Special Meeting Minutes, 2009

Rock Lake Improvement Association

Special meeting Aug. 27, 2009 6:30 p.m.

Lake Mills Municipal Building

Call meeting to order and welcome: New President Jan Jenrich welcomed everyone and said this is a special RLIA meeting to clarify and finalize the 2009-2010 newly elected RLIA board, review the counted ballots and announce elected board members. She said the recount of ballots on Saturday after the annual meeting revealed errors in the ballot totals. The recount showed that Betsy Delorey received more ballots than Larry Clark. She contacted the Wisconsin Association of Lakes to find out how to proceed with the correction and spoke with Tami Jackson, communication director for WAL, on Aug. 24 and 25.

“I explained what happened with the election- a group of members had requested a recount after the ballots had been counted that the presiding board president and board members repeatedly refused to do a recount. The board then moved onto the election of the officers and when I was elected president, I again asked for a recount, and again the board refused, stating that I did not officially become president until the close of the meeting. I explained that the meeting was then adjourned and as the newly elected president I requested the ballots and ordered a recount. Tami Jackson of the Wisconsin Association of Lakes stated that I was correct in ordering the recount as soon as I became president and that the results of the recount stands because the RLIA bylaws state that Roberts Rules of Order will be followed and Roberts Rules state that when a member requests a recount it has to be granted. The recount was witnessed and signed and I gave the ballots to Jim Colegrove for safekeeping. I believe that Jim is an honest and trustworthy man and since both the past and current boards have entrusted him with the financial records of the association he was the right person to have hold the ballots. The errors resulted in the wrong board member being announced. This meeting is to finalize those election results and offer you all a chance to re-tally the ballots along with us, so that there is no doubt of the results. When I related to Tami that after talking to Larry (Clark) he mentioned that he and some others wanted to redo the entire election, she stated-‘there are no mulligan’s or re-dos in elections. It was the presiding boards responsibility to be prepared and conduct the election without errors, just because the board was unprepared and made errors, does not mean that the election can be done again’. She also acknowledged that she had received an email from a member. Larry also mentioned that he felt the members of the RLIA were not represented that day, but I don’t agree, in fact the board stated at the annual meeting that this was an unusually large turnout.  Your past annual meeting attendance counts have been - 2006 – 29; 2007 -34; 2008 – 27. Letters were sent out to all members, noticing them when and where the meeting would take place. Articles were placed in three newspapers. An invitation to participate in the annual meeting elections appeared on the homepage of the RLIA website. The members, who were interested in the annual meeting, were those who attended the meeting. Jenrich refused to accept a motion from Scott Johnson, ruling it as out of order, until a review of the ballots was completed. A discussion followed.

Review of ballots: Jenrich directed tally sheets to be distributed to any board members and observers wishing to participate in the recount of votes cast in the board member election held at the RLIA annual meeting on Aug. 22, 2009. Jim Colegrove produced the ballots that had been placed in his care at the end of the annual meeting for safekeeping by President Jenrich. Colegrove read the votes as new board member Lee Gatzke looked on for verification. There were none dissenting as the final vote tally was read. The new board and observers all agreed the vote tally should stand.

After a 40-minute recount of the ballots, the tally was as follows: Jim Colegrove, 63; Margaret Krueger, 61; Ron Niedfeldt, 59; Bill Amann, 43; Scott Johnson, 42; Katie Otto, 42; Jan Jenrich, 41; Betsy Delorey, 39; Lee Gatzke, 39; Jim Plotz, 35; Larry Clark 34; Tom Pezzi, 32; Stan Smoniewski, 28; Johanna Chworowsky, 26; and Milt Strauss, 24.

Announcement of the 2009-10 Board: Jenrich read the roster of the 2009-10 board of directors as follows: Amman, Colegrove (treasurer), Delorey, Gatzke, Jenrich (president), Johnson, Krueger (secretary), Niedfeldt, Otto, and Plotz (vice president).

Although an e-mail prior to the meeting stated there would be no place on the agenda for discussion, a motion was made by Delorey and seconded by Otto, to allow time for public input. A long discussion followed with present and past board members and some members of the audience claiming that proper procedure was not followed on Aug. 22 during the annual election, and with a recount taken at the park following the meeting.

Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 8:37 p.m. The next regular meeting will be held Monday, Sept. 14, 2009 at the Lake Mills Municipal Building in room 103.

Margaret Krueger, secretary