Dear Members and Friends,
“Thank you” is a way too modest term to express our appreciation to each and all of you for your terrific support. What has this support meant to YOUR PBPOA? Well, much more than you might expect. Two very important and enduring consequences of your support are:
- The highest paid membership count in the 38 yr. history of YOUR PBPOA, and
- A return to financial stability.
It is important to remember that Pelican Bay took a vicious COVID hit over the past 2 years. It has not been easy to manage our community nor YOUR PBPOA through the COVID storm. Many members as well as most PBPOA Board Members have suffered from this terrible epidemic.
It is our hope that 2023 brings restoration and good health to you and your families.
Looking forward to an even better year in 2023, here are a couple of issues on which we need to shine a light:
Censorship — The suppression of words, images or ideas
Some Pelican Bay Board, not the current one, at some point in time, allocated editing responsibilities to the Foundation President, a Foundation employee, for all Pelican Bay
communication vehicles, such as the Pelican Bay Post, videos of meetings, ‘Today in the Bay’ e-newsletter, any and all that distribute official Pelican Bay information and content to Pelican Bay members. The editor uses his editing mandate aggressively, and there is no appeal mechanism. Four (4) of our Pelican Bay Post articles have been edited out (deleted) from publication in the Pelican Bay Post in 2022; we know of 3 more instances of meeting videos being altered and information, including Pelican Bay financial information, being denied to Pelican Bay residents. If you and I are responsible for the bill, don’t you think that you and I should know how much the bill is? It is our opinion that this has to stop and stop now. The editor is also the one who chose to take it upon himself to place “TIP” signs on the Trams with no input from anyone including the Pelican Bay Board of Directors. It’s the “tail is wagging the dog here.” Is this what you want and expect from a W-2 Foundation employee with no official oversight whatsoever?
“Silence the voice of dissent, and you control the people!”
Pelican Bay Elections
A most basic expectation for Pelican Bay owners and voters is to have honest elections. We’re talking about our neighbors here. This has not always been the case. If we can’t have honest, transparent elections at a community level, how can we expect the same at the County, State or Federal level? The election mischief that is verifiably confirmed involves Pelican Bay Board members instructing the Pelican Bay Foundation General Manager, a Foundation employee, to contact Commercial Members with the preference(s) of the Board Member or Board Members involved, and, in the process, disparage the leading residential candidate.
Very few residents of Pelican Bay know who the voting contact is at the Commercial Members. But Pelican Bay management sure knows. Commercial members, collectively, have over 1300 votes or about 20% of the total. If they collectively vote for a given candidate, it can make the difference as it has in the past. Insist that some structure be in place to assure owners and legitimate voters that the Pelican Bay elections are honest, transparent and verifiable with no interference from Board Members, Management or anyone else! Candidates run for the Pelican Bay Foundation Board in innocence and good faith. To have this trust compromised cannot be tolerated!
VERY IMPORTANT! NO CURRENT MEMBER OF THE PELICAN BAY FOUNDATION BOARD OF DIRECTORS NOR ANY MEMBER OF CURRENT PELICAN BAY MANAGEMENT WAS INVOLVED IN THE ELECTION ENGINEERING REFERENCED ABOVE.
Please stay well, enjoy this wonderful place called Pelican Bay and approach 2023 with great positive anticipation for a wonderful, COVID/Flu free, prosperous and healthy year.
Best regards,
Mark E. English, President
For your Friends at the Pelican Bay Property Owners Association
Serving you since 1984
