July 3, 2008 Issue
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Classified Chestnut Hill Local Don't Miss an Issue, Tell us what you see or Winner of Two |
Opinion
Independence Day The significance of the day is worth celebrating. The Declaration of Independence was the first statement of this nation’s intent to separate itself from England and it did so with the humanist declaration that all men are created equal and that all laws are laws that abridge liberty. The freedoms we enjoy were set in motion on the July 4, 1776. That fact is worth recalling at least once a year. Although we celebrate these freedoms annually, this country continues to struggle with what those freedoms really entail. Despite our founding documents — the Declaration is 232 years old and the Bill of Rights is 216 years old — the issues of rights and liberty, and who gets to enjoy them, is still debated. In the news we constantly see the limits of American liberty and independence tested. Recently we’ve seen many state governments extending same-sex couples the right of marriage, while activists and federal authorities threaten reversal. Last week, the issue of the Second Amendment’s right to bear arms faced the scrutiny of the U.S. Supreme Court. In this case the individual’s right to own a handgun was weighed against a municipality’s right to impose restrictions on that right in order to improve public safety. At the Local, we’re in the middle of detailing the story of a lesser struggle, but one that is still important to those who live here: the effort to maintain an independent newspaper that guaranteed all the right to voice their opinions in its forum. This week we detail the appointment of past editor Marie Jones in 1979. Jones fought for the paper’s independence and the rights of others to express their opinions in these pages for more than 25 years (See this week’s 50th installment on page 19). A catch phrase in the fight against terror abroad is that we are fighting for our freedom. The irony is that we’ve never stopped fighting for liberty here at home, regardless of how minor or major. We enjoy a lot of liberties here and those are worth celebrating. But, to quote another old saw, freedom is not free. It’s a work in progress.
Opinion: A closer look for sake of clarity I am writing to provide clarification on some comments made at the Community Meeting held on Monday, June 23 regarding the CHCA. Some of the issues raised clearly require swift remedial action. Because of the limitations of space I cannot speak to every point raised, in agreement or in opposition, but some statements were made which require correction or clarification. It was stated by one of the organizers of the meeting, CHCA board past-president Ron Recko, that no financial reports had been forthcoming from the Chestnut Hill Community Fund for the past 18 months. In fact, the most recent Fund financial report was made eight months ago for October of 2007 and was delivered at the November meeting. I myself had not recalled the November report, but in seeking a response to Ron’s concern I learned that the board had, in fact, received those financials and I have asked that a copy of those financials be forwarded to Ron for his review. Further, a summary of Fund activities was given as required at the annual meeting in May, but financials were not provided with that report. The CHCA by-laws require that “(Article I, Section C4): The Trustees of the Fund shall issue two reports per year to the Association regarding the status and activities of the Fund. The reports shall be presented in person by the President of the Fund, or his or her designee, at the Annual and October meetings of the Board.” So while I am happy to report that we are in compliance with the by-laws I hasten to add that it is fair to expect that when a report on the fund is made that it should include financials, even though this is not, at present, required. This will be referred to the CHCA by-laws committee with a request that the by-laws by changed to require financials reports to be included in the required Fund reporting. During an extended discussion of finances at the meeting, former board member Jim Foster was asked by Mark Keintz, the current CHCA treasurer, if he thought that the financial irregularities that preceded the Recko administration continue to plague the organization. His response was “very possibly.” I know Jim and I like Jim’s passion for correctness, but this statement has no basis in fact. Jim knows that it is almost impossible to dodge thorough financial scrutiny in the post-Enron era of financial auditing. People who had come to get answers deserved better than the negative ambiguity of “very possibly” as an answer to Mark’s question. Through reinstatement of the annual audit process, for which Ron and Jim can justly take credit, if the organization is not in full compliance with current required internal financial disciplines, the audit will find the error and CHCA will make the adjustment Jim made another comment that suggested that recent voter turnout reflected a lack of support for the organization, its current administration and board. While there is dispute on the validity of 130 ballots cast in the most recent election as a result of last minute memberships, the totals for the past five years are as follows: 2008 (517), 2007 (500), 2006 (1683), 2005 (no totals reported but the highest vote getter received 256 votes). If you contrast this with the highest vote getter in 2008 who received more than 400 votes, its fair to assume that the total ballots cast in 2005 was less than 500. In 2004 and 2003 there were not enough candidates to fill the open board positions, so elections in those years were not even held. Taking the larger view, and 2006 aside, it would appear that elections that elicit as many as 500 votes is closer to the norm or a distinct improvement over 2003, 2004 and 2005. Importantly, in 2006 the SOC succeeded in galvanizing the CHCA membership, using a threat to the Local as a successful rallying cry. However, having taken the moral high ground, I suggest that for the SOC holding it proved a very different challenge. Contrary to Jim’s assertion that people voted “with their feet” in 2008 — I believe it is more accurate to say that they voted with their feet in 2007 following a year of recrimination and board deliberations which were just as, or more, contentious that the year(s) which preceded it. Clearly, either the previously galvanized voting public felt that the immediate threat to the paper was gone, or that the SOC had not taken the CHCA in a new and more positive direction, or both. In any case there was a loss of over 1,000 voters after the election that put the SOC executive committee in charge of board governance. I was struck by disconnect between some of the things that were said on Monday night and the clarity that a closer look at these issues provides. It proves the truth of the maxim that just because something is said, or printed, does not necessarily mean that it is so. I believe where we are most truly vulnerable at present is in the structure of our current Laws of Election and membership voter eligibility. At the June board meeting, the board approved the establishment of an ad hoc committee to begin a full review of the Laws of Election. To that end, I hope that anyone who was justly disappointed by recent election events/actions will become involved, attend board meetings and ask questions about where we are in that process.
Opinion: Trusting the trustees If the past practices of the CHCA leadership did not get your attention, I am sure the very recent election irregularities certainly did. The fact that less than 400 of the 2,300 CHCA recorded members voted prior to the last hour of the election of the new board is a real confidence builder. Then we have clear violations of election procedures and prematurely destroyed ballots. There has not been this much dedicated activity to cover up and run a shadow government since Watergate — but wait — there’s more to consider. I will admit that all along I thought that the inside players running the CHCA and CHCF paid little attention to the in-depth Oversight Committee summary report dated March 19, 2007, where the previous five years activity of the CHCA was analyzed in some detail. The push-back to the report was immediate and included comments from serving board members (including attorneys) that followed this thinking pattern: “So what if money was transferred from the fund or borrowed from a bank with fraudulent documents as long as the money stayed in Chestnut Hill.” Like Las Vegas, “what happens in Chestnut Hill stays in Chestnut Hill” seems to be a catchall rationalization that many subscribe to. Some seem to think that regulatory authorities be damned and manicured audits are the way to go. Well, it finally dawned on me that the likely reason the Oversight Committee was decommissioned a full year before it reached its sunset date, was that the insider players did read that report in detail and realized if this group of volunteers could put together something that comprehensive on the CHCA’s reckless activities, what they might find regarding the fund would shake the timbers of the Hill and put some individuals in a very compromising light. They apparently had to stop the fund review any way they could and it has been done — almost. We had already done a preliminary review of the fund audits from 2001 forward, however, and found them interesting to say the least. Massive losses on investments and ongoing annual losses of asset value and losses on operations characterize most years’ activity. Despite assets of more than $1 million dollars in 2001, the net asset value falls by nearly $300,000 by 2006 through poor investments and newly created debt. Despite the fact that the trust indenture requires approval of any disbursements from the tax exempt fund, no records of any such meetings or review of the financial statements exist for the entire five year period (2001-2006) and disbursements and inter-company transactions were authorized purely on the strength of a bookkeeper’s signature who could sign checks in any amount on any account (CHCA or CHCF) and co-mingle funds at will. Tax returns on both organizations are filed during this period fund without a proper officer’s signature. Some might call that an attempt at plausible deniability, particularly when previous years always seemed to get it right. Even more incredible was at least a three-year period when there is not one recorded meeting of the trustees, yet $180,000 was borrowed against fund assets. There are some pretty definitive regulations about using tax-exempt funds for the purposes of tax-paying affiliates without clearly spelling it out. It was approved as debt by trustees with a repayment program — but who cares — this is Chestnut Hill where we make the rules as we go and reject those that don’t fit the program of the moment. Borrowing from banks with phony documents also might not pass the smell test in other parts of society. So what has changed? Almost nothing, despite a new group of fund trustees who also operate in the dark as much as possible. Along with CHCA management, they endorsed using what I believe are grossly inaccurate audits for the fiscal year ending 3/31/06, perhaps to cover the unapproved debt. These trustees were more selective about some other debt that was legitimately put on the ledger through proper bookkeeping, but assigned repayment of that debt to the Chestnut Hill Local, a separate entity that did not create the debt. The debt was created by the CHCA through its own management decisions. Moving funds from the profit-making Local to cover CHCA shortfalls had been a regularly re-occurring process. Minutes of fund meetings have not been forwarded to the Board of Directors. Furthermore, they discontinued the monthly financial reports to the board that have regularly been submitted as long as anyone can remember. Coincidentally, this discontinuance only began when some board members questioned line items that seemed to indicate unexplained transfers of fund dollars late last fall. It should be noted that the trustees serve at the pleasure of the board and their sole obligation is oversight and prudent investment of the trust fund. I believe that almost complete abrogation of that responsibility and assisting the board in covering their own financial missteps has characterized the activities in recent years. The trust fund is not the personal financial sandbox of the controlling few to be used to cover financial failures year after year, but generally I think it has been used that way. There is a lack of clarity coming from both CHCA and CHCF management and a litany of unanswered questions. I think it is time for oversight from a higher authority. Editor’s Note: While it is true that the $31,000 was debt approved by CHCA management, the costs were incurred by the Local for printing and some healthcare payments. Also, the discontinuation of fund statements to the association board was, according to board members at many meetings, the result of a long absence by the bookkeeper, who did leave for several months beginning in December. The bookkeeper has long been responsible for generating statements for the association, fund and the Local for monthly board meetings. Because of that absence, the board is just now getting financial statements for the fiscal year that ended on March 31.
Opinion: When it’s least expected… They had to see it to believe it. That was the universal response by several attendees to their very first CHCA board meeting last week. I had told them what to expect, but they never quite understood until they saw it with their own eyes. An exhibition of venality, denial, evasion, and obfuscation so amateurish, it seemed like something out of an ‘80s teen movie, where the villains are so bad at everything they try to do, so transparent in their schemes that drunken frat boys, or wimpy nerds can get you to laugh at them. Which is exactly what I did. The people whom I brought, and others, now so angry at the election, were angry in person too, and it helped. But they laughed at the board, too. But the main event was a long way off, due to the oft repeated, but oh-so-clever ploy of scheduling what everyone in the audience wants to talk abut at the end of the meeting, after all the division reports by all the vice presidents of absolutely everything, with lots of folksy chat and stories and detailed descriptions and … ? They were stalling, dear readers, so they presented division reports ‘til we were kicked out of the library at curfew. But last Thursday, when VP Ned Mitinger started asking Chestnut Hill residents if they had ever been to the Top of the Hill and noticed the busses there, that was enough for me. “You’re stalling!” Others joined in as well. “Get to it” The board got the message and picked up the pace. And so the battle was joined. I quoted the election rules that had been broken, as I have in these pages. I quoted the judge of election who had written that Dina was the one who had violated the rules, as I have in these pages. And when I was called “out of order”, I quoted Al Pacino in “And Justice for All,” as I have wanted to do for ages. For the boards’ part they could not answer my questions on why the rules were violated. They quoted bylaws that addressed other issues, but not mine. They proposed “clearing up” elections rules, as if any rule violated by those who felt it did not suit their needs would obviously be ambiguous and therefore need to be changed. They said that we should move on, the most tired and often used retort to having their hand, up to the elbow this time, caught in the cookie jar. With my (and others in the audience) questions being unanswered, what else could I do but repeat them over and over as the board answered questions no one had asked. And what else could Tolis do but swing the gavel, which was now regarded as background noise by the audience. But closure was near. First, a groundbreaking explanation by. Dina Hitchcock on why she broke rule # 26, that ballots be kept in the CHCA office after the election. She said her “intuition” told her that if the ballots stayed in the office that they would be “pawed” over. Those were her words. I told you that you had to be there to believe it. So much easier than following rules. “In Dina’s Intuition We Trust.” It will look great on the CHCA’s letterhead. “Don’t Paw on Me” will go on the flag. After that highly original explanation, you could feel the air rushing out of the board, as giggling resumed in the audience. Then board member Meredith Sonderskov, and some audience members, disregarding Dina’s surrealism, asked for an apology from the board. And for the second time that night, something unusual happened. Board member Pat Moran said he and others were “appalled” at what had happened during the election, and did apologize. Board member Joanne Dhody, offered an apology as well. She also accused me of having no solutions to the election problem. I told her to read the petition I placed in front of each board member before the meeting. In it I call for a new election, new judges, and a new Vice President of Operations. Sound ambitious? But think about this. If you could have seen the fear and surprise in their eyes when a few people challenged them, imagine how they would react if everyone who was disgusted with them showed up at a board meeting and held them accountable, challenged their arrogance and, when the moment warranted, laughed at them. And to those who missed this performance, me and the board, in all our pugilistic glory, are now available on You Tube. Just search “ The Furniture Guy vs. Chestnut Hill.” People the world over (except China) can now see what I have been inadequate in explaining for so long. Now even Mr. Patels’ far-flung electorate can see what they purchased but are missing in person. Did I mention that he wasn’t at the meeting?
Finding something to do in Maine Near Belfast, Maine: The first time my wife and I drove up here, we were newlyweds and left at noon. On a whim, we stopped at Willow Grove Mall for a frozen yogurt before getting on the turnpike. That’s how blithe we were about a twelve-hour drive then. In my wife’s little un-airconditioned Toyota Tercel at that. We arrived at two in the morning and felt the hour was propitious because otherwise we would not have seen a mother porcupine leading her babies across the dirt road on the way to the cabin. This year, our 23rd return, we left at a much earlier hour in a rented car — “just to be sure — we’d hate to break down on the turnpike.” The car was selected with spinal comfort in mind. We stopped after a lumbar-taxing six hour drive and stayed in New Hampshire overnight. The next afternoon we arrived at a sensible hour, well before even the most boisterous porcupines were up and about. Last week before we left, our friend Jane asked us what we “do” up here in Maine at our borrowed cottage on a rocky hillside overlooking beautiful Pitcher Pond. Do? We’d never been asked that before. It was a surprisingly difficult question to answer. Jane climbed mountains in a serious way all through her twenties and thirties and into her forties. Nowadays she rows competitively, hikes, bicycles and gosh knows whatall. She and her husband, Elliott, will be bicycling across Vietnam come next January. “Do?” I said. “Yes,” she said, “do you fish a lot, or …” Neither of us has ever fished. I thought about the guest log book here at the cabin. Page after page of, “Great time today! Rowed, canoed, hiked, shot targets, waterskied, then had breakfast, swam from here to the Hellespont via the English Channel and afterwards ate raw lobster snatched from a shark’s jaw outside Bar Harbor. Looking forward to the rock-splitting contest as soon as my hand heals!” “No, no fishing,” I said. “Oh,” Jane said, “well, how do you spend your time?” Neither of us knew what to say that captured what it is that draws us back here every year. Well, let’s start with this: we breathe. In the way that some people go to spas to “take the waters,” we go to take the airs - the salt air off the bay, the spruce forest air near the cabin, and the sweet, damp air rimming the bogs. For the brief time we’re here every summer, my eyes are not burning and itching from the polluted air of Philadelphia. Another favorite activity is seeing our friends, Richard and Nancy, two stalwart souls who gave up professional careers to be organic farmers up here. Their bodies held up to the task for 25 years. They once served us pizza made with flour they ground from wheat they grew. The cheese topping came courtesy of Rosie, the calf they raised and bred and milked. Their daily lives, even in retirement, are so different from ours that visiting them is like watching a documentary movie. That’s not to mention the shared love felt by old friends who’ve found more in common than the details of getting through the day. Minds and hearts still pulsing with life’s joys, despite the toll the years extract from the body. When not breathing, or seeing our friends, we go to every bookshop, thrift store and flea market we can find between Camden and Bangor. Maine is alive with bookshops, antiques stores and flea markets. Everywhere we go we hear the same laments about how the Internet has killed the live sale. But despite the inroads of eBay and Craig’s List and Amazon, some indecipherable urge drives new prospectors out of the bush to replace the newly-missing stores and booths we notice every year. Already we are talking about what we might have to jettison in order to fit this year’s book and record purchases into the car. Yes, books, always a theme. No bookman’s holiday here. The number one secret pleasure of a vacation: reading a book during the daytime. Back home, book reading is a duty and a pleasure, but only after the day’s chores are done. Up here I read all day. Out on the deck, down on the dock, or indoors when it’s buggy or raining. It’s the end of June and I’m on pace to read a hundred books again this year. On vacation, I allow myself the unrestrained pleasure of two Andrea Camilleri books featuring Sicily’s own Inspector Montalbano. Then, a George Pelecanos D.C. crime novel, The Night Gardener, and the one and only mystery written by the poet Richard Hugo, Death and the Good Life. Speaking of which: the hurricane of two years ago blew down about a dozen large trees near the cabin. Two ominous leaners still stand as reminders. With the trees gone, a sunlit space the size of a tennis court appeared next to the house. The dark gloom of the spruce forest patiently rings this space, waiting. It’s a pleasant sight when I look up from my book — bright, warm, a buttery presence against the shadowed woods. But I notice the brash invasion of fresh saplings into the sunny clearing. By summer’s end they’ll be a few feet higher and soon the woods will be back. Enjoy this while you can, the scene seems to say. I went out on the deck tonight and took a deep breath, savoring the sweet air like a good wine. I am glad we saw our friends today. It was a good visit. I am happy with the books we found at a roadside flea market on the way back. Soup and sandwiches for dinner. We found a Trivial Pursuit game in a closet and played a family-invented version for a while with our son. Then, gloriously, it’s good night to one and all and time to read once again.
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