Let Them Eat Cake

In case you missed the last Council Meeting, your fearless reporter was there and the message to members from the Council was to “let them eat cake”. Now this is a business meeting, which ought to start on time and deal with business first. Owners’ time should be respected and not be subjected to dragging it out which unfortunately has become a favorite ploy not only with ECA but also the Village District. Mr. Goldman got up and once again made reference to “when the golf course made money”. Now I have lived here since before there even was a golf course. When the community made the decision –By Referendum—to buy the golf course in 1980, they realized the golf course was a money drain, but they were willing to acquire the Center/Golf Course on the condition that it be “Revenue Neutral”. A then “responsible” Board put explicit language in the property deed allowing for the “Course Closure” after the elapse of a specified number of years if it wasn’t “revenue neutral”!

The difference then was that the golfers were not as greedy and they treated fellow ECA members with Respect, Transparency and Openness. ECA golf member greed has since gotten totally out of hand. If Mr. Goldman or the second member of the Eastman Troika Mr. Ryder, has a Profit & Loss sheet that shows the golf course making a profit, including overhead, then I want to see it. So far Goldman and Ryder (supported by a “Golf Dominated” Board) have refused to produce golf financial reports that would conform to that requirement (rejecting my written requests multiple times).

Mr. Goldman has said in the past that “a few dissidents” have been against every initiative he has undertaken. That is absolutely not true. No such dissidents exist except in Mr. Goldman’s creative mind and oratorical proclamations. What we and many other “so called” dissidents are against is out of control, unwarranted and unjustified spending.  There were two plans for South Cove: one rehab, one build new. We favored rehab because the money wasn’t there. Indeed even at the end of this fiscal year, we will still have a financial shortfall for that building of almost $1 Million-- an amount your Board, CRC and Finance and Budget Committee slipped into the so-called “Center Financing Bundle” as part of their Fiscal Cover-up Scandal.

The Golf Course/Center has been and is bleeding money. Creating artificial financials to show otherwise is irresponsible. So now we have overspent on South Cove and we are going to fix it by overspending on the Center. You may recall the reason for calling the “Clubhouse” the “Center”? So all the residents could use it? The reason the Community “Center” is unavailable? Our Troika power leaders have given away the use of our Center to the Concessionaire, which is why we had to build South Cove—so the residents would have their own facility. However the Concessionaire has his hand in that too. Another deception by the Eastman Power Troika is that they have to hold Council Meetings at South Cove, which violates NH State fire code laws because of the Concessionaire. Back on November 15, of 2013 I said in my Post “Latest From Eastman Highlights” http://eastmanblog.blogspot.com/2013/11/latest-from-eastman-highlights.html “There is a Clubhouse coming down.” What are members going to do about it?

 You have seen the results of the voting by now. If you ever were under the impression that your Special Place Reps actually represented you, now you know for certain that it isn’t so. For the first time in Eastman history the Council gave a Blank Check to Troika leader Maynard and his Board .  What the community wants is Direct Vote, however this is blocked by the puppet Council.  Council Members led by Eastman’s Power Troika member Bob Parker said, “We don’t need to know what you are going to build--just spend lots of money so we can drink, have fancy locker rooms befitting of our elitist status” or as Marie Antoinette put it: “Let Them Eat Cake” --referring of course to the 80% of ECA owners who are not Club Members. Twelve new Eastman property listings came online after the Council Vote last Saturday.