Financial State of the Association:  Part 1

Hey everyone,

In last week’s Open Session, the Board addressed the association’s monthly financial report, which is standard practice.  What is unusual, however, is for the Board to address the financial state of the association, which CFO Riley did at length. 

He began his remarks by publicly attacking the integrity of “certain homeowners, including a former Board member.”  He said the members posted false and malicious statements about the board and the association’s finances.  He stated that their opinions have no validity and are not supported by the reality of our finances.  He alleged that the members shared confidential financial data, which is not true, an accusation I will address separately.

Some of you know that when I was a Board Member, I encouraged the Board to present our financials in detail and address any questions or comments our members may have.  In fact, it’s why I recommended the Board reinstate the Finance Committee, so that there would be a standing forum for accurate, genuine dialogue regarding our financials.  But President Rosteck, Vice President Glass and CFO Riley voted against reinstating the Finance Committee, and that was that.

My point is this:  the problem with last week’s presentation is not that the Board attempted to explain our finances in more detail than usual.  I applaud this objective as long as it’s done in good faith.   

Instead, the problem as I see it was two-fold:

First, if the Board’s goal is to set the financial record straight, then they should have allowed homeowners to participate in the discussion.  But instead, they did not allow members to comment or ask questions. 

Second, if CFO Riley wanted to genuinely respond to the allegedly false statements, then he should have addressed the issues actually raised on Nextdoor.  Instead, he went on about things that were not central to the post (like our savings accounts and annual audits), while ignoring important aspects of the ND discussion.

Therefore, I am going to tackle the issues one at a time.  And since CFO Riley’s presentation was long, and my response is long, I will break my comments into several posts, starting with Part 2 below.  In the meantime, the Board’s presentation is posted on myTRV, and to see an excerpt beginning with CFO Riley’s remarks, click here.

Thank you, everyone.  To proceed to Part 2, click here.

Patrick