Cre tax?

[flhtsteve]

How on earth at the March Membership Meeting will suggestions be incorporated into the Special Taxing District (STD) Petition when the final draft will be Signed and off to the County Commissioners on February 16th?



FROM FEBRUARY 2013 RUT:

Please come out to the March Membership Meeting at the Clubhouse so that we can have the opportunity to at least present the plan to the membership. I am willing to listen to and incorporate any suggestions from members.
The one thing I will not do is sit back and wait for Calvert County or anyone else to do the work!! Let's start the discussion.

FROM FRIDAY 2/15 CALVERT RECORDER:

In an email sent from Jay Hopson, POACRE roads engineer, to POACRE, County Administrator Terry Shannon and County Attorney John Norris III, he said his intent was to have the final document submitted to the Roads Committee for final approval Feb. 14 and then submitted to the Board of Directors for signing this Saturday.
“Once the documents [are] signed we will make our formal submittal to the [BOCC],” Hopson’s email states

[tscott150]

Because the 16 feb vote is for the petition for an STD, the plan that will be implemented will follow, so the membership has time to have input on the plan.

[flhtsteve]

Once the Petition is voted and approved by the Board of Directors it goes to the County Commissioners. How does the membership have input? After tomorrow the membership will have no say in the STD Petition…Once voted on by the Board of Directors, the only input will be to the County Commissioners.

FROM THE JUNE 26th 2012 BOCC MEETING

Commissioner Evan Slaughenhoupt

“My preference is to greatly reduce the requested amount but in my mind the one year extension should catch the attention of the board of directors there. I think they have much work to do, to win over more support of the residents. They should start with crafting and coordinating an overall strategic plan and seek its acceptance by the community”

[tscott150]

Just to be clear, by input I mean how the STD is implemented. The yes or no for an STD will be voted on tomorrow. I will say it again, the draft STD is on our website, it is available in the office, it has been debated at the roads committee, there are 2 BOD meetings a month, with member comments at each, there are three member meetings per year.i attend 90 percent of these meetings, and I do not hear an overwhelming NO vote expressed as far as the STD is concerned. Other than Facebook, there is very little expression to the BOD and or CRE employees relative to the STD.

[garyt27]

Originally Posted by tscott150

Just to be clear, by input I mean how the STD is implemented. The yes or no for an STD will be voted on tomorrow. I will say it again, the draft STD is on our website, it is available in the office, it has been debated at the roads committee, there are 2 BOD meetings a month, with member comments at each, there are three member meetings per year.i attend 90 percent of these meetings, and I do not hear an overwhelming NO vote expressed as far as the STD is concerned. Other than Facebook, there is very little expression to the BOD and or CRE employees relative to the STD.

Other than Facebook? The number one social media site?

[NorthBeachPerso]

Originally Posted by garyt27

Other than Facebook? The number one social media site?

Posting dumb ####, or even smart stuff, on Facebook doesn't create an official record or document. And most people who use Facebook for those purposes are dumb ####s congenitally.

I only have to point to the recent tire slashings here outside of North Beach when the "social media", including this Forum, exploded about it and put the incidents inside the Town.

[garyt27]

Originally Posted by NorthBeachPerso

Posting dumb ####, or even smart stuff, on Facebook doesn't create an official record or document. And most people who use Facebook for those purposes are dumb ####s congenitally.

I only have to point to the recent tire slashings here outside of North Beach when the "social media", including this Forum, exploded about it and put the incidents inside the Town.

I agree, but it still gets more attention than POACRE site.

[exnodak]

The special local law that creates the special tax district in CRE applies the bylaws of the POACRE to establish the due process necessary for taxation.

Those bylaws do not provide any authority for the POACRE board to petition for an STD. In fact they enumerate the powers of the BOD and none of those powers include the ability to encumber private property beyond what the existing covenant structure provides.

However, it has been Calvert County's opinion that the lacking of specific authority isn't their problem and that if the residents of CRE don't like the STD they can vote out the offending directors. In other words, due process doesn't seem to concern the county. The problem with voting out the offending directors is that POACRE operates a policy that if you are not completely current with all fees, dues, fines, or are in some state of disagreement with the existing regime, you are considered a Member NOT in Good Standing (MNIGS), and your ballot is thrown out.

Never has there been an accounting of uncounted ballots. In the most recent elections involving the election of officers during an STD cycle, as many as 50% of the more than 4000 properties were deemed to be in the MNIGS status. Many didn't even know they held that esteemed position because of the way the various Boards have subjectively interpreted that status. It has been so badly abused that at one point all it took was an oppositional statement in member comments to get you the rank of MNIGS. A clear but unenforceable violation of the bylaws.

As the attachment provides, the bylaws of the POACRE as they are written and incorporated into the special taxing laws of Calvert County are a clear violation of the 14th amendment. It would only take a skilled lawyer a few moments in front of a judge to make this clear, but getting it there might take more $$$ than anyone here can spare.

[exnodak]

I would add that there seems to be at least one Calvert Commissioner with some sense of the constitution.

The failure to properly notify and hold public input sessions at any member meeting with the STD as an agenda item is the subject of this thread. Never has there been a member meeting with the STD as an agenda item. I have been to many BOARD (not member) meetings in the past where people attempted to stand and speak to the STD and were called out of order. Member comments at any meeting of the Board can and often are restricted to agenda items.

Now, as the OP of this thread has pointed out, once again the general population of CRE has been denied the right to vote or even have input to a public record BEFORE the petition to establish the tax is submitted to the County. Now when the County receives it, there will be only ONE opportunity to voice comment before it is a done deal. The last time it went before the BOCC in hearings, the testifying opponents outnumbered proponents by nearly 10 to 1 yet that did not seem to affect the commissioners one bit.

[exnodak]

Now, it must be pointed out here that the County's opinion that due process is satisfied by and through the election of the POACRE Board of Directors fails especially in this current case.

At the point of election of the current Board of Directors the STD issue had been decided and the County had already scheduled it. There was no contemplation that there would be an STD issue to be decided by the current regime.

It was later that the BOCC decided that they were going to only accept a temporary STD and they sent the POACRE Board back to the drawing board to obtain more public input. The POACRE BOD let the matter lie on the table until late January and NEVER scheduled ANY member meetings to air the differences in the community. This is entirely contrary to the purpose that the BOCC intended when they sent it back.

Now, there is not even a thinly veiled screen of due process. It never existed in this most recent case.