- NEWS
- Chapman adds $204 million to O.C. economy 2 hours & 7 minutes ago
- Man stabbed outside home in Costa Mesa 1 hour & 13 minutes ago
- 1-in-4 O.C. offices to be empty next year 1 hour & 44 minutes ago
- Got an extra toy or can of food?
- SPORTS
- UCLA takes advantage of Arizona State 1 hour & 51 minutes ago
- Bruins tailgate: 11-21-09 1 hour & 48 minutes ago
- Fundamental error sinks Ducks
- Ducks are running on empty
- BUSINESS
- Here's what $1 million will buy you in Irvine
- Got an extra toy or can of food?
- 1-in-4 O.C. offices to be empty next year 1 hour & 44 minutes ago
- Twitter, Facebook, etc.: 11 thank yous 1 hour & 18 minutes ago
- ENTERTAINMENT
- LIFE
- TRAVEL
- OPINION
Why TrueBallot won’t conduct LWV election, in its own words
July 3rd, 2009, 3:00 am · 9 Comments · posted by Teri Sforza, Register staff writer
Here, in full, is what TrueBallot sent us at The Watchdog in response to our question, “Why’d you leave?!”
TrueBallot statement about why we are not administering the Laguna Woods recall election, for the Orange County Register:
TrueBallot is a fifteen year-old Election Administration company with over 150 clients throughout the United States in a variety of sectors including labor unions, pension funds, religious organizations, and the public sector, in addition to Homeowner’s Associations. We provide the most transparent, secure, neutral, and data rich election services available.
After discussion with Laguna Woods/United Mutual, we were unable to agree on certain contractual provisions. The contracting issue separating the United Mutual Board from TrueBallot was one of assumption of risk. A number of people with whom we spoke at Laguna Woods indicated that they believed there was a very significant likelihood that this election would result in a lawsuit. This was reinforced by two emails we received from an individual who is a party to the dispute. Because of this, we requested a clause in our contract through which the corporation would indemnify Kenneth Mostern, who was to be appointed Inspector of Elections, against lawsuits over the election. Such clauses indemnifying election inspectors are not unusual, and are indeed fairly standard.
TrueBallot has not been sued in fifteen years, by its clients, or by any party challenging an election result. In the three years we have been the election administrator/inspector of elections for United Mutual, we have been threatened with lawsuits each year. We believe it is our presence in the election process, including the exceptional level of transparency we have provided, that has prevented the filing of lawsuits against the corporation.
In this context, we believe that all of the risk in the election and contract was the result of the internal dispute within the corporation, and not with TrueBallot’s methods or neutrality. We discussed several options with the attorneys for Laguna Woods, but following a discussion between the board and its counsel at which TrueBallot was not present, the Board opted to appoint someone else to administer the election
9 Comments
Leave a Reply
-
ADVERTISEMENT
-
Follow this blog:
-
More from OC Watchdog reports-
ADVERTISEMENT
You can follow this blog: on 
Good Luck on the Recall.
I would recommend a different ballot.
The abstain from voting should be at the top and overrides all other actions on the ballot and can only be used for a quorum.
The wording, “without cause” is not needed and is silent attempt by those being removed and is more of a political statement (not needed on a ballot and can be a challenge to disregard the voting outcome).
The Board and the Management need to get real and run the association more professionally and by adding extra words on the ballot is just another example of how they operate.
I have always been taking a wait and see stance on Laguna Woods; however, if this ballot is an example of what they are doing then it is time for an overdue change in management and board members.
Stop wasting your members time, resources and money. Laguna Woods you need to function as a mutual benefit entity.
I still wish the organizer got proxies from everyone at the same time he got the petitions signed authorizing him to vote yes to their removal.
Keep us posted.
MIKE CURTIS HAS DONE IT AGAIN!!!!!!!!!
Who do you thnk sent those e-mails to TrueBallot? He sent those threatening a lawsuit so of course they cancelled their contract and now Mr. Innocent does not approve anything about the ballot. It is standard procedure for him to find fault with anything that he does not have full control over. He has made so many unfounded acusations and Teri Sforza will print anything and makes the Register look and be a RAG.
Those how condemn the Boards of LWV without knowledge or proof of their accusations induce anger and upset in a unique community. You who accuse without proof undermine our right to the pursuit of happiness. You who accuse without proof offer up the despotism of Mr.Curtis - who offers no proof of his allegations. Or have you not noticed that fact. Those who speak out in truth are those that are really heard.
Where have you been? Mike Curtis offers the e-mails from the computers of Cris Trapp and Janet Price. They are the ones that admitted the actions of PCM that are the crux of Curtis’s complaints. This is what the recall is all about.
Let us see those e-mails, we only have Curtis’ word for all of this, and he has proven that his word is not to be trusted, he says things then bare faced denies having said them. We can really do without all of this upset and angry rhetoric in our community. We pay P.C.M. to manage our community and they do a darn good job, it is not any of our business who they pay and what they do with the monies that we pay them to get the jobs done
Mike has shown the e-mails many, many times over the past months. If you want to see them from a pdf file (so he cannot be accused of altering them) then you can go read them here: http://www.lwvrecall.com/
Look under PCM e-mail admissions.
We, as citizen’s of the US and residents of Laguna Woods Village, have the right to speak at any public forum. This right has been denied us at the whim of our boards. The Community Center belongs to all the residents, yet it is controlled by the agent who is in our employ. We ask for transparency, but we are told only as much as they are willing to tell us. We are denied access to the second floor which belongs to all of us. Which board member has had the guts to stand up and say “This is wrong”? Which board member has stood up and said “We decide what is confidential, not Milt Johns”? Which board member has stood up and said “Erwin Stuller is denying our residents their right to be heard and he must be removed. No, the boards are silent and silence in the face of injustice condones it.
What scares me is that we seem to be slowly evolving into a community that bullies its residents and is unaccountable to any recognized authority. Our governance is becoming more and more repressive. It is not happening overnight…..it has been happening slowly and quietly over the course of the last 15 or 16 years, chip, chip, chipping away at our rights, trampling on us and treating us like the “inmates” of an asylum. That may be an “inside” joke, but it’s reality. Unless we can stop it now, it will continue until many, many more in the community realize that all their rights have been taken away. Then, too late, they’ll want to know “how did this happen?”.
What I find even more frightening are the similarities between all the repressive regimes of the past…Nazi Germany, Russia, Italy, etc. I’m concerned about rumors of telephone bugs, email interceptions, control of our newspaper, and trying to control the outcome of our elections. When I left the last GRF board meeting, I wanted to raise my arm in the Nazi salute and say “Heil, Stuller”.
But most of all, I am concerned that not enough of us care and when we do it will be too late
Lighten up–you still have freedom of speach as is obvious at the board meetings but you should have something new to say. The information that Mike Curtis gives out are not facts at all. If we want to talk about controlling people he is better than Hitler. He cannot prove any wrong doing yet he keeps asking the same old questions and all I want is proof.
I am concerned and want all this nonsense to stop and lets get back to the community we loved without all these lies being brought up again and again.
We need to show that we are a community that wants peace not war!
Mike has not controlled anyone thus far. The directors treated him with contempt before he rose the very first time at a meeting. Again, if you want to read the truth, read the pdf files containing the e-mails from Janet Price and Cris Trapp. These are not e-mails from Mike accusing someone they are e-mails from PCM which document exactly what happened between 1996 abd 2007. They are there if you can read. The Janet Price e-mail was sent December 18, 2008 at 12:38 pm to Cris Trapp. The Cris Trapp e-mail was sent December 17, 2008 at 4:10 PM to Janet Price.
They are clear and easy to understand.