During the March 10, 2023 Elections Committee meeting, Chairman Tom Piatti discussed filling an empty position on the committee as a result of Elaine Brady's resignation to run for the Board of Directors.

Piatti said, "As a matter of record, there are three people who are in line [for appointment]." These individuals were previously endorsed by Elections Committee liaison Rick Farr.

Piatti added, "Two of these people had enmity towards this committee. Disparaging remarks. Insults. Things like that. There is no workability with those people." He also said the Committee could not contact the third person, and thus new applications would be accepted. The two "no workability" individuals, based on public OPA records, are Sherrie Clifford and Ken Petrini.

Clifford is not pleased with what is happening. "I looked at Tom Piatti as a mentor," she said in an interview. "Tom Piatti is so out of line. How dare he. To top it off, Rick Farr wrote that I cannot be trusted." Farr is the board liaison to the Elections Committee.

The issue is not political wrangling among board members, association members, or committee applicants. Political wrangling in OPA will never end. The issue here is public discussion of the personal or political views and backgrounds of committee applicants. It has to stop.

Has OPA reached the point where applications to serve on committees are now political popularity contests? A year or more ago, then OPA president Colette Horn refused to vote for now board member Stuart Lakernick's appointment to a committee. The board did not approve Lakernick. The Horn board majority did not like Lakernick's politics. They did not like Lakernick. Now Lakernick is on the board and a member of a majority that does not like the politics of Sherrie Clifford. Given Piatti's statement, will the board reject Clifford for political views not in line with those of the Parks, Farr, Lakernick, and Rakowski majority? What about Ken Petrini?

Why would any association member subject themselves to public ridicule because any given board majority might disparage them because of their OPA political opinions, as disgustingly happened to Stuart Lakernick?

Let's return to the 10/15/2022 OPA board meeting, not long after the August election, when Doug Parks and his supporters on the board, all essentially elected due to efforts of the Get Involved Facebook group, took control of OPA away from Horn and her majority. The entire Elections Committee resigned due to mishandling of the board election. The situation was so bad we will never know if the third candidate elected actually won a board seat, a seat that decided the board majority.

The Election Committee is limited to five members. More than five applied. All were given the endorsement of Rick Farr, the committee's board liaison. The Parks majority insisted the decision as to who would be appointed must be based on application date -- the first five applications received were appointed. The Horn minority was not happy. Parks said all applications on file or received later for future vacancies would be considered by the board.

Thus, it would appear Sherrie Clifford and Ken Petrini will come before the board of directors with Parks asking for a nomination from the board members. Then each of these association members may well see the board members publicly discuss why there is "no workability with those people."

Prior to the 10/15/2022 board meeting, former board member Amy Peck wrote, "More applications than five spots the Resolution calls for. My guess is the Board majority will say 'first come first served' and disregard having a committee with the skills and experience needed."

Mark Mitchell responded, "Are you suggesting that one or more of these folks [first five] are not qualified?"

Peck responded, "I'm suggesting that every committee should strive to have the most qualified members...not just buddies."

The exchange, of course, was somewhat to do with Peck suggesting that any potential Election Committee member who did not agree with her desire to have Internet voting was not qualified to be on the committee.

Marty Clarke, responded to Peck, "You have a lot of nerve! You, who sat on the board that bent over backwards to blackball Stuart Lakernick for political reasons only. Not once, but twice!"

Clarke gets to the essence of the problem regarding Lakernick. We will see if this current board does the same to Clifford.

How can the board avoid all this public discussion of applicants for committee appointments? Perhaps, God forbid, the board could simply follow the bylaws.

Section 10.02. Appointments. Chairpersons and members shall be members of the Association eligible to vote and shall be appointed or reappointed by the President, with the consent of the Board of Directors. 

Nothing in the above bylaw related to committee appointments suggests the board president must place every applicant on the floor at a public meeting to discuss the applicant followed by a motion for approval. The president should decide who he or she wants to appoint, announce the appointment and ask for board approval without objection. It was done in this manner for many years. If one or more board members wish to bring up an objection, postpone the appointment. The board should not be debating the personal or political life of any committee applicant in a public meeting.

Do the bylaws allow the board president to appoint people based on personal preference? Indeed, it does. It is a prerogative granted to the president in our governing documents. However, following the bylaws prevents public demonization of committee applicants for political purposes -- exactly what has been happening in recent years, beginning with Lakernick.

Sadly and unfortunately, Stuart Lakernick is now trying to do to Sherrie Clifford exactly what Colette Horn did to Lakernick. Clifford also recently applied to be a member of the Search Committee and Lakernick, committee liaison, wrote, "I do not endorse this applicant." Clifford previously served on the Search Committee and was highly commended for her work by then Search Committee chairman Tom Piatti.