Since this Board of Directors doesn't seem to believe in the requirement that a finalized Board-meeting agenda be produced not later than 72 hours prior to the meeting, it is no surprise to this reporter that the Board spent part of today (April 24) revising the agenda for the April 26 meeting.  [To read the published Board Agenda, click here.]

While one can't predict the outcome of agenda items with certainty, it does appear that the agenda is loaded with items that are (a) intended to tie the hands of the successor Board which comes into office on May 3, or (b) intended to ignore the recommendations of committees on specific items, or (c) reflective of the fear the current Board has about which candidates may actually win the election.

A few highlights (lowlights?) from an agenda that runs to 5 pages, suggesting a very long Board meeting will ensue:

• Favil West and his colleagues have apparently bought into my argument that it is not required that our Election Committee have a Board member as one of the Committee members or its chairperson. To get around this suggestion, the agenda now lists the Committee, for the first time in my memory, as the Nominating/Election Committee. Under that title, a Board member WOULD have to chair the Committee. But a new Board can undo this by voting to create separate Election and Nominating Committees if it sees fit.
• The Nominating/Election Committee agenda items also include "Approval of Election Manual for 2008." It's hard to imagine why that item is on the agenda, since the Election Committee has not even started working on the 2008 Election Manual, something it begins working on only after the previous election is over and analysis of pluses and minuses in the election process has been performed.
• The agenda lists for approval a voluminous Community Wide Standards document, despite the acknowledgment of Board member Dave Weil, who chaired a public meeting on Monday to discuss the document, that numerous procedural requirements leading up to the meeting had not been followed. There were so many objections from residents in the audience at this meeting, a situation that a Board member in attendance falsely attributed to my allegedly encouraging attendance, that Weil terminated the meeting before actual discussion of the document contents could be conducted.
• The agenda lists for Board approval a settlement of the Villas (duplexes) reserves issue as it applies to the Declarant, Del Webb/Pulte. The Villa owners are livid that procedures were violated in determining how much the Declarant should pay in to make up for the shortfalls in the Villas reserves, but a vote of the Board on this issue may place the matter beyond redemption.
• The agenda recommends approval of ADT as "preferred bidder" for the expansive and expensive proposed security and access system, despite a recommendation from the Properties & Grounds Committee that the matter be tabled for additional study.
• The agenda DOES NOT contain the recommendation of the P&G Committee that the issue of a bathroom facility in the Community Services Building be studied.
• As I mentioned in an earlier post, the agenda contains a resolution imposing a fee of $10.00 per hour for a unit owner to "review any books, records, contracts, or other papers of the Association." Though this is permitted by statute (NRS 116.31175), I view it as a "screw the residents" charge which should not be necessary unless the Association were to find itself in a budgetary shortfall

I hope as many of you as possible will attend this Board meeting, the swan song for the current Board. Many of the potentially deleterious acts taken or contemplated by this Board over the past two or three months may harm our wonderful community for years to come, and it is sad that some outgoing and current Board members may be remembered more for their imperial approach to governing rather than their sensitivity to the true needs of SCA. Fortunately, a successor Board can undo many of the harmful actions, but the future direction of our community will depend on the results of the Board election whose voting deadline is 4 p.m. on Monday, April 30.