An Editorial by Patric Hedlund, Managing Editor

In less than a year, the two highest paid executives serving the Mountain Communities have left office prematurely. One gave an hour’s notice with a year and about $110,000 left on his contract. The other left with roughly three years on his contract worth about $130,000 annually plus generous incentives. The circumstances of their respective resignations were quite different. One, the former superintendent of the El Tejon Unified School District, left within an hour of seeing himself starring in a surveillance video allegedly making repeated visits to the school bus gas tanks helping himself to what was not… allegedly…his.

The other, the chief operating officer of the Pine Mountain Club Property Owners Association, left for business opportunities elsewhere. But what is remarkably similar in both cases is that each left significant financial challenges in their wake for volunteer boards to try to salvage. In both cases, unpaid boards of directors and community volunteers are stepping forward to roll up their sleeves and put multimillion dollar budgets back on track. The old adage that "you get what you pay for" does not seem to hold true.

One well-paid administrator left a $7.2 million school bond building project in shambles. The other left behind the largest deficit in the history of the PMCPOA—a projected $570,000—and a budget that proposes a 19.9% hike in member assessments. If passed, that would equal 70% in increases for PMC members since 2001.

Most regrettably, the PMCPOA financial reports from which the volunteer board of directors is having to create a budget are so unstable that they are changing even as we write these words today.

The volunteer treasurer of the board, Rachel Unell, is taking personal time to work with the associations’s bookkeeper to trace down discrepancies so significant that the figures passed out to members at the last two budget meetings are tens of thousands of dollars out of agreement with each other. Under such circumstances, "trust me" is not an option for rational folks.

Volunteer power sustains these Mountain Communities. On Monday it was spotted in the kitchen at the Frazier Mountain Park Community Center, sending baskets of nourishing food out with couriers of goodwill, Meals On Wheels volunteers knocking on the doors of the elderly and infirm.

On Tuesday volunteer power filled the Frazier Mountain Community Center with people devoting three hours after a full day’s work to join a regional planning exercise to dream big dreams of a desirable future.

The same night two volunteer water boards grappled with tough issues about how to keep Frazier Park and Pinon Pines supplied with clean water. Meanwhile, the high school Booster Club met to arrange a Donkey Basketball fund raiser to provide athletic programs for youth.

At the ETUSD school board meeting on Wednesday, volunteer power was tending to the business of educating our children and keeping them safe. On Friday the Boys & Girls Club advisory board worked to figure out how to continue providing critical after-school and tutoring programs for the region’s children. The next morning the volunteer PMCPOA board held yet another member meeting to hash over the challenges of a runaway budget.

The energy that keeps the wheels of our mountain’s critical infrastructure rolling are all volunteers—an astonishing commentary on the pluck and dedication of the people who live here.

–Patric Hedlund, Managing
Editor, The Mountain Enterprise

That said…You will understand my concern when the good efforts of one volunteer committee didn’t quite produce the results they’d intended. They wrote a letter concerned about our report of the April 7 Pine Mountain Club budget workshop, reported by Jim McDevitt and Patric Hedlund.

Dear Editor:

We were disappointed in the description of the Pine Mountain Club Budget Workshop that appeared April 13, 2007 in The Mountain Enterprise [page 13].

As members of the Communications Committee, we know that considerable time and effort went into holding a budget workshop this year that would involve as many residents as possible in working together to address and plan for the upcoming fiscal year. To summarize how it was done this year:

First, to assure that as many members as possible would know about the workshop and be available to participate:

• A separate flyer was included in the Condor announcing the meeting.
• The workshop was prominently promoted on the PMCPOA website.
• Instead of holding it on a midweek afternoon, it was scheduled for Saturday morning April 7 when more members would be here for the weekend.
• To make the process as open and accessible as possible for those attending, a true workshop environment was created where everyone could participate and work together with the Board on the budget.
• All present were invited to break into small groups where they could raise concerns and questions and, most importantly, participate actively in providing their own suggestions and solutions for the financial decisions at hand.
• Each small group was facilitated by a Board Member.
• A detailed record was made of all comments, concerns, questions and suggestions.
• These have been transcribed and itemized into over 90 comments, ideas, concerns and suggestions for the Board and Finance Committee to incorporate as best they can into the budget proposal.
• All these contributions from the membership were then presented and reviewed at a special Finance Committee meeting held Saturday afternoon April 14.
• A special meeting of the board open to the members is scheduled for Saturday, April 28 at 10:00 a.m. to vote on the budget.

Sarah Edwards, Chair
Erik Sluyter, Vice Chair
Lee Dunnavant,
Communications Director
Sue Hendrickson, Secretary

We respect all the good thinking that went into this committee’s workshop design.

Unfortunately, what they didn’t factor into the equation is the recent damage to community trust, proven to be warranted by the fact that the financial report numbers are still not final.

That, coupled with the fact that Chairperson Nelson announced the board was going to vote on the budget April 14, with no further opportunity for community discussion, brought the word "ramrod" to lips around the room. Fortunately, Nelson not only found she was mistaken, but the board also listened to community sentiment and added another two weeks for deliberation, adding the April 14 community meeting and also moved the vote to April 28.

You can find Jim McDevitt’s detailed report and partial transcript of the April 14 meeting online at www.MountainEnterprise.com in the Community FYI section, under PMCPOA finances (left column).

This is part of the April 20, 2007 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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