Letter from Bonde

August 11, 2012

Leucadia Blog;

The November election will be by far the most important one for the people and the community since incorporation.  I feel that the electorate is looking for guidance on the important local election issues and that the Encinitas Taxpayers Association is in a position to assume a leadership role in the process. 

With less than 60 days until the critical absentee ballot drop and ETA not yet involved, I felt that I could be helpful to my community.  Therefore, after being retired many years, I threw my hat back into the ring.

I was elected President of ETA on July 26, 2012.  At that time, the board was made aware that I wanted the group to take a more active role in elections. I challenged the incorrect belief that because we were a 501c{4} tax-exempt organization, ETA could not support candidates or take a stand on initiatives or bond issues.  I also expressed my hope that membership fees could be reduced to attract more members.

The August 9^th meeting was my first since becoming President.  I had no ETA lists or records in my possession.  To get the ball rolling, I prepared a meeting agenda that had only 2 business items on it.  The first was membership fees and the second was for the group to officially accept the fact that ETA could legally take political stands.  Everything else on the agenda was there for discussion or information.  A rough draft of this agenda was submitted to the secretary/treasurer for review and comment before he left on vacation and wasn’t finalized until the morning of the meeting.

Even though it is always difficult to get people together during the summer, two ETA board members and leaders throughout the community were asked to notify their groups about the meeting in hopes of a reasonable turnout.

I believe in open meetings where dues paying members can have a say. The ideas of some were voted down at the 9^th meeting, but that is the democratic way.  Even though no two people ever think or act alike, I hope we can all learn to be respectful of other viewpoints.

I invite City of Encinitas residents to join ETA and help protect our community and its people from excessive new taxes and the likes of the majority on the City Council. 

United, we can make a difference.  History has proven that fact.

Bob Bonde

Founded ETA

Headed the successful 1986 Encinitas Cityhood campaign

Activist for community rights for over 30 years    

Comments: 

...but, most items on the "discussion" agenda, became action items after they were converted to business items.

There was no residual consternation over the results of some decisions made by the people present (long-time members, new members, and 2 from the ETA Board of Directors).  The big issue was how the whole thing played out, the surprises on the agenda, and how far afield the meeting was from ETA bylaws. The serious irony was that Bob created the bylaws to specifically prevent much of what happened on Thursday. 

Had there been an issue of sour grapes it would have been easy to pull out the bylaws, which were present in the room, and point out many of the violations which would have invalidated the whole meeting. 

As a note, Bob has been rallying folks, apparently based on some information that I've asked him to correct.  

He was sent a set of questions. It was clearly stated that answers to particular questions would be on the record (published yesterday).  Other questions were off the record, if he wished.

Bonde is confused as to who the secretary/treasurers are.