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Volume II, Issue 20  2008

Deye, Bort and Perley Winners!

The Results

Reform candidates Jim Deye and Pam Bort together with Whetstone Homes Corporation President Linc Perley won election to three (3) year terms on the Montgomery Village Foundation’s Board of Directors.    

The results signaled for the second year in a row homeowners’ dissatisfaction with the current board leadership as incumbents Jerry Donegan and Scott Frohman ran far behind the leaders.

The final outcome and margin of victory may well have been determined by which of the 1400 block vote ballots from the four (4) Apartment communities were voted or counted.  - Breckenridge Apartments (178), Cider Mill (864), Sunrise (147) and Walker House (211)  

In past elections these communities seldom participated in the MVF Board elections.  This year Cider Mill and one other unidentified Apartment community voted.   According the MVF to records Cider Mill’s was disqualified for unpaid late charges in excess of $25.00.  

If Cider Mill’s votes had been counted the outcome of the election would have been quite different.  It is the Observer’s speculation that the other Apartment community that voted, probably Walker House, voted for the winners enabling  Linc Perley to edge out Mark Firley for the final seat by 88 votes.

The Winners

James Deye is a 32 year Village resident, PhD hospital administrator, and a member of the MVF Audit Committee.   As a Reform candidate, campaigned for full examination of MVF’s fiscal infrastructure, a reinvigorated and expanded communications with Village residents, a more transparent review of monthly finances, creation of a MVF Budget and Finance Committee to monitor and advise the board on financial matters, and streamlining MVF website and electronic communications. 

Pamela Bort for the past 28 years has been a senior paralegal with experience in corporate law, banking and public finance and is a member of the South Village Board of Directors.  Also a Reform candidate, her campaign focused on restoring MVF’s financial health, improving communications and relations between the MVF Board and residents, enhancing the Foundation’s imagine, addressing safety concerns, creating a balanced budget and ensuring that required reserves are fully funded. 

Lincoln Perley is a retired Information Technology executive and returns to the Foundation’s Board after eight years during which time he served as MVF President.  He campaigned on expanding the influence of the President’s Council influence, organizing the Village against M-83, safeguarding MVF finances and lobbying elected officials on the Village’s behalf.   

The Sides

Bort-Deye-Firley Reform candidates Pam Bort, Jim Deye and Mark Firley campaigned together on a theme of moving the Village forward into the future rather backwards to the past.   They  ran on a platform of: 

• Reform of current MVF financial and communication policies and practices;
• Accountability, elevated performance standards and cost effective management, maintenance, care and preservation of MVF’s building and site facilities, and landscaping, lakes, parks and streams. 
• Need for civility in public and discussion

The Bort-Deye-Firley campaign distributed flyers in all communities and actively sought the support of the Apartment communities’ block votes.    

Frohman-Negro-Perley Incumbent Scott Frohman, Center Court Condominium President and former MVF Board Vice President Toni Negro and together with Whetstone Homes Corporation President and former MVF board member and President Lincoln Perley on a program of improving and enhancing Village traditions and  institutions that have worked over the course of time.  

They campaigned on a program of: 

• Building relationships with state and local leaders.
• Enhanced community communication by expanding the President’s Council.
• Enhancing the Foundation’s financial position and safeguard funds

The Frohman-Negro-Perley organization was successful in receiving the endorsement of the board Presidents of Normandie on the Lake I and Thomas Choice Condominium communities as well as the support of many of the Homes Corporations managed by the Foundation. 

The New Alignments

With the election of two (2) reform candidates and the defeat of four (4) candidates who have served on the MVF board in the recent past, control of the board has shifted to a 6 to 3 voting majority that favors fundamental reform and change.    

Current members Bob Hydorn, Jim King, Katherine Gray and Scott Johnson will be joined by new members Pam Bort and Jim Deye as the new voting majority.   Keith Silliman and Dick Wright will probably team up with Linc Perley to oppose the new majority. 

A word of caution to the new voting majority

Fore the March 2007 MVF board election the 3 Reform candidates received 81% of the votes cast and supported Bob Hydorn for President creating a temporary and fragile 5 to 4 voting majority.   

Despite the good intentions and valiant efforts by Bob Hydorn and his fragile sometimes voting majority little was accomplished this past year because, a) a specific program for improvement was not well articulated, and b) the Traditionalist retained finances, staff and the agenda while opposing and derailing those few initiatives that came before the board for vote. 

As Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reed have learned a voting majority is not sufficient unless you can control the decision making, governing and communication processes; have the loyalty, support and compliance of the staffing organization and are synchronized and in concert with the committee organizations.   

The new committed voting majority has only a total of five (5) years experience on the MVF Board of Directors while the minority has close to forty (40) years.   

And let us not forget 2008 is the year the sleeping giant Apartment owners with their 1450 votes discovered they can determine the outcome of any election if the MVF leadership doesn’t behave and not take them for granted.  

But what do I know.  I’m only the 800 pound gorilla in the Village.