Tukey Responds

Within two and one half hours after receiving the Open Letter from his Annex constituent, TAMPOA Board President, Tom Tukey, emailed a response rejecting her idea for a Citizens' Commission as "not an option." Tampon has obtained a copy of Tukey's response, which contains the same old accusations and finger pointing the Open Letter had criticized.

Part of Tukey's response appears to be irrelevant to the Citizens' Commission idea the Open Letter proposed. Tukey continues his claim that the City is an "unreliable negotiating partner" and argues that Southard Street could not be given away "without a 100% affirmative vote of the [TAMPOA] members." To do otherwise, he suggests "would be gross fiduciary negligence on our part and subject the association to damages in court." Really?

Conkette would like to see the TAMPOA Bylaw that says that "no property of TAMPOA can be disposed of without a 100% vote of the members." Is Tukey really saying that one member can block the disposal of a piece of TAMPOA property if a majority votes to dispose of it? That would not make sense, so we don't believe Tukey could have meant that, even though he plainly said it.

Tukey seems to suggest that allowing a Citizens' Commission to come up with possible rational solutions for the Southard Street dispute would require the Board to commit "gross fiduciary negligence." The proposal for a commission didn't suggest that the Citizens' Commission would impose a solution; only that it come up with some ideas that might be better options than TAMPOA and the City have been able to develop so far. Tukey's suggestion that acceding to the idea of a Citizens' Commission would be 'gross fiduciary negligence" on the part of TAMPOA is a red herring.

The TAMPOA Board has never worried out loud about "gross fiduciary negligence" throughout the Southard Street dispute. Does the Board even know what "gross fiduciary negligence" is? What would one call the $8000 spent on the full page political ad in The Citizen without the vote of the TAMPOA membership? Does that qualify as "gross fiduciary negligence?" What about raising the membership's quarterly assessments by $200 per member to pay for such an ad? Would that qualify? What about the endless string of secret meetings the TAMPOA Board has been having where such matters were really discussed and decided without the benefit of the participation and knowledge of the membership? Does that qualify as "gross fiduciary negligence?" And what about the wild and woolly legal bills the Board has incurred and is asking the members to pay? Does that qualify as "gross fiduciary negligence? Please, don't get us going on that one.

How "thoughtful" was Tukey's response to the Open Letter? You be the judge? Here is the full text:

"In March we had eight hours of mediation after which an agreement WAS REACHED. The commission backed out. The mediators included: myself, Sterling C., Paula R., and Bill A. (for TAMPOA); Bob T., Roland F., Johnny J., Mike B. and several others (for the City); Ron D. and Tony R. (for the Navy); Bob K., Clayton L. and Shawn S. (for Bahama Village) and Jefferson Overby.

I repeat, we came to an agreement and Mike Burke (attorney for the City) wrote it up after which the Commission reneged.

In addition to dealing with an unreliable negotiating partner, our other problem is that under our documents we (the board) can not give away property without a 100% affirmative vote of the members. We simply can't do it. Turning over the possible giving away of property to some group who have no ownership would be gross fiduciary negligence on our part and subject the association to damages in court. With due respect, your suggested solution is not an option.

Further we already HAVE a deal (go down to the office and get a copy of the contract from Sterling) that the City is breaching. Again, with due respect, we are trying very hard, much, much harder than you read about in the papers. I hope you will call me if you want more details."

Let Tampon know what you think. Is the Citizens' Commission idea worth a try? Or, is it "not an option," as Tukey says?