke of malfeasance, and including a letter from someone who had been treasurer for two whole months calling for the resignation of long time board members Clyde Duke, Joe Cohen and Jim Nelson, all of whom are well known in our community for their high ethical standards.
I’ve served on three boards on Orcas, including as treasurer on all three and chair of the budget committee on two of them, and would point out that the Bylaws determine how the Board should act. If there is a general manager who simply ignores the decisions by the Board, he/she should be disciplined or removed. I find it hard to understand how a Manager could gain total control over finances, determine his own salary, decide how to spend income without control by the Board, so if indeed that’s the case here–and we’ve only heard your side of the story–that’s a problem. Otherwise, you are airing your dirty laundry, and if Steve isn’t even a member of EWUA then he doesn’t have any legal standing, which is perhaps why he’s chosen to write to us members with his severe complaints. He and Hall are no longer on the Board, and as I mentioned they should have done something about this when they were, rather than sniping from the sidelines once they left the Board.
Oh my, what more does this community have to endure from a disgrutled person. First, Steve is doesnot even hold a membership in ESWUA so there for, he is unable to vote on anything. If you are a member of the ESWUA district and have concern, demading a resignation or recall of the board is not the way to address your concerns . You do not go after the respectable citizens that sit on this board that have given years of service to this community. You call or write letters to the board and ask for clarification and maybe request a membership meeting to hear their side of the story. You do not publiclity accuse them. I am so tired of this unprofessional behavior for a few community members to harm one of our intitutions and bash the good citizens that work hard for us. Steve help to rewrite the bylaws for ESWUA which made it possible for him to sit on the board and when it became impossible to work with him on the board he was removed. The board has been working for months to clarify and get all the facts and take action. Give them a chance to hear what they have to say and stop this rediculous recall or whatever he is calling it.
Leith Templin
I have been a member of ESWUA for 49 years
Let me get this right? Steve and Tenar stole EWUA members private emails and then admitted it to the public with not just a letter but a website defaming individual board members and an employee. This is not whistleblowers procedures, this is strait up bitterness and resentment in plain sight. Terrible tactic! I hope they got a good lawyer!