At the December 5, 2023 Annual Homeowners Meeting, Treasurer Clay Jones once again began giving a sales pitch on gold bullion and coins. He had a slide projector at the front of the room, and began showing complex and detailed information to underline his point: We should all go buy gold from him at the shop where he works, and the HOA should put its reserves into gold bullion and coins.
He’s done this before. And, it’s a clear conflict of interest – after he finally signed our Conflict of Interest Policy in early 2023.
But, putting that aside, Treasurer Jones didn’t do what most presenters do when giving such presentations. He didn’t hand out printed copies of his PowerPoint deck. I can’t think of a single one I’ve attended in 10 years where this wasn’t done. It’s normal.
So, I pulled out my camera. Full disclosure, I took 2 pictures. Here they are:
The gist of his pitch is this: Smart people buy gold. Dumb people don’t. We should be smart, like him.
This is, by my count, the 7th time Treasurer Jones has made this pitch at POHOA Meetings. The homeowners resoundingly rejected it last year, but literally none of those folks attended this year.
But, the issue arises when I’ve taken the 2nd picture (his 4th display in his presentation). President Ballweber called me out for violating the POHOA Meetings Policy, which was enacted in March of 2023:
Now, having my phone in the air, I can understand that she may have thought I was making a video of Treasurer Jones’ presentation. So, I said, I am just taking pictures.
President Ballweber then states that taking photographs are also banned. I responded that the policy only mentions audio and video recordings. Director Flanary then steps in to say that he agrees. No photos are allowed.
Rather than belabor the point, I factored in the fact that Treasurer Jones announced at the beginning of his presentation that he had been very sick “but was feeling better”. He looked ragged. But, he went a step further to describe that on Friday and Saturday, he was EXPOSED to 50-60 people per day (implying that some of them were sick), and since it was was so long ago (like 2 days), well, he was soldiering on with his presentation in a closed room with minimal air circulation.
Someone else said “thanks for exposing us!”
I immediately put on my mask, which I still keep in my back pocket at all times.
When I was called out for violating the policy, I asked for printed copies of the slides he was showing. I was denied. I decided to leave at that point – the combination of exposure to his cold/virus combined with a memory of his 30-minute pitch and President Ballweber attempting to accuse me of violating a policy meant it was time to go. I had made my candidacy known, but it wasn’t worth enduring this to find out that the kangaroo court had already decided the matter (and I was right about that).
But, the fact remains, President Ballweber, once again, is using interpretation to make up rules on the fly. There’s no rule against photographs. If the Board wishes to change the policy, they need to give notice, haven an open meeting, and change the language. Until then, still photographs may still be taken per reading of the plainly-written language of the policy.