March Board Meeting Report from SaveMarinaHills

Majority of time is spent discussing SaveMarinaHills newsletter

Linda Baker, after having been appointed at the January Board meeting, and having been absent at the February Board meeting, introduced herself retroactively to the community. Such an introduction should have been made in January, and then the homeowners should have had the opportunity to elect Mrs. Linda Baker ? instead Linda Baker was appointed by her friends on the Board. The proposed Term-Limit petition will eliminate such appointments to the board and will instead allow homeowners to elect candidates for vacant director positions.

Linda Baker stated that she was well qualified to serve on the Marina Hills Board because of her long-time experience on the Siena Board. SaveMarinaHills research indicates that Linda Baker has been on the Siena Board almost the entire time since at least 1996. This explains why Mrs. Baker is absolutely against term limits. The proposed Term Limit Amendment is for the Marina Hills Board only; even after the term limit amendment has passed for the Marina Hills Board, Mrs. Baker can stay on another 15 years on the Siena Board.

Linda Baker furthermore stated that she was a 'very outspoken and persistent leader during the 1997 [Szwajkos] Parsekian' crisis in Marina Hills. SaveMarinaHills researched the issue and found that this is simply not true. The official Marina Hills newsletter, in their May 1997 issue lists all the critics of the then current board by name. This includes the nine Delegates who initiated the recall vote and the two minority board members, most of whom got sued by the Szwajkos board. Linda Baker isn?t mentioned anywhere.

On February 10, 1997, Keystone Pacific, overstepping ethical boundaries, sent out a letter to all homeowners supporting the litigation of the Szwajkos Board. Later that spring Keystone Pacific called many Marina Hills homeowners and solicited proxies to hastily amend the CC&Rs, so the sitting Directors could defeat the recall vote of the Marina Hills homeowners. The Siena Board, with Linda Baler as one of the Directors, fired Keystone Pacific as the management company for the Siena sub-associaion shortly thereafter. Did ethical and fiduciary concerns about Keystone Pacific?s behavior trigger this decision and did Linda Baker support it?

Finally, Linda Baker pledged her support for adopting a non-gratuity agreement for the directors. She cited as requirement for such a policy the offer from Mr. Strupat for a loaner computer during her time on the Marina Hills Board. Such a non-gratuity agreement had been mentioned in the last issue of this newsletter. What we were referring to was the potential kickback of Marina Hills vendors to Board Members, such as the documented commingling of services at the Cal and Cheryl Wilson residence, not the help of one fellow homeowner to another. It is the opinion of SaveMarinaHills, that Mrs. Baker, who doesn?t have and doesn?t want to have a fax machine or computer, cannot effectively serve as an officer on the Marina Hills board. What is next? Is Mrs. Baker going to give up her car and hot running water? Time will tell how serious Mrs. Baker is with implementing a real non-gratuity policy for Board Members.

Mrs. Jane Dry announced the appointment of two new architectural committee members.

Employee of the Board and Activities Director Mrs. Cheryl Wilson reported on vandalism at the club house fountain.

Treasurer Vito Ferrante gave a verbal budget report. Treasurer Ferrante stated that Marina Hills as a whole was below budget, but the legal expenses were above budget since November 2003 and totalled $8,991. He stated that the SaveMarinaHills newsletter was the reason for the added legal expenses. Ferrante then elaborated on a number of Marina Hills vendors, whose yearly budget numbers had been mentioned in the SaveMarinaHills newsletter. He defended Villa Park: 17 Villa Park men are constantly working on our grounds. We are getting our money's worth from Villa Park. SaveMarinaHills did not criticize Villa Park nor the cost of their services, so why did Treasurer Ferrante defend them? Can Treasurer Ferrante provide the results of the last competitive bidding for this job at Marina Hills? And if this job hasn't been sent out for bidding recently, how does Ferrante know that we would not get an even better value for our money from another vendor?

Next, Mr. Tom Szwajkos, 11-year board member, who was effectively recalled by more than 70% of the homeowners in 1997, defended himself. He stated that in his professional job he is a buyer for Thomas & Betts and is presently purchasing in excess of $30 million per year. He stated that he considered the innuendos in the SaveMarinaHills newsletter a personal attack on his integrity. Then Mr. Szwajkos left the meeting. If Mr. Szwajkos in his professional job would not have a telephone on his desk, and his vendors/customers would not be able to call him and enter into a constructive dialogue about the problems at hand, or if Mr. Szwajkos and his President would not answer direct questions from the shareholders of Thomas & Betts, Mr. Szwajkos? career would be over in a heartbeat. Why does Mr. Szwajkos compare his integrity at Thomas & Betts with the integrity of his director position at Marina Hills, and then apply two different standards to those two positions. Why does Mr. Szwajkos not transfer the same responsiveness and openness of his professional job to the dealings within the Marina Hills community?

Why has Mr. Szwajkos allowed, as the most senior member of the board, that his integrity be questioned by not following the CC&Rs as required in response to the two November petitions, and why is he, the veteran member of the employer group of the Employee of the Board, Cheryl Wilson, inviting innuendo, by not causing the Wilsons to provide proof to the homeowners that they did not misappropriate homeowner funds? It is the opinion of SaveMarinaHills that Mr. Szwajkos' failure to act in these matters has put him beyond redemption for any position within Marina Hills.

The homeowner forum was quite an active part of the Board meeting. The Board and their Employee successfully managed to assemble an impressive lineup of supporters for the board. These Board supporters stated that the SaveMarinaHills newsletter is 'malicious, and has no betterment in mind.' Most expressed their support for the security guard Miguel: 'My kids love Miguel like a father.' There were also critics of the board. A Bel Fiore homeowner stated in response to the March 3, 2004, letter that the board really doesn't have a choice but to call the term-limit vote if they wanted to obey the legal framework of the CC&Rs. During the homeowner forum Mrs. Marcia Bloom from the Siena sub-association challenged Hans Strupat: "If you want to talk business, lets do it." Mr. Strupat openly acknowledged that he was glad to do so. After the meeting Mr. Strupat approached Mrs. Marcia Bloom to arrange a venue for the offered cooperation. But there Marcia Bloom bluntly said: "Hans, you are a moron!" It appears that Mrs. Marcia Bloom and SaveMarinaHills have a different understanding of 'talking business.'

Finally Secretary Linda Baker attempted to justify the non-action described in the March 3, 2004, letter to the attending homeowners. Mrs. Baker defended the board's failure to act by stating that the term limit petition was greatly flawed. She elaborated that this petition was not just about term limits, but also about 'election of vacancies' and about the time schedule of such an amendment to become effective, after the homeowners would have approved it in a vote. Mrs. Baker is correct in stating that the proposed Term-Limit Amendment (which has been posted in its entirety on the SaveMarinaHills web site since early January) includes provisions on not appointing, but electing board member vacancies. Mrs. Baker then stated that this change would be retroactive. There Mrs. Baker is incorrect. The proposed amendment in section 4.1.a. uses the term 'immediately' and implements prospective (from this point forward) changes only. The term retroactive and such effect is not even in the amendment. It is the opinion of SaveMarinaHills that Mrs. Linda Baker is misleading the homeowners by making this statement. Lets repeat: If the term limit petition would have been in effect in January, Linda Baker, wouldn?t be on our board, because she was not elected by the homeowners.

Vice President Chuck Johnston incorrectly stated: 'Marina Hills already has term limits, they are called elections.' A Terracina homeowner from the audience corrected his mistake and pointed out that elections and term limits are two different things, and that term limits are well-established with our federal government, as well as our state government. Such rules absolutely limit candidates from even running in an election, as a measure of protection to the voters, not just possibly loosing an election.