Employee Joe Attempts to Enforce Dictatorial Censorship of All Deer Ridge Owners

On February 27, 2007, Employee Joe sent a letter to all owners, at owners' expense, trying to interfere with YOUR rights to communicate with other owners and guests, as provided by the Deer Ridge by-laws.  You can download a copy of Employee Joe's letter by clicking Obnoxious. 

Many owners have been outraged that an employee of the HOA would believe that he has the delusional right to interfere with owners' rights of free speech. Joe is an employee - he is NOT an owner and he is NOT on the Board - and he apparently needs to be reminded of these facts.

If you agree, drop President Margie and/or Employee Joe an email expressing your feelings about Joe's obnoxious tactics.

My Email to the President of the Board Regarding Employee Joe

March 4, 2007

Margie,

I completely concur with Jim Cumston's comments about Joe Thomas' recent obnoxious mailing to all owners...mailed at owners' expense for his own self-serving reasons.  Joe is continuing his ongoing and ceaseless efforts to illegally control information flow between owners at Deer Ridge for his own purposes.  You, as the new president of the HOA, need to get this employee under control on this issue or get rid of him.

Since I first bought our unit at Deer Ridge, I have had to fight both Joe and Vic about releasing the mailing list of all owners.  After my threatening fully intended legal action, the HOA attorney FINALLY explained to them that they were violating the by-laws.....explaining to them that the Deer Ridge by-laws REQUIRE release of this information to ALL owners.  Now, we find out that Joe is giving out address information that is out of date and not the most current on record.  I would bet that the mailing that he just did went, in fact, to all CURRENT owners and that he did not use an old list for HIS mailing.

The by-laws do NOT require that owners ONLY use the mailing list when a) approved by the Board, b) for Association purposes only , c) only for those in the RML Rental Program, as Joe suggests.  This information is required to be available to ALL owners for WHATEVER purpose those owners deem important.  Joe wants to control information as if this is a dictatorship.  It is not.  Deer Ridge is part of a free country...and governed by the laws of both Tennessee and America...as well as our by-laws.

All owners also have a right of free speech, even on the Deer Ridge property, to talk with ANYONE they want who is willing to listen....including the RIGHT to solicit guests for renting their own unit or to convert them to whatever religion they deem inspiring or to discuss their cheese of choice.  Too bad if Joe sees this as interfering with his own little fiefdom of RML...but RML does NOT have the exclusive right to rent properties at Deer Ridge.  Any owner can use ANY rental company they want...or they can do it themselves...or they can choose as we did and not rent at all.  Buying at Deer Ridge does NOT give RML any rights whatsoever....over either owners or units or solicitations for rental or purchase.  Period.

Joe admitted during the recent RML Committee meeting I attended on February 10th that he had email addresses for virtually everyone at Deer Ridge and was on the verge of converting all correspondence to emails since it would save both time and money for RML and the HOA.  However, when Neil Blair, who was also in attendance at that same meeting (and videotaped Joe's comment), asked for these email addressees, Joe claimed he did not have them.  Clearly, he was lying then or he is lying now...and I, as an owner, demand release of this email address information to all owners who want it as provided for in the by-laws which states that ALL books and records are available to ALL owners.  Email addressees are part of ALL books and records.

Neil's goal is the same as that of many of us who want to have an easy way to update ALL owners at Deer Ridge about what is REALLY happening...and not JUST recite the RML or Board party line.  It is my belief that virtually ALL owners would want to know what is happening at their property they invested their money in.  Neil's goal of establishing a directory for all owners would be invaluable for many reasons including building more of a sense of community.  Frankly, the Board should have done one of these years ago...keeping it up to date and available as an Acrobat file for all owners to download and print if they wanted to. 

Again, neither Joe NOR the Board has a right to control the records or their availability to ALL owners. 

Paul Joseph Goebbels (1897-1945)

"He who controls the medium controls the message. He who controls the message controls the masses."

Joseph Goebbels, more affectionately known as the "Poison Dwarf," was the master propagandist and cultural dictator of the Nazi Regime for twelve years.

 Joe just who in Hades do you think you are? You are not going to be the new appointed dictator of Deer Ridge. You are replaceable sir at any time. Whom and what gives you the right to send such a letter as an employee of Deer Ridge? If an owner wants to put together a contact list of people, why is that so threatening to you? Is there some reason that you fear such a list? Will people if allowed to talk to each other, maybe figure out that the rosy picture you paint is not so rosy after all? Why if "2006 was the best rental income year in Deer Ridge mountain Resort since 1998" are the one bedroom units losing $2000-3000.00 a year after all expenses are paid? Why was this letter not counter signed by the association president to at least show it was condoned? You insult every owner of Deer Ridge? Do you think we are sheep and can not think for ourselves? Your letter was very insulting to the intelligence. I would expect a full apology to all the owners and that you would refrain from any future insults. There are no excuses for your behavior and the tone of your letter sir. The board needs to remove you. I did not think of putting together such a list but I wish I had. Bravo to the owner who is doing something that the board should have done a long time ago. United we stand divided we fall. This is a free country sir, not one where we are not permitted by some power hungry condo manager not to speak as free men with each other. Shame on you and shame on anyone who supports you.

                James M Cumston A102