Reasons for an Appeal to the Court
Neither the directors nor the EWUA staff should be involved in the recall process. No biased parties should be involved. A neutral election inspector should manage the recall process
At the June 18, 2024 EWUA Board meeting and again at the July 16 Board meeting, motions were made by Director Jim Cook for a mutually-agreed-upon, neutral election inspector to be appointed, for a budget for the inspector to be set, and for acceptance of the proxy form currently circulating that meets all of the statutory and bylaw requirements. Both times, all motions were rejected by the dominant Board faction.
Petitions in sufficient numbers to cause a Member meeting to recall Jim Nelson, Teri Nigretto, Mike Cleveland, and Leith Templin were submitted on July 22, 2024. As per the bylaws, the secretary of EWUA must send notice to all Members by August 26, 2024.
Once an election inspector is named, the EWUA Board in cooperation with the inspector must have enough time to do the following things prior to August 26:
- Secure a meeting location with sufficient space to accommodate an expected large attendance.
- Determine a date and time for the Member meeting. It must be between 20 and 35 days after notice is sent.
- Determine the return address for any proxies to be returned to that is only accessible to the neutral inspector.
- Send notice and an authorized proxy form with all of the necessary information by August 26 to the approximately 950 members.
After notice is sent, the election inspector will have another set of duties that will require time and resources.
However, between July 22 and August 9, no EWUA Board meetings were called, no actions have been taken, and there is no evidence of a mutually-agreed-upon, neutral election inspector being sought, let alone named.
It is apparent that unless the Court intervenes and causes the EWUA Board to act, EWUA will fail to perform its duties as described in the bylaws and State statutes. The Court must intervene now to prevent a violation of the Members’ rights.
For these reasons, Directors Anderson, Claus, and Cook, former directors Smith and Hall, and Member Mike Parnell have requested that the Court appoint a neutral inspector and cause the EWUA Board to cooperate with the legally-required steps.
These are the documents filed with the Court on August 9, 2024, making this request. There will be a Court hearing on August 13. If the judge decides to intervene and appoint an inspector, then there will still be only a few days to accomplish all that needs to be done.
Now that the dominant Board faction and GM have started their own recall efforts, the recall meeting will be a referendum on the performance of all seven of the current directors. The Members will have the opportunity to remove both the good and the bad. If that happens, Dan Burke will remain as General Manager until seven new directors have time to discover the basis for all of the controversy.
Summons
Declaration
Complaint
Temporary Restraining Order
Note