So a Certain Mailer Arrived in Mailboxes Today...

Source: openclipart.org

     So a certain mailer arrived in mailboxes today, endorsing a certain group of candidates. These candidates are mostly former Board members who we voted off last year, and with good reason.

    While this mailer may look a little like the one our team sent out last year, these are NOT our choice of candidates. Tom Conlee, Janice Tankson, Mike Foster, and Paul Westphal are the Board members we, as a community, worked so hard to remove from the Board a year ago.

    Let's get straight to the point: Westphal's group has had YEARS to prove what kind of leadership they will provide to Riverwood, and actions speak louder than words. Let's take a closer look at their campaign promises versus their history on the Board.

“Getting out CCR’s amended to eliminate any conversions in Riverwood, to rental properties”

    Westphal's group has already proven incapable of success in this endeavor, based on the failure of 2022's “Get Out the Vote” initiative. While this amendment to our CCRs is desperately needed, these former Board members are not the group to accomplish it.

“Providing quarterly 'Open Board Meetings' with a Q&A session for all homeowners”

    Westphal's group had the opportunity to start this years ago; instead they went to great lengths to exclude homeowners from meetings and the entire decision-making process. They even went so far as to meet in secret, off-the-record “executive meetings,” in which the majority of decisions were made for us, and for which meeting minutes were never published. In contrast, the current Board, under Nancy Rigell, started the open meetings because they, and the whole neighborhood, were sick and tired of being shut out of the discussions and decisions that directly impact them, and it was Westphal's Board who shut us all out.

“Working with management to improve collections of all dues and fees, and compliance with our CCR’s, with fair and equal treatment for every Riverwood homeowner”

    Here is another item our current Board, under Nancy Rigell, is excelling at, that Westphal's group of former Board members have already proven they fall short. We, as a neighborhood, are currently more up-to-date on HOA dues and fees than we have been in years, based on the available financial information (which information, by the way, was previously so vague and scarce under Westphal's Board, if it was available at all). A huge percentage of this past-due money that has been collected is leftover from previous years, meaning these dues and fees failed to be collected under Westphal and his Board's leadership.

“Preparing and overseeing Riverwood budgets, so that funds will always be available to maintain our neighborhood, without increasing dues, or needing special assessments”

    Here is another instance where actions speak louder than words. The funds are available to maintain our neighborhood (the HOA brings in over half a million dollars in dues annually), but Westphal's group has chosen to spend it on “wants” rather than “needs.” For example, the fence line along our eastern border has been in a state of disrepair for YEARS, and it is one of the handful of fences that the HOA is responsible for maintaining. Instead of handling much-needed maintenance, Westphal's Board members spent approximately 20% or our annual budget redoing our front entrance. Keep in mind, the majority of our neighbors did NOT want the brick signage painted, and now, only a year later, the paint
is discolored and peeling. But this project was more important to Westphal and his Board than fixing what's actually broken.

Source: facebook.com/RiverwoodForward901

“Years ago, Riverwood’s Board sought the input from various professionals, on how best to keep Riverwood the best neighborhood in the area, the most secure and peaceful neighborhood, and how to keep Riverwood a highly desirable neighborhood with increasing home values”

    While I have no doubt this happened, I wish we, as a neighborhood had been kept in the loop, including on the costs associated with these consults. I feel like the only time we hear about this is when Westphal and the former Board wants to brag about everything they supposedly did.

“Those professionals helped previous Boards develop a long-term, Master Plan, that gave Riverwood a course its leaders could follow, that would allow our HOA to remain financially secure, while staying ahead of our surrounding neighborhoods. We want to continue following that Plan, as funds allow, to improve Riverwood’s today’s, and its tomorrow’s”

    The previous Board, under Westphal, has plenty of grandiose “master plans,” “strategic plans,” etc. but seemingly nothing to show for it. These plans are all fancy names and no substance. You can make all the plans you want, but a plan is just words on a page unless you can follow through. And if these plans were being implemented and progress was being made, why were our neighbors never kept in the loop? Why do we only hear about all these fancy plans when Westphal and his group need to make themselves look good?

“Our team’s agenda is what’s best for Riverwood - ALL of Riverwood”

    Westphal and other former Board members has a history of doing the exact opposite: spending our money on their pet projects without our input. $121,000+ on painting some brick signs? And let's not forget the 100+ geese they euthanized, entirely in secret.

    If they truly wanted to serve their community, it shouldn't matter that they aren't Board members. That's far from the only capacity in which you can serve your neighborhood; there were tons of committees they could have served on this year. Even starting from last year's annual meeting, Westphal, Tankson, Conlee, and Foster could have chosen to do what's best for our community by ensuring a smooth passing-of-the-reins, so to speak. Instead, they scattered before the meeting was even adjourned, without so much as a handshake for the incoming Board, and have done nothing but impede progress ever since.

“so please vote for our team: Janice Tankson, Mike Foster, Tom Conlee, Tom Harrison, Joe Brooks (Write-in) & Paul Westphal.”

    A note about Mike Foster, who, despite this typo in the mailer, is campaigning as a write-in: Mike Foster moved out of our neighborhood in July.

Thanks for letting us know who NOT to vote for!

    While technically not a requirement, as far back as I can track, every Board member who has ever been elected has lived in our neighborhood at the time. This is how it should be; our elected leaders should have a vested interest in the community they serve. To elect Board members who live elsewhere sets an unsettling precedent, and leads to a “rules for thee, not for me” situation.

    The good news is, our miniature political system isn't like the political systems at the state or federal level; we have more than the two options of just remaining as we are, or going backwards (and make no mistake, voting back in former Board members who we, as a community, deliberately voted out would definitely be a step backward) We have a third option: to move Riverwood Forward, and that is the option we, as a community, MUST choose.

PLEASE NOTE: views expressed in this blog are the opinions of their respective authors, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the HOA board, Riverwood Farms neighborhood, etc.