If you do not see anything wrong, you just qualified for a seat on the CZ Master Association board of directors.
Posted by CotoBlogzz
Coto de Caza, CA – On Sunday July 1, 2012 we are notified
that the old Oak Trees by Summerhill have received the death sentence and that
Keystone is prepared to send the death squad sometime Monday to cut down the
trees with what appears to be a Pelosi-esque rationale: Gotta cut down the oak trees to find out who
owns them.”
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That same day we fired an inspection of records request to
the CZ Master Association board of directors, specifically asking for the
number of oak trees removed, the reasons the trees were removed and whether the
decision to remove were as a result of a licensed arborist over a period of the
last five years.
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Shortly thereafter, a resident who because of his objections
to the tree being cut down, was not only wondering why the association sent a
neighbor over to his house to threaten and harass him about the tree, but feels
that he was publicly attacked, libeled and slandered by one CZ master
association board members.
As they say in the QVC commercial, but wait, there is more.
While in the very recent past
the CZ Master Association Board of
Directors would not even respond to my requests and if it did, it would first
dispatch Cain, Walker & Harkins LLP
with a request for me to sign a Shut Up letter, as a pre-condition for
the association releasing the requested documentation, this time we get a
response from Vinnie Davis stating: The
“association utilizes/consults with a certified arborists as
needed. Native Oak trees are not
removed in the community unless the tree is diseased, dying, or dead and a
certified arborists makes that determination on a case by case basis,”
directly contradicting the aforementioned
the CZ Master Association’s Landscape Coordinator, Tracy William’s
statement
The letter also stated that the association does not “specifically
track the type and number of certain tree species removed but does track the
cost in the general ledger.” An
applicable truism in business is: “if
you cannot measure it, you cannot manage it.” It also implies that either Keystone, the association and or both
may not be compliant with the Business
Judgment Rule - The Business Judgment
Rule requires that decisions by directors be in good faith, including
reasonable inquiry, as an ordinarily prudent person, a person exhibiting common
sense, in a like position would use
under similar circumstances according to Corp. Code §723 1(c).
After all, if the Oak tree behind Summerhill had been taken
down without a recommendation of a tree specialist, and if the CotoBuzz Journal
had not gotten involved, who would have known that regulations had been broken?
End of story, right? You guessed it! You are catching on fast!
On July 30, 2012, Vinnie Davis writes in an email: “We are
in the process of reviewing the tree locations as several trees appear to be on
the golf course property therefore the matter is on hold until we are able to
discern which tree(s) may be the responsibility of the HOA.”
Does anyone see anything wrong with this picture? On July a protected Oak tree is supposed to
be cut down. On July 30, the
association does not even know who owns the tree! Forget about the business rule and forget about county state and
federal laws protecting oak trees. How
about a bit of common sense? If you agree, simply tie a re ribbon around the nearest oak tree in your neighboorhodd as a sign of solidarity with the Summerhill Oak Tree now on Death Row. Now, consider that that CZ residents are paying over $1.7 million/year in landscaping and overhead charges - yet there does not seem to me a semblance of protected species management!
Now, if you do not see anything wrong, you just qualified
for a seat on the CZ Master Association board of directors.
