2nd Letter to Suissevale Members

Dear Suissevale Neighbor,

This is the second letter we have sent to Suissevale members. The first, in June 2018, gave background on current policies of the Suissevale Board of Directors and invited you to follow us on our website, LoveSuissevale.com. We also invited you to send us your email addresses so that we could keep you informed of issues in our community. 350 of you went to the website and over 200 signed up for emails, but that still leaves a good number of members who could have access to the information we provide. You can sign-up here.

LoveSuissevale was formed to research and assess preferences of our membership concerning the overall operation of Suissevale. We conducted online research among over 200 Suissevale members to find out what the general membership thinks about our management. We found that most members would like to find solutions to several issues currently existing in our community.

Members would like the Board to explore alternatives to our Marina policy. Currently, a dock holder who “transfers property to a trust and/or to an immediate family member will retain the dock privilege.” These docks are leased well below market rate and that rate is set by the board, many of whom have docks and voted on this rule. The docks are an asset that all residents of Suissevale support through our property taxes. More equitable access to docks would improve our property values. Yet a proposal made to the Board last year was summarily dismissed. See here.

Better communications among members is another area of concern. Many communities have directories so that the members who elect to participate can connect with others directly. Our Board has been asked to provide such a service for those who wish to use it but has declined.

Members also want more mainstream fiscal procedures. We would like one audit. The Board has not regularly been responsive to member requests regarding finances and some projects, such as the internet upgrade at the clubhouse and beach last summer, are done without a formal bid process. A professional audit is a normal business practice, but our Board has only chosen to have a review instead of an audit and that was in 2014. Results are posted on LoveSuissevale.com.

We recognize that some members of the Board do act in the best interest of all but feel that the Board must change to reflect our current community. Most of our Board members have been owners in Suissevale for decades and are reluctant to change some policies even if those policies no longer represent our growing membership. With that in mind, LoveSuissevale is supporting several candidates who are willing to help update our operations. They are Mark DeJon, Peter Mullarky, Joe Sastre, Jim Graham, Steve Miller, Karen Crusco, Tom Keddy, and Deborah Canty. All these people have volunteered their time and talent for the last year to making Suissevale better.

Additionally, there are several members on the current Board who we feel generally act in the best interest of Suissevale and should retain their seats. They are Nick DeMeo, Ron Prescott, Ginny Mooney-Davis, Carolyn Gardner, Rich DeForge and Mike Donahue. You can only vote for 14 candidates.

The bios for the LoveSuissevale candidates are posted here.

We also invite you to go to LoveSuissevale.com to view our platform, research, and reporting. At that time, if you are not on our regular contact list, please feel free to join us by providing your email information and comments. We all love Suissevale and If you feel that it is time to make some changes in the management, we ask that you support the members listed above.

Thank you and we invite you to keep in touch through LoveSuissevale.com.

Sincerely, John Hawkins Love Suissevale