Please Note:
US Courts have repeatedly ruled that personal blogs are Constitutionally-protected expressions of free speech.
This is a personal blog.
When our new-ish spillway was under construction, the GFA board of directors correctly held back a final payment until inspections were complete and everyone was happy. During construction, the board was repeatedly advised by several fellow Flow lot owners that the gates were obviously misaligned. The board failed to take this fact on board, and transferred the final payment to the contractor.
After this final payment was released, several Flow lot owners continued to advise the board that the spillway had been poorly constructed, making it nearly impossible to raise or lower one of the two gates which control the depth of our Flow. The board again disregarded this input, and literally gave themselves repeated rounds of applause at meetings for the work they had done.
Years later, the board's previous illegitimate "president" (they do not even own a lot) informed the board that the gate misalignment problem would be solved if we bought stainless steel stoplogs for $24,000. Without any competitive bids or debate, the board unanimously approved this expenditure. I immediately took great issue with this mistake via social media, stating that the board's proposed solution was wholly ineffective and wasteful.
The illegitimate then-president thankfully fell under enough pressure to consult with a respected fellow Flow lot owner who confirmed for them that what I was saying on social media was 100% correct -- installing wasteful stainless steel stoplogs would in no way even attempt to rectify the construction flaws in our multi-million dollar spillway.
The board has now finally conceded that what they were told numerous times by numerous Flow lot owners at numerous stages during and after construction, and before the final payment to the contractor was released, is actually true. The board quietly scrapped the unanimously approved plan to spend $24,000+, and instead used Flow lot owner monies to attempt a repair of the gates. The repair attempt was only very marginally successful, leading the board to announce that they are now seeking legal remedies for this construction flaw.
My 0.02 Worth:
It is precisely the blind arrogance of the board (who, IMHO, are the ones who really do always think they are always correct) that prevented them from taking on board the repeated cautions that our spillway was suffering from major defects. When the board was finally pressured into admitting this colossal blunder, they unanimously agreed to waste $24,000+ of our money to correct a blunder brought on by their own arrogant refusal to take counsel, with an incredibly foolish purchase which would have not even begun to fix the construction flaws in any way whatsoever. If I had not spoken up as loudly as I did (or someone else, if I had not been here), we would all be $24,000+ poorer, and would still have the broken spillway which we have today and likely will have forever.
Disagreeing is not divisive. Insisting on 100% unanimity and viciously attacking anyone who declines to comply is. Disagreeing saved us $24,000+ this time, but how many other times has the board's arrogant insistence on unquestioning allegiance cost us probably even much more? 🤔