Deception from Above - Ron Bomhoff
Troubling times at LOP
It pains me to inform you that LOPA has been breaking Federal law by destroying Resident Canada Geese Eggs without a permit!!! You read that correctly, LOPA does NOT have a permit to legally addle Canada Goose Eggs in the 2023 year.
According to Dan Skalos, Senior Environmental Scientist of the California Department Fish and Wildlife, an egg depredation permit was NOT secured for the 2023 year. A follow up with Toan Nguyen of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services, revealed that the 2023 permit was not issued because LOP did NOT submit the 2022 end of year report. As of this date, the 2022 end of year report has still not been completed.(EMAIL FROM TOAN NGUYEN)
This is devastating in multiple ways. It is devastating because, according to the General Manager, Sean Bothelio, we broke a Federal law by illegally destroying “quite a few” eggs (AUDIO FILE). It is devastating because we are not in compliance with the Federal USFWS Depredation permit for culling geese, jeopardizing the ability to obtain future permits. It is devastating that I spent 15 years establishing a plan that followed all rules and regulations to control the goose population only to see the efforts cease to exist. But most devastating of all is that we watched Mr. Bothelio stand before us and intentionally mislead the members.
A catastrophic mistake of gross negligence followed by a coverup has occurred! I am in no way accusing the Service Team of wrongdoing. The GM is solely responsible for obtaining the permit since only the property manager can apply for the permit . Mr. Bothelio is the one who has the login information, password and code to be able to login to the Federal Government website (LINK TO WEBSITE) to apply for the permit and do the follow up end of year report.
The Evening with the GM on July 25, 2023 focused on the Swimming Advisory and the goose depredation efforts. Mr. Bothelio cautioned the audience that he could not be transparent and there were things he could not share but “assured” us by saying we have to trust the association is doing the right thing, that they will never mislead us and they are not doing something that's wrong. (AUDIO FILE)
The GM discussed the depredation efforts of the Canada Geese focusing on the lethal and non-lethal efforts currently being performed by LOP. Knowing now that LOP does not have a Permit to Addle eggs in 2023, I was outraged to hear him say that, “We did addle quite a few eggs…” (AUDIO FILE). Mr. Bothelio clearly stated that we are addling eggs numerous times. (AUDIO FILE) (AUDIO FILE) Even more disturbing is that Mr. Bothelio tried to convince the community that in the past few years the geese have adapted and become crafty and are hiding their nests where the service teams can’t find them. In my many years of experience, the service team members are, in fact, smarter than the geese and we were able to locate nests that were on roof tops and in trees. These are not new hiding places. As if that wasn’t hard enough to hear, he then informed the members the addling efforts were hindered by Lakefront owner’s who would not allow them on their property. In the 15 years I ran the WMST we only had two owners object, and as recently as 2020 all lakefront homeowner’s allowed access so I know this statement to be false. It is alarming that Mr. Bothelio again tried to put blame on the members to cover up his mistake of failing to obtain the Federal permit to addle the eggs. Pitting members against each other seems to be a tactic of his to deflect blame and instill confusion of facts.
According to Mr. Bothelio the Swimming Advisory posted on July 20, 2023 was issued in conjunction with Nevada County Environmental Health and AT THE DIRECTION of Director Amy Irani. (AUDIO LINK) According to emails from Amy Irani to multiple people,the numbers provided to NVCEHD were well below the threshold of concern and didn’t warrant action on their part and that it was Mr. Bothelio who wanted to post the advisory anyway. Therefore, the Department,and specifically Mrs. Irani did not issue the Advisory - proving Mr. Bothelio’s statement completely untrue (EMAIL 1) (EMAIL 2). We, the members, are still in the dark as to what the true numbers are because management will no longer share the water reports from 49er Water with us. Sharing this information was standard practice in the past, but unfortunately we must now search for the answers ourselves. Several members did just that and requested information from Nevada County Environmental Health and as a result became targets of Mr. Bothelio and were reprimanded during the meeting when he accused them of not helping, but hurting, our cause.(AUDIO LINK)
As the Administrator of the Facebook group Free Press of LOP, I felt it would be a helpful service to the community to post the audio from the Evening with the GM as well as a written summary for those who were unable to attend or tune in on Zoom. Mr. Bothelio texted Juliana Mona who is a Free Press of LOP Moderator asking that the recording be taken down. Juliana informed Mr. Bothelio that she was not the Administrator of the page and he would have to resolve the issue with Ron Bomhoff and Peggy Devine. His response was that he “won’t be doing that”, he then threatened to remove future Zoom meetings since the legal requirement to do so has ended and stated it is not legal to record private HOA meetings. This was not an official HOA meeting and was open to the public both in person and on Zoom making it perfectly legal to record. His text concludes with, “The Association cannot enable those that continually disparage the community to assist those that are taking legal action against LOPA.” Ironically in this case it is Mr. Bothelio’s action, or lack of action, to obtain the egg depredation permit that is assisting those taking action against LOPA. Yet another example of Mr. Bothelio placing blame on members to cover up his mistakes. (MR. BOTHELIO’S TEXTS) The audio of the meeting was taken down from Free Press that evening and an email to the Board was sent the following morning on the 27th explaining our position. (EMAIL TO THE BOARD)
With the knowledge you now have, I encourage you to listen to the complete audio from the Evening with the GM and see if you feel that Mr. Bothelio’s lack of transparency is warranted or part of the coverup of wrongdoing. Do you feel assured that you can trust the association is doing the right thing, never misleading us and that they are not doing something that's wrong?
LINK TO FULL AUDIO RECORDING OF EVENING WITH THE GM 7/25/23
CALL TO ACTION!!!!
Members - if you are in fact reading this, it means the BOD did not take ANY action to remedy this situation. I repeatedly asked them to take corrective actions … but to no avail. I had sincerely hoped that we could take the necessary steps to assure that we would not find ourselves in this position in the future. I was willing to work with the BOD to put such a plan in place. Unfortunately, the BOD has apparently decided to sweep this under the rug and did not even give me the courtesy of a reply. If we do not hold our BOD and GM accountable, we will continue to put ourselves at risk for serious liability. Since the BOD refuses to take action on this, it left me with no choice but to inform you, the members.
So now I pose this question to you: Do you condone illegal activity, covering it up, and intentionally misleading members? Or do you agree that we need to break this pattern and do the right thing?
What is your moral, ethical, and legal line? I am a rule follower and during my time as lead of the WMST I made sure that we followed all rules and regulations. I cannot and will not be complicit in the blatant disregard for following the rules and then covering it up to the members.
It is time to take a stand, it is critical for the health and safety of our community to ensure that we fully and humanely comply with ALL Federal and State Laws in controlling the RCG population at LOP. It is critical for our community that there be transparency and that we can trust that our BOD will be honest and do the right thing on our behalf.
If you agree - please let the BOD know that you demand they take action (BOD@lop.org). The actions I believe necessary are listed below in my email to the BOD. ⬇️
(Link to Rationale for Necessary Actions)
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To BOD,
Because the Board is responsible for the actions of the General Manager, the Board’s responsibility is to control the General Manager. See Bylaws Article XIII, Section 2 - General Manager.
I am asking you what should happen as a result of the General Managers intentionally misleading the membership and exposing the association to serious liability?
The actions that I believe the board should take to rectify this unfortunate situation and avoid the need to notify the membership include:
An appropriate disciplinary action for the GM intentionally misleading the membership and exposing the association to serious liability.
Communication
Written monthly GM reports posted on LOP.org.
All Water reports past and future must be posted on LOP.org immediately upon receipt.
Adopt a RCG Management Plan for LOPA similar to Pine Mountain Lakes
Assure that Zoom will remain in affect
Direct the GM to cease derogatory or disparaging remarks about social media and members who use social media.
I hope that BOD will do the right thing so this travesty does not have to be disclosed to the membership.
As always- Members First!
Ron Bomhoff
Initial Email Sent 8/10/23 at 1:29 pm
TO: BOD at LOP
Please tell me why this statement should not be sent to the LOP Membership.
I will hold off publicicing this for 48 hours in hopes for a reasonable response from the Board
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Ron Bomhoff
(^ Above Blog and email sent on 8/10/23 - blog now modified to reflect Call to Action for members)
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Follow up email Sent to BOD on 8/11/23 at 10:59 am
The uncovering of this information is not only disheartening, but has put me in an impossible situation. I spent 15 years trying to control the goose population here at LOP, so nobody is more upset about this revelation than myself.
I am NOT a disgruntled member seeking attention. I am a loyal community member who can not be complicit in the wrongdoings of our GM and potentially our board.
It is a sad day for LOP if you, our BOD, upon notification of these wrongdoings, choose to do NOTHING about it.
I ran for the board on the platform of Members First, and contrary to the narrative trying to be put forth, I have always and will always do what is best for the association. I even tried to warn you that something was not adding up and that I was willing to help create a plan for LOP that would help eliminate the possibility of this type of negligence even happening.(PML Email to the Board) Unfortunately, I never even got a response to that email, nothing …crickets!
This is too big to ignore, lines have been crossed - moral, ethical, and legal lines - it is time to do the right thing. It is your duty as a member of the LOP board to uphold the oath you took when becoming a director. If the BOD won’t do anything about this travesty - they will leave me no choice but to inform the members of these wrongdoings.
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Ron Bomhoff
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