Loretta is the person responsible for all the outstanding activities of late at Montebello--best ever!!! (Thanks for all you do . . . the petitioners)

I want to thank everyone who came out to the Board meeting last Tuesday night, April 20.  This is a follow-up note.  Please feel free to pass this on to anyone appropriate, and to post it anywhere.  Please note:  this is sent as Private Citizen Loretta Ratkus, not in my capacity as Chair of the Activities Committee.
 
For anyone who was able to attend the Board meeting last week, thank you, and I hope that won't be your last.  Let me explain what occurred last Tuesday night from my perspective.
 
The Board has decided they can establish what they call Subgroups of the Board.  These are, in practice, secret committees since only Board members or Board-appointed "resident consultants" serve on the Committee and are allowed to attend the meetings.  No other residents are allowed in unless you wage a successful fight for entry, as I've done with the Subgroup on Communications, and thanks to those of you who attended the Board meeting last Tuesday night.  What a pity that's how things have to happen!  
 
Last year, with the decision to go 100% with Cox Cable for our television and office management computer needs and given the options that Cox gave Montebello, the Board established the Subgroup on Communications.  The members of this group are Director Greg Bender (Chair), Director Carole Harman, Director John Powers, and Board-appointed Resident Consultant Rod Cowan (a fine, intelligent gentleman...my issue is not with him).  This group is charged with implementing the mass email list, Channel 95 stream announcements, and revising the Montebello website.
 
For about the past 6-8 months, I have been asking Director Bender to open up this group's meetings to other residents.  I believe there are many residents who would have good ideas as these new (to Montebello) means of communications are developed.  The answer has always been no, until Tuesday night.  I'm told that the Board was advised of my intent to raise this issue again Tuesday night in front of a large audience, so, in answer to my first question, Dir. Bender announced that the next meeting of the subgroup would be open to all residents.  (Well done, group!)  The conversation then turned to how residents would know about the meeting.
 
Incredibly, the best the Board would commit to doing is a tiny 2" x 3" piece of paper posted on one bulletin board in the Community Center, posted at a  minimum 24-48 hours in advance of the meeting. (The notice was, in fact, posted on only the Community Center bulletin board last week).  The meetings will not be planned in advance so they can be posted in "The Times of Montebello" or on our 18 bulletin boards along with other committee meetings.  A notice will not be emailed to residents.  It won't be tacked on to the "This Week at Montebello" email notices, nor put on the scroll on channel 95 on our televisions.  Dir. Bender's decision is that a tiny piece of paper in the Community Center shortly before the meeting date is all the notice there will be.  If residents don't see it, then you'll miss the meeting.  President Kennett said go to the meeting and talk about it (if we know when the meeting is, then hope the subject won't be tabled or we won't be allowed to speak).  Dir. Zanni said that it's too expensive to post notices on the 18 bulletin boards (although that's where the other committee notices are posted, and last Thursday other notices did go up on the bulletin boards, just not any notice about this meeting).  Director Powers made an intelligent contribution to the conversation, but we heard nothing from Directors Low, Harman, Shaw, and DeMarco.  Manju said that they do the minimum that the Association lawyer suggests.  
 
(FYI...the meeting of this Subgroup on Communications has been scheduled at 5:30 tonight, Tuesday April 27, in the Community Center.  All residents should feel free to attend.)
 
We can, and must, do better.  While, technically, the meeting tonight is now open to all residents, I'll bet most residents haven't seen the tiny notice posted in the Community Center.  In this, the 21st century in the U.S., the best our that Board's Subgroup on Communications can do is a tiny piece of paper on one bulletin board.  The announcement of Election Committee meetings follow the same minimal-notice policy.  We can, and must, do better.   
 
So many residents are frustrated by far too much being decided and controlled by far too few.  Their concerns are well-founded in facts.  The above-mentioned Subgroup is only one example.  In "The Times of Montebello" of January 2010, Page 7, you can read that the Board appointed seven Resident Consultants.  These are supposedly experts who advise the Board.  Four of these seven are Board members or their spouses/partners.  The Board-appointed Landscape Committee has one member on it:  Director Chris Low, who's wife (Trish Gowland) is the chair of the Finance and Budget Committee.  The Board recently appointed Director Bender's wife, Lois, to the highly-sensitive Covenants Committee despite the availability of a well-qualified resident who is not related to a Board member.  The work of the Covenants Committee is highly confidential.  The appointment of the Board member's wife gives, at a minimum, the appearance of impropriety with a Board member having an ear, via his spouse, inside the Committee.  I was on the now-defunct Operations/Buildings & Grounds Committee.  In my opinion, the Board so restricted the scope of its duties via its Terms of Reference (Board terminology for what a committee can and can not do), and so often deferred to Board-appointed resident consultants, that the fine residents serving on the Committee felt we could accomplish nothing.     
 
We can, and must do better.  At the "Meet the Candidates" night this past Sunday, unhappiness over the exclusion of residents was highly vocalized in the questions and audience comments.  The challenges of our future need the thoughts and input of all our interested residents, yet currently most are held at arms' length.  We have a wealth of intellect at Montebello that needs to be tapped.  I, for one, intend to vote for no Board incumbents until "inclusiveness of residents" and "transparency" become more than just buzz words at election time.
 
If you are available and interested, please attend the meetings tonight, April 27, of the Subgroup on Communications (5:30 pm in the Community Center) and the Board meeting at 7:30 pm., and future Board and any committee meetings.  Your participation IS needed and can make a difference!
 
Loretta Ratkus
Montebello owner for 26 years
703-329-6874