On February 23rd, a small note appeared in the Friday email blast at the very bottom titled “Ground Cover Test Site” with a picture reading:
As you may have noticed, the landscaping has been modified near 328 Elmhurst. Carson has modified the area, at no cost to the Association, to determine if this is an acceptable modification that can be applied to other areas of the community in place of bark. This test site is due to restrictions that the area poses including increased turkey population and lack of thriving potential for the plant material due to being under trees that will fight for the water supply. If you have any feedback or questions to provide regarding this test site, please reach out to the General Manager [email protected] and those items will be included for review and discussion at the next Grounds Committee Meeting.
Soon thereafter on February 27th, Nepenthe homeowners received a standalone email.
Good Afternoon Nepenthe Residents, Thank you for providing feedback regarding the demo site located at 328 Elmhurst. The feedback provided has been forwarded to the Grounds Committee Chair for review. The small rocks that were installed are scheduled to be removed on Tuesday, February 27th.
Thank you!
What is interesting about this is that there had already been two rock jobs pre-dating this at the end of Commons which we were charged $1,800 for as well as a large area near 505 Elmhurst at the end of November. The Grounds Committee members were completely unaware that President Christina George was getting a rock job, although there had been some discussion about rock jobs after the disastrous Sante Fe style installation at Vanderbilt Circle.
In order to hear this feedback given to the Grounds Committee, me and several others attended the March meeting. Although rocks were an agenda item, no mention was really made about the specific installation at the Director Christina George’s home. The Grounds Committee members seemed to be okay with rocks here and there, but not everywhere. After a rather lengthy meeting, a homeowner asked about the type of feedback the office received. They acted like there wasn’t much feedback, but the chatter on the street was that there was negative feedback. There was some drama at this meeting from both a few committee members and homeowners. After just one or two meetings, the Grounds chair, Linda Cook, resigned. I do not know the details, but it was very clear that Christina George was in charge and there’d be little chance for Linda to provide input. I was very pleased to hear that Linda was taking over Grounds as I served with her on the Board and find her to be very reasonable and pragmatic. I’m not sure what happened, but it is our loss.
Back to why this is important. It is important because my recall petition called out “self-dealing” which is a breach of fiduciary duty and brings with it potential personal liability. I am told by an attorney that amongst the various breaches of fiduciary duty, self-dealing is considered by many to be its worst form. I considered including this in my legal complaint about the recall fiasco. Nepenthe’s Conflict of Interest Policy is very clear stating a director should not benefit from their relationship with a vendor and that the relationship be disclosed, the “interested party” recuse themselves from discussing the proposal and voting with all of this documented in meeting minutes. Unfortunately, the emails do not disclose 328 Elmhurst as being a director’s home. We cannot verify that this was voted for in executive session and assumptions have been made by some homeowners that this “test site” was arranged outside of the Grounds Committee as well as the board with the email blast being an excuse for this “no cost” rock job which is really a GIFT. Of course, I do not know all of the facts here and don’t think I will ever know the truth. The chatter was “no one knew about it.”
I am troubled by the lack of common sense. If I were a director being publicly recalled, I would maybe take some time to reflect on the accusations and would have avoided the optics of such a “no cost” rock job. In my opinion, this is shameless and wonder about this person’s common sense and ability to do what’s in the best interest of Nepenthe homeowners. Would I have been able to work out such a “no cost” rock job? I can’t even get the trees replanted after the storm took them down. If this test site really needed to be done, why wasn’t another home chosen? Again, her campaign postcard said “integrity.” I am not the one to judge and hope encourage you to ask yourself if you would do the same thing.
