Estate Fish Bay Owner’s Association

February 7, 2024

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To Our Neighbors and Friends in the Estate Fish Bay Owners Association;

 

As many EFBOA members know, we are being sued by 8 members within the association.  The Plaintiffs are Adam Cook, Trustee of the Adam Cook Revocable Trust, dated November 30, 2016, Blossom Corporation, Inc., Elissa Runyon, Jerry Runyon, A. Michael Milne, Trustee of The A. Michael Milne Revocable Trust, Meredith Fletcher, Marc O’Neil, Anne O’Neil, and Allen D. Miller, Trustee of the Allen Miller Revocable Trust dated 4/9/2019.

 

On behalf of its members, the EFBOA board has engaged counsel to represent your interests and to properly respond to the many information requests we’ve received.  To date, we have paid substantial legal bills towards that effort, and spent countless hours of board time. The board is compelled to respond to any legal action on your behalf, and our goal is to minimize all legal expenses for our members, as this is in everyone’s best interest. We recently entered into a mediation process, which unfortunately did not succeed in our goal of a settlement, and it appears that the matter will continue, and require attention by the board and the membership.

 

It’s important to note that the EFBOA is managed by volunteers who give their time and expertise to tend to the needs of the association.  No one profits from it and there are many deeds done at personal expense by its members that go unnoticed. Board membership is open to all members, by a public vote, and we actively recruit and invite any interested parties to participate or volunteer to support our mission to improve the quality of life in Fish Bay.  We are as transparent as possible.

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Towards those goals, we have posted the original complaint, in its entirety here.

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In the complaint, there is an over-riding concern about the transparency of board process, and lack of communication.  The current board has made every effort to inform our members within practical limits, by updating our website and, for example, and recently polling our members about the NOAA grant to minimize erosion. We increasingly use electronic methods to further communications and to record them.  We are currently archiving all past EFBOA records and recording them electronically for ease of access. Zoom meetings for board members are frequent and used at the annual meeting with an independent and trusted moderator to field questions.  Our records are available to members upon request, within practical limits. Further, we welcome and any interested party to run as a candidate for board service, to help us continue to work towards the improvement of the quality of life in Fish Bay.  

 

It is unclear as to what is sought by the complaint, as you can see by reading it, which makes the process of settlement much more difficult.  We can say with certainty that the effect of the suit is to cause harm to the financial structure of your association, as well as its board members, as it forces the board to continually work with our lawyers to properly respond to the many communications within our legal system.  We can say with certainty that the legal bills detract from our ability to pave roads and do the other things mandated by our By Laws and our mission statement, and so detracts from the quality of life in Fish Bay. Without a clear claim or purpose, it calls into question the intent of the actions.  If anyone wants to improve the processes of EFBOA, we encourage participation from all points of view and remain open to all ideas that can make us a better organization so that we can fulfill our mission.

 

In addition, the group has taken an unusual and, in our opinion, unnecessary step in suing each of the board members personally.  This is problematic to any volunteer organization.  While the board certainly has the responsibility to defend itself legally, it is very aggressive to sue its members personally, and again calls into question the intent of the group’s actions.  Why would anyone volunteer to support their local neighborhood if it involved having to seek and personally pay for legal representation?  The group has not only sued the members who were serving at the time of the suit, they have chosen to sue new members coming on the board, who have no responsibility for any decisions made prior to their commitment to join.

 

The complaint also contains several unfortunate personal allegations that the current board has reviewed and found each one to be completely without merit. Since the inception of the suit, the board has added several new members who have no prejudices regarding these allegations.  The current board has worked diligently toward addressing any known deficiency in our processes and continues to make every effort to inform the membership on important issues such as this one and to be as transparent as possible overall. To our knowledge, the board’s actions cited in the suit were consistent with the goal of the mission statement and there is no evidence of any personal interests being advanced in its processes. 

 

For clarity, there is another lawsuit discussed in the complaint, relating to the “Wetlands”.  You can learn more about this very important issue by going to our website, www.estatefishbayownersassociation.org/conservation.  On this issue, the EFBOA board has consistently acted in the interests of its membership to call attention to the potential harm from any development of this critically important ecological environment, and this has included some justifiable legal costs.  We are hopeful and continue to work with determination so that these investments and efforts, will in time, result in the conservation of these properties.

 

In our opinion, it is expensive and distractive to the process of board management and to the quality of life in Fish Bay to continue any litigation when an open discussion of member concerns is readily available. The group has suggested to the courts that they have a majority of support within the association, which we do not believe to be the case based on recent election results.  They purport to be representing your interests in an attempt to sway the court, without your consent. 

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We look forward to your participation in our annual meeting, coming up on May 11, 2024 and we welcome comments from our members as they help us to best represent your interests. Thanks for taking the time to participate in our community.  Please feel free to contact any one of us personally if you would like to discuss this matter or send any comment or concern on this matter or others to fishbayownersassociation@gmail.com and we will do our best to address it.

 

 

EFBOA Board

 

Lanny Roberts, President

Jim Swan, Vice President

Jon Roll, Secretary 

Tina Pettito, Treasurer

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Alexandra Anns, Director

Michael Barry, Director

Liz Lowe, Director

Cheryl McDaniel, Director