||| FROM JIM COOK, EWUA COMMISSIONER |||
Soon it will be time to consider all that you’ve read and heard and VOTE on the EWUA recall. I wish us all luck given the degree to which discussion has become almost entirely fact free; We’ve devolved into personal attacks, innuendo, court interventions and conspiracy theories.
Your recall vote will determine who is NOT going to be on the board responsible for sorting out all the unresolved governance issues. A future vote for new board members, the date of which is still to be determined, will decide who WILL be on the board to sort things out.
In my view, the recall effort is the result of a fundamental disagreement regarding proper board governance. The minority, the whistleblowers (to some the loud mouth jerks), believe the board has mistakenly abdicated many of its responsibilities, leaving
significant policy and financial oversight to their one employee. Having so much authority bestowed upon an employee, someone the members didn’t vote for, disenfranchises the members. They don’t have a representative, a commissioner, to be their advocate. The board winds up serving the needs and inclinations of their employee.
The minority doesn’t think this is the right thing to do and believes this arrangement is the proximate cause of our current dysfunction. The majority believes they have it right and uses their majority power to maintain the status quo. The minority has little recourse but to recall…or shut up. But we can’t sit silent. We are compelled to try and make this right.
An unfortunate consequence of this disagreement has been a complete breakdown of trust between the majority and minority. The incoming team, whoever they are, will need to proactively rebuild trust. I propose their first order of business should be to determine
and agree on their purpose and the scope of their responsibilities. That should be done in a wide-open public meeting(s).
So EWUA members…you decide. It’s your right. It’s your water system. It’s your responsibility.
Mr Cook’s letter spells it out pretty plainly for the members. You can either accept that following policy is not really all that important or you can insist that policy is critical for the accountability of the organization.
Soon the members will face not only a recall election, for every sitting board member, but also a regular election for board positions as well. That’s a mess. The worrisome thing is now, how will an organization which has no stability outside its working rank-and-file be able to navigate all of this election confusion. The members would be wise to push for a fully independent, outside organization to make sure that there is no way either side can question results.
Ultimately, I hope that some of the names that keep showing up in our local government and board operations fade away and allow new, forward thinking voices to step up.