Guest Comment: A response to comments about GVR's effectiveness

Although it is against Green Valley Recreation Board policy for individual directors to write letters to the paper regarding board business, I would like to respond to the letter from Ralph and Virginia Sommer and to the many GVR members who have asked me questions about the recent articles in the Green Valley News concerning board resignations by Les Shipley, Frank Kalis and Angelika Alfson. The GVR community deserves to review the facts.

GVR’s 2008 budget: The article appearing Dec. 11 indicated the 2008 budget would increase $1,400 over the 2007 budget and that there was no reason for a dues increase. In actuality, the 2008 budget passed with a 9-1 vote at the Oct. 23 board meeting (Mr. Kalis voted “no”; Mrs. Alfson was absent); and is an increase of $14,000 from 2007 - or one-fifth of one percent. The article that appeared Nov. 29 said the GVR budget is $8 million and GVR has assets approaching $20 million. The 2008 budget will actually total $6.6 million and GVR assets are estimated at $16.8 million by GVR’s Finance Manager.

It is worth noting that the 2008 budget was developed over this past summer with the Fiscal Affairs Committee (FAC) meeting eight times followed by the FAC negotiating with the entire board. It should also be noted that all of these meetings were open and nearly all were attended by most of the nine board members who have not resigned, as well as many members of the GVR community.

Interestingly, two of the board members who have recently resigned did not attend any of these meetings, so they may not understand entirely how decisions were reached, even though the budget had been discussed at a number of board meetings.

For the record, the challenges of developing the 2008 budget were a result of many issues, but the primary two were the changing home sales market and rising energy costs. The committee discovered that Initial Fees and New Member Capital Fees, which represent about 10 percent of our total revenue, are estimated to decrease by 24 percent in 2008 compared to 2007 as a result of slowing home sales. At the same time this revenue source is falling, gas and electric costs, which represent 12 percent of all expenses, are estimated to increase 15 percent from 2007 to 2008. The other issue the committee dealt with was maintaining GVR’s three Reserves at fiscally responsible levels - a goal which all GVR boards over the last several years have deemed critical for fiscal responsibility. Faced with loss in revenue and rising operational costs, the necessary restoration of reserve funds, and requests for two major capital projects -- renovations for the Woodshop and Camera Club -- the Fiscal Affairs Committee made recommendations to increase revenue in several ways: increase tenant fees, the transfer fee, additional membership card fees, and annual dues.

GVR’s board president: Lou Lovat, the board president, has been accused in the recent articles with stripping the treasurer of his authority as treasurer and giving more power to the Fiscal Affairs Committee. He has also been accused of not listening to other directors and forcing on the board the selection of the current GVR executive director. When the board was selecting its officers at the first meeting of the new board in April, four rounds of voting for president produced the same results - a deadlock at 6-6. On the fifth round, one board member switched votes from one candidate to Mr. Lovat, resulting in his election by a 7-5 vote.

In subsequent conversations with board members in the months following this vote, it appeared that all officers ultimately elected (president, vice president, treasurer, and secretary) were supported by the three board members who have recently resigned. The reference to stripping Mr. Kalis of his power might be perplexing to non-board members, but it is based on Mr. Kalis not being named a member of the Fiscal Affairs Committee. In accord with GVR Bylaws, the president, Mr. Lovat, has the authority to name chairs of committees, but committee chairs are responsible for selecting the committee members. Mr. Lovat nominated Mr. Kalis as chair of the Fiscal Affairs Committee, but this nomination was rejected 5-6 by a vote of the board. As president, Mr. Lovat did not vote.

A little-known fact is that the board president can vote only when it will change the outcome of a vote, which it wouldn’t have in this case.

As Fiscal Affairs chair, I did not name Mr. Kalis to the committee - that was my decision, not Mr. Lovat’s. Although it has been argued by several board members publicly that the treasurer needs to be on the Fiscal Affairs Committee, I have been told privately that the reason for the ire aimed at me over this decision was that I had insulted Mr. Kalis.

My intention is never to insult anybody; rather, it is to do the best job I think I can for GVR. Mr. Kalis could have attended any Fiscal Affairs meeting and participated, as most other board members did, but he chose not to. In no way was the Fiscal Affairs Committee “given more power” as the Dec. 20 article alleged. And the treasurer’s duties, spelled out in the Bylaws and different from the duties of the Fiscal Affairs Committee, have remained unchanged and undiminished.

Under Mr. Lovat’s leadership, GVR has had a number of significant successes, including finalizing the agreements with the developers for Phase III of Las Campanas and Phase I of Canoa Ranch in order to move forward with both projects; obtaining $130,000 for the furniture, fixtures, and equipment to outfit Canoa Ranch; hiring a new executive director; moving forward on the Camera Club and Woodshop construction projects; and completing the remodeling of Abrego North. These accomplishments would have been difficult, if not impossible, without strong leadership and guidance from the president and GVR’s executive director.

GVR’s executive director: Several comments made about the selection of the executive director have been misleading, at best. It was stated in the Nov. 29 article “the board voted down all candidates in the running for the job, only to reverse itself later and elect [Anndrea] Blackshear.” It was stated in the Dec. 20 article that there were “four ‘brilliant executives’ for the job, but Lovat ‘had already at that point decided that Anndrea Blackshear would fill the position just fine.” The reality is that there were four final candidates who were interviewed, one of whom was Mrs. Blackshear. Subsequent to the interviews, one candidate dropped out. When the selection committee forwarded two finalists’ names to the board for a vote, neither received the required eight votes to be selected. The board didn’t “reject” the two candidates as much as it couldn’t reach consensus. When another vote was taken a month later, there were eight votes for Mrs. Blackshear, allowing the board to offer Mrs. Blackshear the position. When or how Mr. Lovat had made up his mind is really immaterial, as it took eight board members to support Mrs. Blackshear.

Quality and deportment of the board of directors: In the Dec. 20 article, a former board member was quoted as saying, “I am sick of the nonsense and the disinterest and the amateurism most GVR board members show.” I would like to assure the GVR community at large that nothing could be further from the truth. Ironically, this charge is levied by a former director who only attended one committee meeting since May and missed five regular board meetings since March. In contrast, the nine board members who will continue to serve on the board attended on average, 62 percent of the standing committee meetings (the standing committees are Planning and Evaluation; Fiscal Affairs; and Board Affairs); the three directors who have just resigned attended on average 27 percent of those same meetings. To be fair to Mr. Shipley, that average is skewed since Mr. Kalis attended none of those meetings, and Mrs. Alfson attended one. The Nov. 29 article referred to “name calling, finger pointing, contentious e-mails and other childish actions.” I have seen that behavior, but honestly feel there will be less of it now.

The board members, who are serving you, as volunteers, are dedicated and collegial. We don’t always agree, but we can disagree in a professional manner. And all board members honestly have GVR’s best interests at heart.

As far as the three vacancies, the Sommers worry in their letter about the loss of three experienced board members. Two of the board members who resigned had terms ending in March 2008, and only had a few months left on the board. And I can assure you that the three people who have agreed to fill the vacancies, all of whom ran for the board last year, are more than qualified. One is a longtime member of Green Valley and two are already quite active on GVR board committees and in the Green Valley community at large.

Please be assured that GVR is in good hands and we collectively will continue working on behalf of the GVR community.

Altie Metcalf is a member of the GVR board of directors.