Letters to the Editor

Declarations

explained

Last week a letter to the editor appeared in this newspaper that perhaps inadvertently made a serious mistake in explaining how the Declarations of Bella Vista Village POA establish the rules for how a vote on the proposed assessment plan will be decided.

I urge all of you to read the Declarations for yourself which can be found on the POA website.

Reference sections 5 and 6, and you will discover that last week's letter confused a quorum with a majority vote. Before any vote on the assessment plan can be decided (either approved, or rejected) a quorum must be achieved.

A quorum is defined in section 6 as at least 50 percent of all eligible voters casting their votes, regardless of how they vote. If a quorum is not achieved, i.e. less than 50 percent of eligible voters cast their votes, then another vote can be called in less than 90 days, and for that vote, a quorum will be defined as 25 percent of eligible voters.

However, as very clearly stated in section 5 of the Declarations in no case can the assessment plan be approved with any less than a 51 percent approval of the voters who choose to vote.

I would also like to take this opportunity to suggest that it is time to bury forever the conspiracy theories and the total misperception of secrecy by the POA Board or its committees.

Here again are the facts about the numbers -- on the POA website, and in the Bella Vista Library you can study to your hearts content up to seven years of audited financial statements, and seven years of tax returns, as well as 6 years of budgets for both the POA and the Water Department.

In addition you can find monthly financial statements for the past two months of the current year, each of which consists of 12 different levels of detail. I think that is enough detail to weary even the most ardent bean-counter.

If you think the Board, or a committee of the Board is somehow secret, please attend one of the two monthly public meetings of the Board, or a public monthly committee meeting and express your concerns in the open forums which are your opportunity to communicate to the Board.

Lastly, let me comment on the confidentiality of employee salaries. While the salaries and benefits of the officers are annually reported in the annual tax return of the POA, no other salaries are disclosed nor should they be. All employees have a right to have this information remain confidential, just like in any other job.

Do you really believe our POA will be able to attract and retain qualified and loyal employees to service us and maintain our amenities if they know their salaries will be in the newspaper?

Brad Morris

Bella Vista