This week Garden Grove Manor shareholders received Volume 3, Issue 1 of the Garden Grove Gazette dated March 29, 2010. The Gazette is a publication written by GGM employees from the point of view of the Board of Directors of Garden Grove Manor, Inc.
As unintentionally hilarious as this newsletter is, spending the membership’s money to produce one-sided political propaganda is no laughing matter. California Civil Code §1363.03(a) states the following:
1363.03. (a) An association shall adopt rules, in accordance with the procedures prescribed by Article 4 (commencing with Section 1357.100) of Chapter 2, that do all of the following:
(1) Ensure that if any candidate or member advocating a point of view is provided access to association media, newsletters, or Internet Web sites during a campaign, for purposes that are reasonably related to that election, equal access shall be provided to all candidates and members advocating a point of view, including those not endorsed by the board, for purposes that are reasonably related to the election. The association shall not edit or redact any content from these communications, but may include a statement specifying that the candidate or member, and not the association, is responsible for that content.
In other words, when the Garden Grove Gazette publishes an article, editorial or comment of any candidate or member related to the recall election, the Garden Grove Gazette must publish the articles, editorials or comments of all other candidates and members who request to be published. Furthermore, the Gazette cannot edit or remove any part of the candidates’ or members’ content.
Page 1 of the Gazette carries a promise that written contributions from readers will be published in the next issue. Page 2 includes a comment that is related to the campaign to recall the Board of Directors from an alleged shareholder. In the interest of equal access under California law, we expect the Board of Directors to notify all GGM members of the deadline for the next issue of the Gazette so all candidates and members have the opportunity to submit their articles, editorials or comments related to the recall election. Furthermore, in the interest of equal access under California law, we expect the Board of Directors to publish the next issue of the Gazette before members cast their votes in the June 2010 recall election.
Below is the exact text of the comment published on the bottom of page 2 of the March 29, 2010 issue of the Gazette. We have not edited the item in any way or removed any part of its content:
FROM AN ANNOMNOMOUS SHAREHOLDER
After reading the “Watchdog’s”Blog and going to their Rally of Lies, it saddens me to know that our Shareholders are listening to such lies, much less believing them. Most people that at-tended this Rally were either shareholders who don’t live in their units or others that are not even Shareholders. To me it is blatantly obvious that anyone who would listen to Teri and her lies, yet turn their heads to the truth are very ignorant indeed. Resi-dents who were standing up for the truth and were trying to state the truth were shot down by more and more lies. For the residents who are bullied into agreeing with these lies, I feel for them, for if we loose our manager and Board of Directors then we WILL all loose and suffer for it. For so MANY years, I did not know the truth, and fi-nally I see our community coming together and getting things done and the Board and Manager working hard for that purpose. So if you are like me and appreciate what is getting done. Please write the Board and let them know!!!!
Reading this item in the Gazette, we at the GGM Watchdog were overcome with a sense of déjà vu. On the evening of March 18, 2010, before our rally even finished, we received a comment from an anonymous reader of our blog. This is exactly how it arrived in our inbox:
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Rally at GGM: Thursday, March 18, 2010 at 7:00pm":
After reading this blog and going to this Rally of Lies it saddens me to know that our Shareholders are listening to lies and believing them. Most of the attended in this Rally were either shareholders who don’t live in their units or others that are not even Shareholders. The intelligence of ignorant people was blatantly obvious and people who listen to Terrie and all her lies and wont listen to any Truth. Residents who stand up for the truth and were trying to state the truth were shot down by more and more lies. For other residents who don’t know facts and are bullied into believing the lies I feel for them for if what you lied about is believed and the board and manager are fired then we WILL suffer more. Would it be better to tell the Board and Manager to start lying to us all would that make everyone happy. Because I know after so MANY years of not knowing the truth and what was NOT done, it is nice to finally see our community coming together and getting things done by yes our Board and Manager NOW. So if you are like me and understand that what was said at this Rally was lies please write a letter to our Board and let them know they do have Shareholders who do see that things are getting done.
Sincerely,
GGM AttackDog
Posted by Anonymous to The GGM Watchdog: Recall the Board of Directors! at March 18, 2010 8:06 PM
Please note how similar both comments are. They appear to be written by the same person or persons. Please note also that both comments are written to make readers believe that the person is a shareholder who supports the Board and the Manager – not a shareholder who is on the Board or an employee of Garden Grove Manor.
We at the GGM Watchdog respect and will defend the right of every shareholder, include Board members, to express their opinions. But we are curious about the identity of the author(s) for a perfectly legitimate reason. We received the blog comment above at 8:06pm on March 18, 2010. Our rally started shortly after 7:00pm and ended after 8:30pm on March 18, 2010. At approximately 7:10pm, a Board member – Ann Marie McCartan – and the Assistant Manager Jennifer joined the rally. Ann Marie and Jennifer were the only people who left the rally before 8:06pm, the time when we received the blog comment above. Ann Marie McCartan is the only shareholder who left the rally before 8:06pm.
If the "annomnomous shareholder" is telling the truth about being at the March 18th rally, there are two possibilities about his or her identity:
1) Either the comments were written by Ann Marie McCartan and were a deliberate deception to make readers believe that the person who wrote the comments was not a Board member.
2) Or the comment is a deliberate deception that was written by someone who is not a shareholder or was not at the rally.
On behalf of all shareholders, we demand answers to the following questions from the publishers of the Garden Grove Gazette:
Are membership funds used to write, publish, print and mail the newsletter? If not, please provide GGM members with a copy of all receipts and any other applicable documents showing who paid for all costs associated with the newsletter.
How exactly did the “annomnomous” comment get published in the Garden Grove Gazette? Members did not receive notification that the March 29th issue of the Gazette was going to be published. How did the “annomnomous shareholder” know that he or she should submit a comment for this issue of the newsletter?
If the “annomnomous shareholder” was given advance information about the Gazette, why weren’t all members and candidates given equal access to comment in the Gazette as required under California law?
Our blog, the GGM Watchdog, will not knowingly publish false information or lies in our posts or in our comments. This is our own private blog and it doesn’t cost members of Garden Grove Manor one cent, but we are holding ourselves accountable for being 100% truthful to members because their homes and investments are at stake. Like all bloggers, we reserve the right to publish or reject any comments that we receive. We chose to reject this comment because it is full of false information and lies.
Talk is cheap, but putting lies and deliberate falsehoods in print can be very costly. We call upon the Board of Directors and the Manager to answer our questions about how this comment, which appears to be a blatant deception, came to be published in an official newsletter paid for by the members of Garden Grove Manor.
