Board Refuses Member’s Due Diligence Request

Bamboozled Again??

As ECA members, we filed the following financial information request with the Board on August 13, 2014. (See Letter to Ken 8-13-14/Board below) Versions of this request have been filed with Trip Anderson, Burpee Hill Special place Chair as well as Larry Schulman, Dave Philippi, TCBC Chair, Ken Ryder, to all Council members and other community officials. The Board, in its refusal rejected financial accountability to its members.

By voting to go forward with funding and building a new Center, ECA Council and Board members refused to require proper accounting and disclosure for hundreds of thousands of dollars already spent on the Center. There is absolutely no excuse for this abdication of responsibility. In essence the ECA Council Members, Board and Dave Philippy’s Committee have told ECA Members/Owners to take a hike. There is no due diligence document whatsoever that supports the need to spend that outlandish amount of money to destroy a 17-year-old building. 

The Board letter and Financial Information Request submitted are below:

Robert F. Logan  

August 13, 2014

Board of Directors

Dear Board Member:

At the request of General Manager Ken Ryder I am submitting this financial information request (see below), for your approval and immediate action. In Mr. Ryder's request to me he specified not by email nevertheless, I am submitting it by email and will follow with a hard copy.

As a separate request I am requesting that the Board spell out exactly the financial information an ECA member is entitled to obtain from the general manager, his or her staff. This would also include financial information that would be posted and easily found on Community's website. A number of the towns in the Upper Valley do this quite well including Hanover which is a good benchmark.

Thank you for your service to the community,

Robert Logan

Bob,

Please submit your request in writing (not email) to the ECA Board of Directors.

Cheers,

Ken

From: R & G Logan [mailto:rlogannh@yahoo.com] 

Sent: Wednesday, August 13, 2014 10:48 AM

To: Ken Ryder

Subject: Financial Information request

Ken, 

I am requesting that you provide the following Center financial history to me and that you make it available to all ECA members:

Financial History--Accountability that includes a detailed inventory of all capital expenses for the building done since it was built including:

•          Cost of the tavern addition

•          Cost of the upgrade work that was done for the kitchen and the furnishings for Brian McKenzie (Pleasant Lake Inn) when he agreed to a contract to operate the restaurant. In that contract were stipulations to upgrade the facility which included:

◦       Upgrading the kitchen

◦       Renovating and upgrading the furnishings, light fixtures etc.

•          Cost of the Draper Room re-designs and re-decoration which has been done at least twice.

•          Cost of upgrading the building air-conditioning system

•           Cost and scope of all repairs and upgrades that have been done in the entire building including the pizza ovens, the kitchen air-conditioning, the septic system etc. since the building was built.

•          Cost of all major operational/maintenance items which have exceeded $10,000 (in the 3 years FY11, FY12 and FY13, we paid almost $500,000 to a corporation owned by a unit owner and a unit owner for repair and maintenance—Note M Audit Reports)

STEP 2: Capital Improvement Requirements--Before any Renovation or Build -New Plan is authorized by any governance entity, we're calling for a required second step.  This second step would be as follows:

·         The detailed cost list in priority order of required renovations categorized as follows:

a.    Must do: 0-12 months / Dollars per major item  

b.    Need to do: 0-12 months/ Dollars per major item

c.    Want to do: 0-12 months/ Dollars per major item 

d.    A similar list created for 12 to 60 months

These detail costs need to be fully disseminated and fully vetted with the entire community.  

It is expected that most of this information would be contained in the Annual Capital Budget Requirements. In the Annual Budget there is a Capital Projects List in priority order with a line drawn after a given proposed “capital-spending amount”. (FY2015 Budget p. 107-108).  We are unable to find any Center Projects listed for the Center in the FY2015 Budget.

The current condition of the Eastman Center is and has been your responsibility as general manager for the past 11 years or so. 

We as members of this community who have paid all costs for capital and operating expenses to maintain our community's infrastructure have a right to a complete accounting of how the Center Building is in the claimed poor physical shape that has been portrayed by committees and others in governance. All Eastman owners have a right to full disclosure of the appropriate financial records and information.

Regards,

Bob

Sincerely,

Robert F. Logan

Contributed by Bob Logan who is the CEO of a consulting practice since 1993 which provides expertise on improved business, financial and operational performance as well as leadership.