Dear Mesquite Owners,

Over the next day or two you will receive your ballot for the annual Board of Director's election.

For those of you who may be new to Mesquite, for the past 4-5 years we have sent owners our endorsements. I hope you will not find this e-mail intrusive.

It is not our intention to tell you how you should think. But like a good local newspaper, we hope we make an intelligent argument on why we believe one candidate may be a better choice than another.

Since up to 90% of us are not full time owners, we also hope this letter will give you a little more perspective on issues that the candidates themselves may not provide.

There are 3 candidates this year running for 2 open Board Seats. The candidates are incumbent Board Members Bob Blum and Rico Pietropaolo, and challenger Anita Gabriel.

The entry of Ms. Gabriel in the race is clearly the most interesting aspect of this year's election.

As you may recall, Gabriel is a homeowner of more than 15 years at Mesquite who recently started to question some of the Board's expenditures. When her requests were not taken seriously by the HOA, she started to do her own research.

What she discovered has raised troubling questions regarding Board contracts that have been awarded without any competition. Many of those same contracts have gone to the same persons. And many of those same persons have a longstanding association or connection to our HOA President.

After several of Gabriel's postings started to appear on the HOA run web site discussion page, that forum was suddenly shutdown.

And when she continued to persist in asking for answers regarding contracts and spending Ms. Gabriel was rewarded with a 3 page long letter from the Board's law firm with the heading:


Mesquite HOA v. Gabriel

Their intent was clearly meant to intimidate her.

It didn't work. She decided to follow through with her final option-- to run for the Board.

If you have any interest in how your money is being spent at Mesquite, you need to vote for Anita Gabriel.

There is a lot of money flowing through Mesquite. Grab a calculator.... $370/month x 600 owners x 12 month a year. We believe owners should be well informed on where their money is going. So does Anita.

If elected, she pledges to open up the books, open up the bidding, and close down Executive Sessions. That is good enough for us.

Board Seat #2:

The final seat on the Board as we see it is a race between 2 current Board Members. Bob Blum has been a Board Member and Treasurer at Mesquite for many years. We believe him to be honest, a gentleman, and someone who should be commended for all of the time and service he has provided for members.

However, for the past 2 years Mr. Blum has been little more than a rubber stamp for the agenda of President David Krubinski. He is part of the Block of Three-- the 3 vote majority that has decided to conduct much of the Board's business behind closed doors in Executive Session, and with it, the proliferation of NO Bid Contracts with vendors and past associates.

We also believe Mr. Blum should have insisted that the Board be more forthcoming in presenting financial information to owners. As Treasurer, it was his job to stand up to the Board if financial reports were not made available to him on time, thus delaying reports to members. As you may have noted in the recent mailing of the Annual Budget Packet, there were no audited financial statements included in that package this year.

Rico Pietropaolo has served 2 terms on the Board. A long time homeowner like Mr. Blum, we can all hope that we have his zest for life as we grow older. That said, his recent attempt at humor in his official election BIO, while funny, was misguided and unfortunate.

However, Mr. Pietropaolo has had his heart in the right place since he joined the Board-- where he has been in the minority almost his entire tenure. He has been consistent in questioning spending and advocating openness. He was against stopping the publication of the Newsletter-- one of the few venues of information for homeowners. And he was opposed to cutting off of the Owner's Forum/ Discussion Page on the HOA web site.

Mr. Pietropaolo has also strongly voiced his opinion on the legal heavy handedness of the Board President regarding Anita Gabriel's legitimate request for information about HOA finances, and has spoken out about the slew of "no bid" contracts that are being given out by the Board.

Our Recommendation:

Therefore, we believe that the Board and Mesquite Owners would be best served by voting for Anita Gabriel and Rico Pietropaolo this year.

If given a chance, we believe Ms. Gabriel will offer strong leadership and integrity. We also believe that Mr. Pietropaolo will offer the support she will need to begin to do business in the open-- for all owners to see.

That is how we view the election this year. Whether you agree or disagree with us... just remember to vote now.


Tim Gaffney
Editor
www.MesquiteOwners.com   
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