August 21, 2024

I wish I had a video or at least a transcript of today’s events.

A couple weeks ago, I was neck deep in research and found a quiet almost unknown little quibble of statement in an old Attorney General Official Opinion. Basically, people can withdraw from a district to start a new district.

So, I filed a petition to create a road district, and they sent it to the state’s attorney to check out my premise and she said it was good to go. So, it was on the agenda for this morning. Now, I fully expected Dale to be there because… well… it’s Dale. He cannot not be in the middle of something, as you know. (and he did not disappoint on that count, more later).

The petition comes up and the commissioners ask for discussion and Bob Hummel, the current president (although not really legally, as you know), gets up and has a handout for all but one commissioner (because… I don’t know… he doesn’t know how many people are at the front of the room?). He then proceeds to talk about a whole bunch of things, of which he knows nothing. Things we tried to tell them they were wrong about, but they just ignored us. And here we are with an audience and he starts in on total bullshit again.

For example, at one of the illegal meetings on our road, we told him the road is over 20 years old. And he laughed and said that of course it isn’t that old.

This morning he is trying to impress the commissioners with all the improvements they’ve made.

First- if it’s an improvement without a special resolution (which is what all these are) then it’s illegal. And he is just stating it all so proudly.

Secondly, he says again that the road is now ‘up to specs’. So, I stood up and asked if I could address this moron (different word choice). I told him AGAIN… that there are no specs that the road must meet… because… say it with me… it’s over 20 years old.

And he argues with me. I said again that the specs are from 2006 and the road is older than 2005. And he argues with me. (WTF? Seriously?! This guy has lived here like a year, and he has no idea the history of this road. But then, as it turns out, neither does the treasurer, and she has been here like 6 years) And he says the road district was formed in 2016. And I said, “No… it was created in 2005, under the original name Ghost Canyon Road District, it had a name change, with a resolution… in 2016.

For Frill’s Sake. (SMH) This is BASIC public information.

So, then …On cue, Dale takes the spotlight and says the real reason was that the insurance company, and then he goes into how great he is because it was his idea to have insurance, blah blah blah…. bullshit bullshit… and THEY said the Road District should meet specs.

I didn’t have a chance to correct EVERY bullshit thing said (we’d still be there, and it’s now bedtime), I’ll let you know that I emailed that insurance company a few weeks ago. They don’t give a flyin’ fig about the specs. I asked… point blank. They answered straight up. So, that was apparently just more bullshit.

But somewhere in there, Dale caught the bug and realized people were listening and he told the room how much work, he personally, put into the road. He actually quoted some number of hours. It was too funny.

But wait! There’s more!

He kept going… and going…. about using his own equipment, free of charge etc etc.

Are you serious? Everybody on the road was volunteering hours and equipment till he moved in and literally told them to stop. I still have the email.

OMFG, I don’t know anybody, except a few toddlers on the swings yelling at their moms to ‘look at me’ who are as needy as he is. It doesn’t matter what the topic is… Dale would bring it around to him.

Eventually, Bob got his spotlight back, and for whatever reason he said something about being on a levy. THAT’S where I wish we had a recording. Or a transcript.

So, I said that we are not on a levy… but a special assessment.

And they said with authority, it was a levy. And so I smiled and asked the auditor, who was sitting 2 seats away from me to tell them what we were on.

‘Special Assessment,’ he says.

They didn’t know. None of them. Or so it seems, except Dale called a few people a year ago and learned that he was not limited to the 3% cap on raising our ‘fee’… which would kind of mean… that it was not a friggin’ levy. I suspect Dale is aware of many of the laws they have been breaking, as he literally had them underlined and starred in his files that he gave to Joel. Almost like a checklist of what to break today.

8 years… and they don’t know anything about possibly THE most important part of the Boards job… how they get their funds. And how to be sure it’s done legally.

And I said something about the difference and that one is legal (the levy) and the other is not (for us). And then Crystal, the treasurer stands up and she actually says this to the room.

You ready?

She says, “I’ve been the treasurer for 5 years and I’ve never heard any of that.”

Yes….

That’s the point!!!

You incompetent twit.

And we asked them point blank why it was not a cap of 3%, like we all assumed and their answer was because prices had gone so high that they could raise it higher. This sounded absolutely ridiculous to me, so I called the county (I forget who I spoke to) but I was told because of the plan we were on, the board is not limited to the 3%. I knew nothing about different plans but I assumed that the county knew what it was doing and the board had checked into this, and while I was pissed off it seemed nothing I could do about it. I mention this to raise the question that perhaps Dale learned then that we were on a Special Assessment. If he didn’t, it would seem his duty to look into t further. But in no way was the 3% cap raised because of inflation. Just one more lie in a long litany of lies.

Anyway, Crystal Farrokhi, the treasurer, goes on about how she just fills out the form and sends it in. I was dying inside. So the auditor sees she is shifting the blame to him and he quickly says that the onus is on the road district to obey the laws.

I swear, it was another of those moments where I felt like you just put your dime in and wind them up, and stand back. Because they cannot help themselves. Since they refuse to listen to anybody but their echo chamber, and convince each other that they are right and legal, they just tattle on themselves.

Now, when the Deputy asks them about all the broken laws, it will be interesting to see if they realize that ‘oops… perhaps we screwed up.’ And will they realize that before they tell the Deputy proudly how many meetings they’ve had without notice, agenda or minutes. Or how many elections they took email ballots for a trustee election. Or illegally booting the third trustee to the curb. They really think they are in the right. I hope they continue to think they are right until the law tells them they aren’t. Or that they’ve had every single one of us on a special assessment… for 8 years. Without one resolution, vote, publication or written notice to each of us.

Bob made some bullshit passing reference to hiring an attorney and I WISH they would. If they did, you can bet he’d advise them to cut us loose, cut their losses and ‘wait… what? You are using a special assessment without following ANY of the requirements?’ This part makes me giddy.

There is no defense. They have stated publicly that they did not know we were on a special assessment, therefore they certainly did not follow any of the required steps to use a special assessment. Therefore… they are frilled (any Farscape fans reading this?). And just think, if they simply had not let their egos get in the way, and let us withdraw with their blessing… none of this would have been realized. Now, we can each sue for every penny paid to the road district illegally, for the last 8 years. There are no SOL connected to this, because the SOL is based on the procedure, which they did not follow, so it is not timebarred.

And any lawyer would have told them, ignorance of a law is not a legal defense.

(ETA- updating this over a year later. If you read further, you’ll see for yourself, but I was 100% wrong on the usefulness of the lawyer. I thought the lawyer would would try to keep the Board lawful, but it seems he sees his job more as ‘keep the board from accountability.’)