Response to Focus article by Sean Mandaville

Reading the focus letter from the board I feel I must respond. Although I am not directly involved with the petition at this time, I do support it and have signed it. To answer your question, “My question to you is, how did a half dozen people with such hatred in their hearts for Diamondhead ever choose to live here?” I have not met anyone working on the petition or anyone who has signed  the petition that has hatred for Diamondhead. In fact these people love Diamondhead and desire to see it succeed. The people you are talking about care about Diamondhead and the property values for every property owner. Now you may have been able to say that these people are aggravated to a point that it came to a petition to remove the board and why is that. Well, I have that answer for you. Diamondhead is a great community and when you buy a home or lot in this community you are told how great it is and how well it is run. Then you go to a town hall meeting and you find out that the board hides the problems of this community because it would negatively affect people buying said property or lot in this community. Then you realize that the board has no desire to listen to the community who elected them to their position to represent our desires. Even worse you watch as the board stays on the same course that has proven over and over again to fail at fixing the problems Diamondhead has. So should property owners be aggravated about this – OF COURSE THEY SHOULD! They have made a huge investment only to find out they have been duped about the condition of the community and the true lack of effort to fix it.

Board members you got to ask this question and I have provided you a response. I would like you to answer the following questions for all property owners.



1. Why do you choose to hide Diamondhead’s problems rather then bring the issues to the community and use the vast experience and knowledge of the community to solve them?

2. You wrote in your response, “Committees function as recommending bodies, not as the governing body. You elected board members to oversee all of Diamondhead, not just individual sections. Many times the committees don't have the whole pictures, the Board and the GM do”. The committees are made up of property owners, why do they not have the whole picture? Why do you have property owners volunteering to be on these committees if you don’t provide them the information to make sound recommendations? Why is it that you do not discuss these recommendations made by the committees made up of property owners at town hall meetings?

3. Why do you ignore the by-laws of this community? The By-laws are there to protect the property owners. You have ignored the By-law and changed the fire protection program which raised the individual cost to most property owners without having community input or approval. You are cutting large checks that require the board’s approval without the board’s approval. You remove members of the board from the board when you only have the authority to remove a person from the position of officer. The community members are the only people who have the power to remove a board member. You have not provided a financial statement to the community in so long I can’t remember. If you do not follow the By-laws set to protect this community you lose the trust of the community to oversee its operation.

4. Why do you desire very limited communication/input from the property owners? The person you voted off the board has made great efforts to inform all of the community on what is going on in their community. This has been very upsetting to the president and other board members and probably the driving force behind removing her from the board. You state there are 1100 property/lot owners and you know that only about 25 to 30 show for town hall meetings for various reasons. Why have you not accepted the blog or I-neighbors as a tool to inform the entire community? Instead you state the information is presented at the town hall meeting very well knowing over 1000 members will not get the information.

5. Why have you ignored the input from people in this community who have the professional experience in that area on how to turn the financial problems of the amenities around?

6. Why haven’t just one of you had the courage to stand up to the rest of the board and say we don’t have the authority to do this? Why haven’t just one of you said we are here to represent the desires of the community not dictate our own ideas on the community?

You stated about a half dozen people wanting to hijack this community. From what I have heard about the past boards and have seen in this board, you have part of that correct. The community may have been hijacked by a hand full of people for a long time who have their own interests in mind rather than the interests of the entire community. You have had the option to communicate openly with the community and adhere to the by-laws set by this community and you have chosen not to. Now it is time to end the hijacking and get people running this community who value the members of this community. New board members, who make decisions based on the improvement of the entire community. New Board members, who will embrace and welcome the vast experience and knowledge within our community to help protect this community and the property values,. New board members, who choose to communicate and inform all property owners making sure all property and lot owners have a say in what happens in and to this community. It is time for Diamondhead to move in a positive direction and make Diamondhead a desired location for prospective home buyers. It is far better to have problems addressed and resolved and really be a great community rather than say it is and hide the problems behind a curtain of deceit.

Sean Mandeville