It may not be the Hatfields and McCoys, but lines have been drawn in the dirt
of Timberline Rim.

Six of the nine trustees of the homeowners association have been removed
from office.

Or have they?

According to the 144 home-owners who showed up at a March 20 meeting –
including three of the trustees – President Carlin Irish, Vice President Rod
Stewart, Treasurer Joe Evans, and trustees Blythe Nordby, Judy Baumgarte
and Louise Holt have been removed from the board of the non-profit
corporation.

Trustees Greg Skipper, Brian Floyd and Shannon Hermann remain as the lone
board members, and the only three who attended the special meeting.

But the six trustees that were shelved don’t see it that way and insist they’re
still in charge.

The uprising revolves around several contentious claims of some of the home-
owners, including: secretive board meetings and appointments; changing of
rates and fines without homeowner input and voting; improper oversight of
water company; lack of accountability regarding financial statements; no input
to architectural review committee changes; and oppressive lawsuits and
garnishments against owners.

“Proof of their secretiveness is that we’ve demanded financial statements, and
all we hear back is ‘We can’t do it, we’re too busy,’” said home-owner David
Buoy. “We’ve been trying to get them since last year. We still don’t have one.”

Stewart, one of the supposedly ousted trustees, disagrees with Buoy.

“We just had an audit,” Stewart said. “It’s available at the office. These people
want us to mail them all copies. We can’t send everything out. All they have
to do is come to the office.”

At the March 20 meeting 144 homeowners showed up to cast their votes on
the trustees. The six members were voted on one at a time, with 133 voting
to recall all six members, according to Buoy.

“The bylaws require 10 percent of the membership be present to hold a
special meeting,” Buoy said. “We had the largest turnout in 20 years (144).
And all it takes is 51 percent of the vote to change the board.”

According to Buoy, that’s exactly what they did.

But hold on. Stewart claims it takes 50 percent plus 1 of all the homeowners
(383) to hold a special meeting to remove board members.

“And it can’t be done by a simple vote,” Stewart said. “It has to come through
a signed petition.”

Baumgarte, along with Stewart being one of the six, not surprisingly agrees.

“They didn’t do it (recall) by the rules,” Baumgarte said. “The bylaws and
CC&Rs have to be followed. They must show a signed petition.”

Buoy claims the problems exist because the board does not follow the
Covenants, Conditions & Restrictions of the corporation. Stewart believes the
opposition is failing in the same way.

However, Stewart told The Mountain Times that if it’s done right, and he is
recalled properly, that would change things.

“I’d be the first one to walk away,” he said. “But until then, I can’t just
abandon the board. Their claims of secret meetings are ridiculous. I can’t
understand them. There are no secret agendas on our part. That’s paranoia.

But that appeals to some (of the homeowners). There are quite a lot of them.

I have to give them credit for that. But it’s not fair that we’ve been vilified.

"There’s lots of anger.”

That anger, according to Buoy, is certainly in the air, but it has been fomented
by the six trustees who have ignored the wishes of the homeowners.

“It just gets worse and worse,” Buoy said. “More and more people don’t agree
(with the six trustees).”

But from his perspective, they’re gone now.

The newly formed board (which consists of three at this point), will now offer
new officers of the corporation to the state.

“I’ve been seven years on the board,” Stewart said. “They can’t just make the
CC&Rs go away.”

The board of six has retained a law firm, according to Stewart.

The next official board meeting is set for April 17. It remains to be seen who
will be sitting in the board chairs.