The Sad
Camilla Rogers resigned from the OPA Board of Directors. As OPA corporate Secretary, Rogers was responsible for declaring Richard Farr an ineligible board candidate, a decision she made in good faith after consultation with legal counsel. After making the decision, her life turned into a living hell. Wild accusations about her on Facebook. Newspaper editorials declaring her part of a cabal to rig the election. Farr and his co-plaintiffs charging her and/or certain board members with declaring Farr ineligible to further their own political interests. One newspaper publisher suggested it would be best for OPA if she resigned. A good woman hoping to serve her community was attacked unmercifully.

Any commentary aside, here is what Camilla Rogers said upon resigning:

This will be my last board meeting. This has been very difficult for my family. Actually, it has been horrendous.

You get accosted by people (in public places) who do not let me enjoy an afternoon with my friends.

My husband went to the doctor and had high blood pressure. The doctor asked if he was under stress in his life. Yeah. I sure am, he told the doctor.

Mr. Trendic (former OPA board member Slobodan Trendic) sent me an email and I found it very amusing. He told me I looked so stressed under the long examination that I went through (during a hearing in Farr's case) that someone should make a videotape of it to see how badly I did.

It's been this kind of activity that makes me sad to live here. I am not saying I am going to move. But these are the kind of things - threats to our lives, threats to our dog. This has really, really been terrible. Mr. Farr has suffered too, and I am sorry for that, but board members do not need to be condemned.

We are trying to do the best job we can, but my family and I cannot take any more of this.

The Bad
During voting at Thursday's board meeting on a motion by Larry Perrone related to holding a new election with three eligible candidates and a motion by Doug Parks to count the ballots already returned, disqualify Farr and seat the remaining two top vote-getters on the board, current board member Frank Daly failed a test for the John F. Kennedy "Profiles in Courage" award.

Until Thursday's vote, Daly had abstained from any voting on issues related to the Farr case, presumably to eliminate any appearance of a conflict of interest since Daly is a candidate seeking re-election. Of interest is all of Daly's previous abstentions happened on votes where his vote was not needed for the current majority to prevail.

Thursday was different. For starters, board member Tom Janasek asked OPA counsel Jeremy Tucker for legal advice as to whether or not Daly should vote on the Perrone motion to hold a new election. Tucker said Daly could legally vote but advised him not to do so as his vote could possibly be used against OPA in the Farr lawsuit.

Daly acknowledged the legal advice but voted anyway. Why would Daly do so? Quite simple. Daly likely did so in this case because without his vote the Perrone motion would have failed on a 3-3 tie vote and there would not now be a new election in the works.

Holding a new election is a bad mistake. Daly should have allowed the Perrone motion to fail and abstained on the Parks motion to seat two new board members based on publicly-counted votes from the recently returned, but unopened, ballots, and then declaring Farr ineligible regardless of his vote count. On Thursday, Frank Daly was his own worst enemy at a time when one local paper just editorialized, without any evidence, that the board is pursuing "its goal of giving Director Frank Daly a second term."