Coming Out of Hibernation
Written by Dr. John Livingston.
Preserve Plantation is coming out of hibernation.
Ten months ago, we were confident that an orderly review of the process that had occurred at City Hall with City employees and elected and appointed City Fathers, would be a cause for pause and a complete review of the process would follow. Such a promise was made to two of us by at least two Council members as they stopped by our houses prior to last November’s election.
Instead, the promised access has been stonewalled and the process has been further compromised by taking certain key functions, such as architectural review, out of the hands of City government, and into the hands of private vendors who have complex relationships with people in Garden City Government. The SAP that was passed in August of last year required many changes in the City Code to accommodate the process. The SAP is currently undergoing changes itself. Citizens have asked for information, for appropriate postings of meetings, and have asked to speak before City Council and they have been denied access to the process wherever they have turned. These issues we hope will be addressed at a different time by the Appropriate State Deputy Attorney General.
What needs to be addressed within our own neighborhood is the falsehoods and mistruths that have been promulgated the last few days and have been a cause for tension between neighbors. This in our view was purposeful and was not the action of a party confident in their legal position. Taking sections out of context from a legal opinion that was privileged client attorney work product pursuant to an Executive Session was wrong. “The MDA section attributed to the citation by Ms. Bones, in fact stands for the opposite proposition for which it was offered: Though not a dues payor the owner must comply with MDA provisions as to development on open space.” The Bones citation goes on to conclude that “the HOA does have authority via the MDA as to oversight of improvements on the golf course”.
The purposeful promulgation of statements taken out of context lead to conclusions exactly out of phase with the intent of the document. It is a calumnious act of purposeful deceit and should not be tolerated by anyone no matter what your position is on this issue. The neighbors have a right to the real whole truth—not bullet points cut and pasted out of a complex legal opinion.
We look forward to thoughtful honest discussions. We do not believe that the HOA should proceed with any business until they go into executive session and make members sign a document that they were not the source of the leak of Ms. Bones privileged information. If such a member is identified, they should be relieved immediately of their duties.
The following two articles will present our position and response to the communications that many of you received last week: