Dear HVL Board of Directors:

We are disappointed and disturbed that the board has chosen to meet only in executive session at the May 22 meeting, thus denying community members our ability to access and address the board publicly and have our concerns heard in an open forum.

Therefore, in order to reestablish trust in our community, and to promote the democratic process that is guaranteed to us by Davis-Stirling, as well as state and federal law, and our own CC&Rs, we make the following four basic requests, though requests seems too weak a word because these are clearly essential to the healthy functioning of our community, so demands is perhaps a better word in that sense.

1. That the HVL Board of Directors formally apologize to Director Steve Greenberg for the unwarranted and heavy-handed attack against him by the board through its legal counsel on May 2 in its by-now infamous "Notification of Breach of Fiduciary Obligations." Besides the fact that the actual handling of the notification charging Director Greenberg was a comedy of errors that violated virtually all the accepted procedures for such cases, and that the charges against him were obviously trumped-up and of no validity, it is clear that this disgraceful action was intended to have a chilling effect on the entire community, and to use fear and the threat of unsubstantiated charges to stifle and repress views that differ from those of the majority of the board. This cannot be allowed in our community.

2. That the HVL Board of Directors make a formal positive commitment to the principle that the contemplated large-scale rebuild/renovation projects for the Hartmann Complex and the Community Center do require and justify a vote by the membership of the community, and cannot be implemented by the board without such a vote. This is clearly stipulated by both Davis-Stirling as well as our CCRs. We have been waiting long enough for this, and the continued refusal by the board to take this basic step seems to indicate an anti-democratic attitude that borders on being not just unlawful and unethical, but recklessly neglectful of its fiduciary responsibilities to the community.

3. That the HVL Board of Directors cancel its contract with former GM Bill Chapman. Granting this no-bid contract to Mr. Chapman flies in the face of accepted practice, and seems to be a particularly egregious and high-handed example of nepotism used to undermine not just the democratic process here in HVL, but also to forward an agenda to ram through expensive and unwarranted versions of the Hartmann Complex without community cooperation, input, and agreement. The arguments used by Directors Cameron, Waite and others to justify granting Mr. Chapman the contract in fact centered around how much more quickly he could get the job done, which seems to deliberately contradict a more democratic approach to first gather community input, which hasn't been sufficiently done. We have a new general manager who is certainly experienced and trained in these matters and should be given the opportunity to facilitate the process.

4. That the HVL Views, the only official publication serving our community, become more democratic. As it stands, the HVL Views is little more than a propaganda-spewing machine in the hands of whatever clique controls the board. There is no "letters to the editor" section or section where commentary is solicited or allowed that might question the official party line of the current board. It would be much healthier for our community to have the HVL Views be a forum of discussion of the questions, opportunities, and issues that we as a community are dealing with, rather than a completely one-sided organ that offers no alternative views. Otherwise, the name should be changed to the HVL View.

Thanks for your efforts and consideration.

Sincerely,

Dr. Will Tuttle
Madeleine Tuttle
Ed Carver
Barbara Carver
Ronald Spitzer
Rosalie Spitzer
Stephanie Pahwah
Ashish Pahwah
Rosalie Cooke
Mike Gingerich
Aram Theusen
Lisa Kaplan
Paul Russo
Kay Lopez
Michele Taylor
Jack Hewitt
Sue Story

(All of the individuals listed above are residents of Hidden Valley Lake, Calif.)