"Abstaining is nonsense outside of some conflict of interest issue..." 

After many weeks and long, arduous hours of negotiating, the Board agreed on 02/19/16, in principal, to a compromise, in which the base assessment rate was to have a zero increase from the previous year. I personally was in full agreement with that compromise. It was, however, not determined, at that time, what the full dollar impact this decision would have on our reserve funds. Additionally, it was important to me, before I would actually vote to approve all the changes that were made during these budget meetings, to see a written report of those changes so I would know exactly what I was approving. I sent an e-mail to all of our Directors and the General Manager on 02/24/16 advising them that I could not approve the budget at our next Board meeting until I saw the exact detail of these changes that we agreed upon. Subsequently, late that afternoon (ONE day before the Board meeting) our General Manager sent out an e-mail stating that the budget pages were completed and were placed in our boxes at the Administration Building. I did not se this e-mail until later on that evening and was unable to obtain that information until the next morning., which was now the day of the vote. I quickly scanned the information that morning, trying to absorb as much information as I could in the short period of time before the Board meeting started. I was then made aware that two other Board members Collins and Stevens, had not yet seen the published information at all. Due to these circumstances, it was requested by Mr. Stevens and Mr. Collins that the final vote be delayed, for a few days, so all the Directors would have an opportunity to go over the final budget pages, in detail, before the final vote was taken. I personally felt it was a reasonable request to postpone and completely unnecessary to rush the vote through considering the crucial impact a budget has on our membership. Unfortunately, the majority of our current Board of Directors decided it was necessary to force an IMMEDIATE vote to be taken with no regard to their fellow Director's wishes to provide them with additional time to actually digest exactly what they would be voting on. This certainly is not be an issue that should be taken lightly nor one which needed to be rushed through without good reason. The unfairness of the situation prompted me to abstain from the motion which was to force an IMMEDIATE vote, although I personally, under approved circumstances, would have approved the budget as written. 

I hope this provides some understanding to what actually transpired and to my commitment to do what I believe is in the best interest for our membership.

Sincerely,

Tom Herrick