Financial Malfeasance at Eastsound Water

Updated June 2024

Member money has been taken. Large sums have been mismanaged. The Eastsound Water Users Association Board (EWUA) has enabled this, excused it, and covered it up. We invite you to review the evidence and if you find it disturbing, to sign the petition calling for a meeting of the members to vote on the recall.

Five current and former directors of EWUA report serious violations of ethics by the EWUA Board. We ask the Members to intervene and recall Jim Nelson, Teri Nigretto, Mike Cleveland, and Leith Templin. There are multiple reasons for the recall.

  1. Nelson, Nigretto, Cleveland, and Templin refuse to allow the Secretary/Treasurer access to the records of EWUA.
  2. Nelson, Nigretto, Cleveland, and Templin manipulated the election of 2023, in violation of the member’s rights.
  3. Nelson, Nigretto, Cleveland, and Templin have spent large amounts of member money on:
    1. Paying attorney fees for the GM.
    2. Giving the GM a more than 25% pay increase
    3. Not recovering any of the lost money as described in the forensic report.
    4. Paying attorney fees in excess of $100,000 in 2023
    5. Paying attorney fees in 2024 of an estimated $75,000 with more expected.
  4. Nelson, Nigretto, Cleveland, and Templin have repeatedly acted without Board authorization.
  5. Nelson, Nigretto, Cleveland, and Templin have repeatedly taken Board action in closed session.

Separately, Farm to Market LLC, owned by Mike Parnell, has challenged the multiple voting irregularities of the 2023 election of directors. Link See our Who We Are page for a description of who is asking for this recall. It consists of five current and former directors of EWUA, along with multiple concerned citizens. Statement by current director Carol Anderson Link Statement by current director Ron Claus Link Statement by current director Jim Cook Link Statements by others Link The only way to resolve these egregious violations of the membership’s rights is to replace Nelson and his supporters with people who will follow state law, the bylaws, and standard Board ethics. To make this happen, we ask the members to sign a petition calling for a meeting of the members then attend in person or via proxy.

Petition and Proxy Forms

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The below links are related to the August-November 2023 recall activities. Four directors left the Board at the end of 2023.  At the time, RecallWater believed that, with the departure of these four individuals, four new Board members would step in and clean up the mess. We sent out an email claiming success and, then, ceased our recall activities, rescinding all of the proxies we held.  As noted above, those hopes failed to materialize.

Reference Links

    • Copy of 5th Email – Board election and proxies