The Infamous Meeting Minutes Mar. 27, 2024
It was at this time where we had learned that the Treasurer and Secretary, Crystal Farrokhi and Allysann Harper, voted to oust Joel, the guy we voted in to represent US.
I had already been told, and I hopped on the NextDoor app to make a post, knowing they didn’t have their stories straight yet.
These people are pretty easy to anticipate and get them talking before they should. I took screenshots of those threads so that nothing would be lost.
Here is the meeting minutes of a closed door/secret meeting notifying us of the ousting.
Things to take note of-
Treasurer’s report was given, discussed the 2023 Annual Report that was just submitted to the county and noted the discrepancy of $1000. County Auditor and Treasurer were contacted, confirming one late tax payment ($500 that was deposited in January 2024 for the 23 tax year) and one resident was noted to be 2 years in arrears which shows in the $400 missing from 2022 and the $500 missing in 2023 in our Road District Account. The board discussed the situation.
The treasurer, Crystal Farrokhi, is suddenly aware of a ‘discrepancy’ . When dealing with these numbers, it is utter incompetence to not be aware immediately that there is money missing. Either she knew, and it wasn’t important until she needed it to be (utter politician), or she was unaware (Incompetent). In either case, she’s not somebody that honest people would want in charge of their money. Of course, lazy people who are easily swayed by cool-aid swinging Karens, would totally be in favor of her in power.
But moving on.
In continued discussion, the roles and responsibilities of officers was addressed. Prior to the end of the meeting, a motion was made by the Treasurer in reference to Article 5 Section 5.12 of the Bylaws, to vacate the office of President. The motion was seconded by the Secretary and approved. The position of President will be open for election at the upcoming annual meeting.
What this really says is that Crystal wanted Joel to just agree. She has said many times that the issue was that Joel didn’t respond immediately to her texts etc. However, what many people seem to have forgotten is that Crystal and Allysann and I think Dale, some time ago, changed the bylaws so that they didn’t need a second person present to make decisions or sign checks.
Let me walk you through it a bit. In the beginning, the Board had rules, such as needing 2 signatures for checks. They already had been having teleconference meetings since 2020, since Dale didn’t live here.
And Crystal and Allysann had already ‘voted’ to allow Crystal to call the contractor herself. I believe this was due to the fact that the previous rule said the president (in this case, Joel) was to contact the contractor, and as he had far more knowledge about the road than the other two did, he wouldn’t call for snow removal for a few flakes or light flurry.
So, there was absolutely no reason to demand immediate response from Joel. Even when Allysann was not available, which seemed quite a bit, both during Joel’s year and the previous term with Dale, when Dale didn’t live here yet, Crystal was just fine with the situation. Suddenly, it’s an issue. Joel called her on it and she demanded he step down. He refused. So she moved for a vote to vacate the office.
According to Joel, Allysann did not immediately agree. So a second vote was taken. And Allysann agreed. Now you can see where I used the terms ‘bully’ and ‘wimp’ correctly. Crystal does what she wants, damn the laws and rules.
Prior to the end of the meeting, a motion was made by the Treasurer in reference to Article 5 Section 5.12 of the Bylaws, to vacate the office of President.
I looked up this bylaw. I assumed, incorrectly, that the bylaws I came to first would have that section. Nope. So I asked about it. That’s another whole post, because there was a lot of chaff and redirect from Dale. You may be wondering why I asked Dale about the bylaws.
Silly wabbit.
I didn’t. I asked the board. And Dale picked up the banner, likely at a text from Crystal to do so. I hadn’t given Dale any thought till he jumped in and tried to chaff and redirect (his specialty). It was then that I began to think that perhaps the bylaw we are talking about, is BS. The post with all those emails should be right after this one. Spoiler alert, the bylaw was rewritten by the Board, with NO notice ever to any of us. Before they changed it, the power to vacate an office was with the members, not the board, as it should be if it were legal at all, which I now doubt.
Getting into the weeds a bit here, but it’s important. I need to share some information I’ve since learned. A road district is a special district, also called a governmental subdivision. This information can be found in SDCL 31-12A, which is the section of South Dakota Codified Law concerning Road Districts.
31-12A-12. District as governmental subdivision and public body. Such road district, created and established under this chapter, shall be a governmental subdivision of this state and a public body, corporate and politic.
SDCL 3-1-10. Definitions. The terms “office,” “officer,” “executive,” and “administrative,” when used in § 3-1-8 or 3-1-9 mean and apply to any executive or administrative officer of the state; to any county, municipality, township, or school district; and to any district, board, bureau, commission, department, or other body or office, exercising executive or administrative powers as part of the government, or any arm of the government, of the state. The terms “executive” and “administrative” apply interchangeably to any or all of said offices.
Still with me? What I read from this is that the officers/trustees of a road district board (or any other special district), are ‘officers’… hang on, I’m about to make a point.
3-4-1. Events causing vacancy in office.
An office becomes vacant if one of the following events applies to a member of a governing body or elected officer before the expiration of the term of the office; the person:
(1) Dies;
(2) Resigns;
(3) Is removed from office;
(4) Fails to qualify as provided by law;
(5) Ceases to be a resident of the state, district, county, municipality, township, ward, or precinct in which the duties of the office are to be exercised or for which elected;
(6) Is convicted of any infamous crime or of any offense involving a violation of the official oath of the office; or
(7) Has a judgment obtained against the person for a breach of an official bond.
Before you get the idea that #3 pertains to Crystal and Allysann, hang tight. I’m bringing it home.
3-17-6. Grounds for removal of local officers from office. Any officer of any local unit of government may be charged, tried, and removed from office for misconduct, malfeasance, nonfeasance, crimes in office, drunkenness, gross incompetency, corruption, theft, oppression, or gross partiality.
What this says to me is that a power abusing trustee and a heel-licker, standing in a living room under the guise of a ‘meeting’ that nobody was told about or invited to, can’t just vote out the third guy.
Back to the BS meeting minutes- Now when I first heard about this, from the source, not this ridiculous glazed over version of the facts, I was ticked off for several reasons, and it was not till later that I realized the basis for my anger was the disrespect.
We had voted this guy in. We actually voted him in twice, but with Crystal accepting email votes for the first election, and then counting the votes herself, something I always questioned, Joel did not ‘win,’ the first time.
So we urged him to run again. He won. We finally had representation on the Board. And with an absolute power hungry, abuse of office, thumbing her nose to us, Crystal ousted him. We had no doubt she was already grooming the replacement. And we had no doubt that even if another one of us ran… and won… it wouldn’t matter, because Crystal would just oust us.
We were done. The incredible disrespect the board had shown to us was just too much. The lies, the underhanded activities, the downright illegal moves. We were done. More on that in another post.
We are also getting a bid on clearing the culvert at the very beginning of the road as it is filling in quickly.
This is just too funny. Do you remember the snide comment Dale made concerning ‘previous administrations’ and full culverts? This is the sort of comment you can expect from a carpetbagger, with absolutely no knowledge of our road or our needs or wants. Mr. Chaff and Redirect, himself. 🙂
Annual meeting is always held on the 1st Tuesday in May, so May 7, 2024 at 5:30pm, Mike and Jake Harper will be hosting at their home (redacted). Both positions of Secretary and President will be up for vote. The roles of President and Secretary are now open, and anyone willing to volunteer for either position can email me their info and a bio by April 22, 2024 and that information will be sent out to everyone so we know who we have to vote for! Please plan to attend, we have lots of good stuff going on and would love to have our best turnout yet!
‘Both positions of Secretary and President will be up for vote.‘ Once again the Board confuses what we are actually voting for. We vote for trustees. Their titles are not etched in stone. The same people could change ‘position’ the next year. But again, this Board doesn’t bother with rules, laws or even bylaws.