A few months ago I addressed the Woodlands Community Association’s ( WCA ) board and made a suggestion that they make information provided at the board meetings available on the Woodlands Community Service Corporation’s ( WCSC ) web-site. At a subsequent WCA board meeting a board member asked for staff from the WCSC to gather more information on the cost of this idea.
The information gathered was buried in a memo given to the board members on July 12, 2006. The cost analysis information in the memo was not publicly discussed at the board meeting. By chance, I asked at the July 12, 2006 board meeting for a copy of the memo and was aggressively denied a copy. I continued to ask for a copy and eventually I was given a copy of the memo a few days later. The memo stated that a one time cost for equipment of $2,200 would be necessary as well as 10-15 man hours per month in order to place these documents on-line.
Apparently, at some point after the July 12, 2006 WCA meeting, the WCSC executive management team made the decision not to place the documents on-line. So in essence, the WCSC, who has been fighting with all their might not to release any public information, was allowed free reign by the WCA board, to make a decision concerning a resident’s request for more readily available information. From my experience this situation is quite common in our convoluted form of government here in The Woodlands. The WCSC is allowed to independently make decisions that directly affect the residents. The WCSC has a vested interest in many of these decisions that is normally counter to the residents’ interest. We continually let the fox tell us how many hens are in the hen-house.
I would like to see how they arrived at the $2,200 figure. When I asked the assistant general manager, Monique Sharp, if she thought this was an efficient decision. She responded that she did not make that decision. When I asked who made the decision, she promptly walked off and tried to use the well proven ignore the resident technique. I have seen this tactic used by WCSC personnel many times. It must be part of their required training. Apparently it works on most people or they would not use this tactic as their first line of defense. At any rate, after three or four consecutive attempts to garner her attention, I was successful. I would suggest in the future that ignoring a resident not be considered an appropriate option. By this time Mr. Norrell, the General Manager of the WCSC, decided to enter the discussion. I asked Mr. Norrell, who made the decision not put the documents on line? He basically replied that his team, of which he is the leader, was responsible for making the decision. I then asked him if he thought it was appropriate to spend $20.00/gallon for lemonade, but not be willing to spend some money on keeping the residents informed. Mr. Norrell responded by saying that he was not going to discuss this. He then suggested my next step, if I was not satisfied with the result, was to go back to the WCA Board.
Hmm
It is becoming clearer to me that the WCSC is really the entity that is in control of The Woodlands (the WCSC has direct access to all the residents’ assessments). Most of the WCA and the other property owner’s associations are just puppets that the WCSC controls at will. What is interesting is that the boards either know this and don’t care or they have no clue what is happening or they are aware of this situation and do not approve of the circumstances, but lack the intestinal fortitude to correct the situation.
