2014 Official Record Request for Information & BOD Response

2014 Official Records Request-Water/Sewer Cost Increase? Dec 6, 2014 at 9:15am

Post by BagLady on Dec 6, 2014 at 9:15am

Here is a report of the attempt by SLohA to fulfill the records request.

It was attended on Friday Dec 5 at 1:30pm at the Admin Bldg by pre-appointed designates of the requester, Mr Herbst, who was not available to attend a records inspection. Those two people were myself and Jm Ath. The records inspection was monitored by board directors Peet Brdun and Alc Nttr in the conference room.

Upon arrival at the office, I was immediately reminded by Nttr "Didn't I have my administrative fee? (No Hello or even attempt at common courtesy). I replied "I believe I do!" in a lighthearted manner and wrote a check payable to SLohA for $40 representing the 2 hours "Admin time" to gather the requested records.

Upon entering the conference room--to my dismay-- I noted that the conference table was half covered under layers of folders and bank credit card statements and invoices neatly stacked in about a dozen piles of 4-6" in height for each pile. I suspected that this was going to be a tough inspection.

After laboriously going through folder after folder and stack of invoices of business credit card receipts, I knew that my suspicion was off the mark--it was not tough. It was a train wreck. Many of the folders contained old records from as early as 2010 which were irrelevant to the records request. The inspection turned out to be a failure of SLohA to produce the specific records requested. The papers presented were not related to the items specifically requested, but, instead, were archives of records related to water and sewer over the last 5 years was laid out on the table and in two large filing cabinet drawers. As an allegory "I requested certain pages from a book on a subject--and SLohA gave me a huge library section of archived and current books to search through".

Let's just say that I was irritated and made no bones about it. I will also cop to "starting the conversation" despite my resolve to keep my mouth shut. Thus began an exchange between myself and Peet Brdun regarding the failure to present records supporting the question which was clearly stated in the Request by Mr. Herbst. I said my time and money were wasted, as only possibly three of the requested items were "maybe partially met". Brdun attempted to deflect the discussion by saying that I, S u e, was not paying but Mr. Herbst was the one paying. (I bet the attorneys taught him to do that i.e. "sidetrack"). Returning his attention to the subject at hand, Brdun finally insisted that "Everything is here". I gave him my handwritten Deficiency Report, as earlier requested by Nttr, and angrily asked "Where are the budget reports? You cannot possibly identify where an expense was assigned to in the budget without a Line Item Budget report. There is not a single budget report in this room! If you think there is one, show it to me!"

Apparently, that confrontation rocked Peet's world, because he suddenly jumped up from his seat, quickly approached me, assumed a threatening body stance directly in front of me--put his face in mine while shaking a fistful of papers and shouted "GET OUT OF HERE" several times. Shocked, and reminding myself that the room was being recorded and my own audio recorder was just inches away, I calmly stated "I will leave when I am ready to leave". Brdun appeared to be quite agitated and continued to flail his arms and shouted loud demands to leave. I felt personally threatened by Brdun's angry and uncontrolled body movements and verbal assault. He suddenly protested "I didn't touch you!" and drew his arms and body back slightly as he said that. He continued to rant on as he walked to the entry door and then, almost as an afterthought, stopped and turned back around to me and said "Don't you come after me" as if he was in some danger from a rear sneak attack from me! (I think this was a page taken from the Mamager's 101 Harassment Shoutouts manual.) Amazed, I said "Peet--are you CRAzy?" He then opened the door, pointed at it and continued to order me to leave. Again, I calmly stated that I would leave when I was ready.

Peet apparently gave up trying to get me to obey his order to leave and returned to his seat. I then moved to retrieve the records Deficiency Report which I had previously pushed over toward Brdun/Nttr (I wanted to make sure I had signed and dated it, since I was ticked off when I filled it out). She lurched forward and attempted to prevent me from taking it back. I have a hazy memory of a brief physical struggle to retain control of this report and it may have been Peet that tried to grab it from me--or both. I photographed it and gave it back to her. It was this skirmish that shook me up because it was unexpected and physical and I could see no reason for their actions at that moment.

Jm and I gathered up computers, cameras, recorders, phones and began to exit the room. As I left, I stopped, faced Peet and said "Peet, your behavior here today was reprehensible and you should be ashamed!" Brdun did not look at me.

So, to sum up, owner asked for specific and targeted records and got a mountain of dated and irrelevant papers to sort through for which I was charged $40. I was told by Nttr "you can go to the Budget Meeting and get the information". My recording won't show the look on my face as I explained that this records inspection was the background preparation FOR the Budget Meeting and the meeting was not the place to ask for the kind of detail to substantiate the need for an assessment increase. When asked to produce a single Budget report with the requested line item expenditures, Nttr replied "You get the financial report!" and then ensued a brief commentary about the inadequacy of the financial reports to understand anything about the budget. When I protested that the inspection had been a waste of time and SLohA had failed to produce the specific records requested, Brdun insisted that "everything is here". When asked to show me ONE record on my deficiency report that was present, he blew his stack and verbally assaulted me. On a positive note, we found the Official Stump Paint Color Number in a Home Depot folder. There was some interesting background information about the wastewater plant and a contract with LMK for the sewer project.

At no time was anyone ever touched and at no time was there a name called or a curse word spoken by anyone present. This is easily verifiable from the recordings (SLohA's and mine). Additionally, the folks at the front desk, Shn and Bth, probably overheard the shouting from Peet. I did not raise my voice.

Bottom line: Insufficient information supplied to assess the validity of the claimed increase in water/sewer costs on the proposed budget. Owners can decide to ratify the budget--or not-- on the basis of trust that they are being given truthful information about the increase in assessments being due to greater water/sewer costs.

Brdun showed his true colors--AGAIN (1st time was the meeting with Lra & Gngr and a group of veterans in February). Nttr demonstrated a surprising lack of awareness and disconnection from the entire business at hand after demanding the Admin Fee (or maybe she was playacting.)