OPA Director Marty Clarke Subject of Witch Hunt by Thompson, Terry, O’Hare, and Stachurski
Is a Kangaroo Court in the Offing?
Commentary by Joe Reynolds
During the OPA board meeting of 11/28/2012 OPA Director Marty Clarke announced that President Tom Terry had notified him he was being charged with violations of OPA Policy Resolution 1-05-40, a Code of Conduct for OPA Board members.
After some discussion the board voted to go into closed session, but only after Director Dave Stevens said he would agree only if the closed session was to include only generic discussion of any legal issues with OPA’s attorney, and did not include any specific discussion of Clarke or specific charges against Clarke. The Board agree and then moved to closed session.
Contrary to the approved motion, what happened was the board moved to closed session and discussed Clarke and specific charges against him. Sources say Clarke left the closed meeting before it concluded.
Curiously, it seems Tom Terry and others bringing charges were not aware that a prior board had voted unanimously to eliminate Policy Resolution 1-05-40.
The policy resolution was dumped back on 5/16/2007 on a motion by Ray Unger. It passed unanimously. Dan Stachurski presided over that board meeting (see video link at bottom). During the 2007 discussion Stachurski stated, “Directors are elected by the property owners of the community and it should be only property owners of the community who have the power to remove a director.”
Here's the absurd nitty-gritty of this witch hunt by the GM and some board members to stifle or remove Marty Clarke:
1. Bob Thompson charges Clarke with making comments about a possible insurance claim for damages to the Yacht Club pool caused by Hurricane Sandy. Clarke has apparently made public comments suggesting such a claim might be denied because OPA drained the pool after the season. If Clarke is correct, should some individual be brought up on some charge for removing all the water from the pool? Most references to pool management suggest water be left in the pool to prevent hydrostatic pressure from pushing it out of the ground – apparently what happened with the Yacht Club pool when ground-water levels rose during the storm.
2. Sharyn O'Hare charges Clarke with making comments about how OPA handled notification of association members with regard to a mandatory evacuation notice from the National Weather Service during Hurricane Sandy. Clarke publicly pointed out that OPA took about three hours to notify the membership after the weather service called for mandatory evacuation. How the statement of a publicly known fact is some sort of basis for formal charges of wrongdoing is a real stretch. The same fact was published on OceanPinesForum.com at the time. While it took about three hours for OPA to tell the membership of a mandatory evacuation, it took only about five minutes to notify members the Yacht Club referendum passed.
3. Dan Stachurski charges Clarke with disclosing items from closed board meetings. This one is a real corker. The pot calls the kettle black... in spades. I have no specifics on the details of the charge.
4. Tom Terry accuses Clarke for comments related to an OPA employee trying to "fix" the OceanPinesForum.com poll on the Yacht Club referendum. Clarke had nothing to do with exposing this; I did. Furthermore, the GM admitted the attempted "fix" by an OPA staffer did indeed take place, and reprimanded the individual.
One thing is obvious. These four charges did not all come at the same time by accident. There was collusion.
With the knowledge and approval of Tom Terry and some board members, OPA attorney Joe Moore is conducting an investigation of Clarke. The investigation was not authorized by a formal board vote.
Attempts by the board to keep charges against Clarke secret would appear to be in violation of the OPA by-laws, if the board is attempting to remove Clarke. The board will likely say there is not an attempt to remove him. However, if there is no attempt or desire to remove him, why have formal charges been brought against Clarke based on a non-existent Code of Conduct, and what is the purpose of Moore’s investigation, at a cost of perhaps thousands of dollars.
Shame on all four of those involved in what certainly smacks of a scandalous attempt to ruin someone's credibility and reputation for political purposes based on school-yard allegations.
However, OPA president Tom Terry stands alone at the top of the Peak of Shame.
Video Reference:
| Code of Conduct Dumped Video coverage of OPA board meeting. Unger motion to dump Code of Conduct passes unanimously 5/16/2007. |
Uploaded: 12/1/2012
