August 3, 2006 Issue                                       

©2006 The Chestnut Hill Local

Robert’s Rules of Disorder
Tensions boil over often as CHCA board majority takes flak for reform measures
by PETE MAZZACCARO

The monthly meeting of the Chestnut Hill Community Association’s board of director’s was nearly called off last Thursday after its members and a few visitors waited for more than 20 minutes outside of the St. Paul’s Episcopal Church on Chestnut Hill Avenue as a thunder storm rolled in and threatened to send everyone home early. The group normally convenes in the Chestnut Hill Library, but the library was locked.

Many who attended that meeting would later remark that it might have been better if the whole thing had been called rather than endure another two-and-a-half-hour session marred by partisan quarrels and seemingly pointless ponderings over Robert’s Rules of Order, which theoretically serve as a guideline for CHCA board business but over which few on the board seem to have expertise. Much of that tension appears to be rooted in the partisan divide that determined the April board elections, which were more contentious than any other elections in recent memory.

The Lawrence Walsh Debacle

The first order of business before the board sparked those partisan tensions right away.

President Ron Recko presented what he called a solution to what he argues was the illegal dismissal of board member Lawrence Walsh at the Jan. 26 meeting. Walsh was removed from the board by a majority vote of board members under extraordinary circumstances. Those circumstances included the presence of police officers and a hastily assembled executive session of the board members not open to the general public. Walsh was allegedly dismissed for remarks deemed inappropriate by those who voted for his ouster.

Recko argued that Walsh’s dismissal could not stand a basic test against CHCA bylaws or Robert’s Rules of Order. The meeting place, Recko noted, had been moved at the last minute (the meeting, normally held at Hiram Lodge, was moved with short notice to Chestnut Hill Hospital), which is against CHCA procedures, and Walsh was entitled to due process of a prepared defense and to have that defense presented in public.

Because none of those steps required by CHCA bylaws took place, Recko said Walsh’s ouster was void, but that he would like the board to support his realpolitik solution: he would secure Walsh’s resignation and admit to the board Christina Sullivan who received the most votes of anyone who did not have enough to make the board in the April Election. The move would also elevate Jim Foster to a two-year term.

Recko’s suggestion sparked immediate argument from a large group of board members, some of whom were involved with the vote to dismiss Walsh. Some argued that Recko did not have the authority to determine the legitimacy of the vote to dismiss Walsh. Others tried to make the case that the vote was legitimate, including one suggestion that a missed vote to call for an executive session, a move required by CHCA bylaws, was actually made when a majority stood and moved to another room at the hospital. “We voted with our feet,” said someone sitting in a group of board members firmly opposed to Recko’s suggestion.

After quite a bit of argument and discussion, board member Joseph Pizzano asked how those opposed to Recko’s plan could justify their opposition when it provided a solution that should satisfy all parties involved. “The end result is what everyone wanted,” he said. “[Walsh] is no longer on the board so now lets move on and get to the business of the board.”

A roll call vote was proposed, passed and taken. The vote resulted in 12 affirmative votes, 14 negative and two abstentions, with 19 absences.

Yes voters: Jane Becker, Dick Becker, K. Tia Burke, Carol Cope, Wm. Stewart Graham, Jeremy Heep, Thomas Hemphill, Dina Hitchcock, Bright Judson, Janice Manzi, Ned Mitinger, Stanley Moat.

No voters: Elaine Aiello, Lou Aiello, Edward Budnick, Joanne Dhody, Janine Dwyer, Ed Feldman, James Foster, James Gleason, Nancy Hutter, Howard Lesnick, Joseph Pizzano, Susan Pizzano, Meredith Sonderskov, Ann Ward Spaeth.

Abstentions: Marie Lachat and Sarah Maneely.

The Oversight Committee

The formation of an oversight committee charged with investigating past conflicts of interest within the CHCA and its affiliate organizations, the Chestnut Hill Community Fund and the Chestnut Hill Local, and suggesting methods to eliminate such conflicts in the future passed by a slim 16-12 margin with two amendments. The vote broke along nearly the same lines as the motion to reinstate Walsh.

When he presented the item for a vote, Recko said he felt the board must find a way to eradicate the practices of the past. “How are we going to get past these conflicts of interest that have been going on here for some time?” he asked. “It’s getting to be a nightmare. I’d like to have the procedures in place by the end of the year to make sure these things don’t happen again.”

The oversight committee was proposed and approved two weeks earlier by the executive committee after that group heard a presentation by Martha Haley that detailed the apparent misuse of a $10,000 grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development last year. That report, covered thoroughly in the July 20 issue of the Local, showed how the grant, which was made to create and modernize workstations at the Chestnut Hill Local, was spent on paint and carpeting for the paper’s and CHCA’s offices. The CHCA owns the Local and its officers are ultimately responsible for it’s finances. The grant was applied for and ultimately spent by the CHCA, its officers and employees.

Reasoned concerns about the committee, its scope and composition were raised by many, though the two most vocal critics were board members Carol Cope and Jeremy Heep.

Cope had distributed to the board a typed sheet of suggested changes, including a call to have no board members, but rather well-known people in the neighborhood with no interests or ties to the current board, serve on the oversight committee. She noted three members of the proposed committee were also executive committee members “How can this group oversee itself?” she asked. The committee as suggested (and later passed) was composed of Ed Budnik, Jim Foster, Nancy Hutter, Ed Feldman, Martha Haley and Meredith Sonderskov. Budnik, Foster and Hutter are members of the executive committee.

Cope also said that the committee may not be necessary if the board and the Chestnut Hill Community Fund’s Board of Trustees could be directed to take on oversight of CHCA spending and conflicts of interest.

Heep said that he, too, was concerned about the fact that the organization committee would include three members of the executive committee. “It’s inherently ridiculous,” he said.

Foster, defending the committee, said he felt that the committee’s work was a “mandate” made by the overwhelming victory of those on the executive committee who promised accountability and reform. “Once we won, we had an obligation.”

After discussion, two amendments were accepted to direct the committee to answer to the board, not the executive committee and president, and to give the committee two years before it must come up for a vote again in order to remain a standing committee. The members voted in will serve two-year terms.

Chestnut Hill Village

Before the discussion of the oversight committee, the board heard the proposal of an architect for Chestnut Hill Village who had designed a new system of signs to help direct people to the rental apartment and town home company’s leasing office.

After a brief presentation, the board endorsed the architect’s plans.

Anther action item that passed without controversy was the appointment of three new people to the Chestnut Hill Local Publisher’s Committee. Former Inquirer editor and Penguin Photo owner Bill Stroud was appointed to chair the committee. Former Local editor Lea Sitton Stanley and board member Ed Feldman were also named to the committee. The publisher’s committee will help the editor and managers of the Local create strategic plans to manage the paper and build circulation.

Other business

After the oversight committee was voted into existence, nearly half the board members in attendance left for the night. Foster was the first to note the absences. Still, those who remained discussed several important items.

The first item was to make sure the CHCA writes a letter to the Department of Streets to request that the Willow Grove Avenue Bridge be restored to its original capacity: two lanes of vehicle traffic with pedestrian sidewalks on each side. The bridge had been closed and restricted to one lane for eastbound vehicle traffic only.

Also introduced was a motion by Physical Division Vice President Susan Pizzano to sell a building owned by the Chestnut Hill Community Fund. Pizzano said the purchase of 8431 Germantown was one of the worst decisions the CHCA had made in the last 10 years. Because of the CHCA’s current financial troubles and because of advice that the market for the building would never be better, Pizzano said the building should be sold for cash. “All indications are that we should sell this now.”

Pizzano said that a buyer had expressed interest. Janice Manzi, a board member and realtor, said the CHCA should not just rely on an appraisal to sell to any owner, but should put the building on the open market. “The price will be determined by how much a buyer is willing to pay, not its appraisal,” she said.

Finally, Foster updated the board about his efforts to keep an eye on Commerce Bank’s construction at 8600 Germantown Avenue.

Foster said that he and Nancy Hutter had attended a hearing at the city’s zoning board of adjustments at which the board’s chairman, David Auspitz, instructed the bank to work with the CHCA and to present detailed plans to the community group by Aug. 8.

Odds and Ends

During a report by the chair of the Pastorius Park Concert series, Tia Burke, board member Ed Feldman and president Ron Recko quizzed her about the relationship the concert series has with Legacy Real Estate. The real estate company, Burke said, had pledged $5,000 to the series. When asked by Feldman if she had received that money, Burke said no. “But I have lots of sponsors that don’t pay right away,” she said.

Recko said he was put off by the concert series’ brochures, which have Legacy Real Estate in very prominent print, despite the fact that the CHCA put $8,000 into the series.

“I find it very distasteful,” Recko said. “Why do we get a backseat to Legacy. I find it insulting.”

Burke said Legacy’s prominence was a graphic design decision and nothing more.

Feldman noted that while Legacy was acting as a property manager for the CHCA’s building at 8431 Germantown Ave., the association was cited by the city’s Department of Licenses and Inspections for a code violation that cost $2,600. Feldman said he was concerned about Legacy delivering the money and suggested Burke should issue the company a deadline.

That fine is outstanding, said CHCA operations vice president Lou Aiello, who also indicated he was petitioning the city for relief.

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