Many Needed tasks have been accomplished since election of the new Steering Committee

Fellow VE Owners,

We are pleased to announce some very good news since our election one month ago. Many tasks have been accomplished for the community, both by the newly elected Steering Committee and residents who have donated their time and money.

A few of our fellow owners advanced the funds (since we do not have access to our bank account) to repair our roads and eliminate potholes.

We analyzed and repaired the septic tank(s), which were in desperate condition because they had not been properly maintained for some time.

We chose Ralf Henrich to review, analyze and report back to us on the why and where our water problem(s) were, and to provide an overview on repairing the problem. As many of you know, Ralf's hard work paid off. A major leak costing us in excess of 25,000 gallons per day was found and repaired by Ralf at very minimal costs to the community.

We also cannot forget to mention the help of Analia Velasquez and her group of workers that actually did the digging across the valley. They installed the bypass pipe to get around the leak, and worked through the weekend to accomplish it early. Analia’s assistance with resources came at a time when she was very short of manpower, and in the midst of hosting the Jazz and Blues festival at VE. Thank you Ralf, Analia, and all of the community and resort personnel that stepped in to help. This was truly a great exhibit of teamwork.

Preparation on outlines for the Transfer of Assets for the community to review is underway. As Thalia’s husband, Federico Salazar, has stated, they stand by to meet with us to resolve this as soon as we are ready to do so. Any VE owner that would like to step up and assist is welcome.

Finally, we are very close to releasing the 2015 budget to the community. It has taken this past month to categorize and verify operating expenses, and solicit multiple quotations for expenses which seemed excessive. We feel that the 2015 budget is a reasonable approach to financial planning, and to putting the VE community on a firm financial footing now and in the future. We hope that you will feel the same.

On a disappointing note, there remains a small group of owners from the previous SC who choose to continue with efforts to prevent us from moving forward as a community. Among other actions, they continue to state that the January 12^th election was illegal. This is in direct opposition to the facts. The January 12^th, 2015 was the first ever GA meeting that met all legal requirements of not only Deed 1937, but the laws of Panama as well. The election saw an amazing outpouring of support and offered the highest voter participation count ever in VE with quorum.

We are hearing whispers that this group might be attempting to organize their own election, even though they were invited to run several times in the elections that were held in January 2015.

We wish the past contentiousness was over and that the community could move forward together. However, we must pose a few important legal points and questions to them and request, for once and for all, an answer to the entire community. Honest answers will provide clarity as to the illegality of the previous SC.

1. Carol Bruner, self-appointed President of the previous SC, who has not stepped foot in VE for well over a year, has admitted that she was appointed to an SC position where the person she replaced (Michael Burd) never resigned, nor was any resignation for that person ever accepted. By their own rules, you can only be appointed to that position if the resigning member votes with the majority for his/her replacement. Michael Burd never knew anything about Ms. Bruner’s appointment to replace him and has signed an affidavit to these facts.
2. Mary Jean “Jeanie” Bell has resigned on three separate occasions, with a copy of her most recent resignation available for all to view in an earlier blog post. Once you resign, you cannot just come back as you wish. There is a process and that process did not take place. Also note, that Ms. Bell has her property for sale and had indicated in emails that she wants out of VE as quickly as possible.
3. There is the appointment of Pat Mains where the previous SC admits in writing that they took the vote of an SC member’s spouse because they were “trying something new.” They also admitted using the vote of Michael Traynor as an alternate to elect Pat Mains. The use of an alternate, or a spouse, is not contained in any of the CC&Rs, whether it be Deed 1937 or the 2010 document.
4. Then there is the appointment of Larry Thompson. This same SC determined that Larry was not an HOA member and was not eligible to vote on VE issues because his condo is not titled. If you are not a member, how can you be a representative on the SC?

Interestingly enough, Dennis Griffin, prior to the legal election of January 2015, agreed to join the previous SC and they turned him down. Was it because Dennis did not fit their agenda? Dennis is now enthusiastically leading an effective, legal, and community-focused SC.

None of the previous SC individuals were ever elected. Never mind that MINGOB has already ruled that the 2010 CC&Rs, the only document that allows for a SC, is not valid or legal for our community.

Many of their acts to date have been illegal, yet somehow they claim that they were duly elected and have legitimacy. One more time, we ask for proof before wasting the community’s time on another self-appointed election.

Any owner wishing to perform just a small cursory review of the previous SC can see that they have completely operated outside of the rule and laws, and that the January 12, 2015 elections were the only properly held elections in VE.

We hope everyone agrees to support the duly elected legal SC via our newly elected legal BOD so that we can move forward, get the bank account reopened and fund our community expenses. 

Agenda? The new SC has only one and that is to produce visible results that the entire community can enjoy without lawsuits and legal fees where no one wins.

Please join us and the many others in our community in our effort to move forward and beyond any deflection issues or calls for anything contrary to what is legal in our community. We have heard from so many of you over the last few weeks that you are enjoying bringing our community back to a level of happiness once known by so many. We ask those who still disagree to finally stop and join us as one community.

The 2015 VEHOA Steering Committee

Dennis Griffin 

Stan Hime 

Joel Mahler 

Antonieta Sherrard 

Sandy Comstock