Back At It

After a much needed getaway, we're back at the news desk. As some of you who are Annex residents may already know, there is much news to write about. Two new Board members, Bob Frechette and Rick Rumrell, have been formally elected to the TAMPOA Board. The new officers of TAMPOA have been elected. We congratulate them all on their election. Tom Tukey has been re-elected as President. The other officers are Jim Hall, Vice President; Rebecca Baumann, Secretary; and Harold Berry, Treasure. (Why is it that a woman always seems to wind up as Secretary? Why not Treasurer or President? Oh well, at least there seems to be some progress on the issues to be addressed by the Board.)

The new officers and Board members will have their work cut out for them. They deserve a bit of a political honeymoon to hit the ground running and begin to effect some of the change we have called for in past columns. Some of our criticism seems to have been heard and change may be in the air. Only time will tell. One change is that the Board has recognized a need for more timely communication with the TAMPOA members, and a good first step is that the Board appears ready to prepare a summary of the Board meetings and get it out before the formal minutes. Another change is that the runaway attorneys' fees -- or at least the assessments for them -- appear to have been capped, for now. And, there has been some attempt at explaining the breakdown of the attorneys' fees. Finally, the Board has recognized the relative futility of trying to negotiate a legal settlement to a political dispute and abandoned attempts to settle the Southard Street dispute with the current band of City Commissioners. We'll have more to say about this and other matters in later posts. For now, the Board appears off to a good start. Let's hope the members are able to keep the same energy they have shown initially.