Letter from the GGM Board Nominees

To All Shareholders of Garden Grove Manor:

Your home is an investment that also gives you special rights as a shareholder in the Garden Grove Manor corporation. In the weeks ahead, we will show how the current management and Board of Directors ignore your rights and put your investment in danger. After the current Board of Directors is removed in the June 2010 recall election, we need to elect new leadership that will restore financial stability and keep shareholders in control of Garden Grove Manor until the mortgage is paid off in October 2013 and for all the years that follow.

The current Board and management are making expensive promises with your money to buy your votes, but they can’t keep their election promises without raising your carrying charges again or taking out another loan. We put our promises to you in writing. If you elect us as your new Board, we will make the following improvements:

· Remember that the Board of Directors, all employees and all contractors work for the shareholders.

· Perform all our Board duties with honesty, fairness, and respect for your rights and your investment.

· Be available to shareholders to exchange information, answer questions, listen to your concerns.

· Bring openness and transparency back to Board meetings, financial affairs, all areas of management.

· Pay off the 40-year mortgage on schedule in October 2013.

· Keep the monthly carrying charges as low as possible.

· Stop all unnecessary spending and get the best prices for all services, purchases and contracts.

· Review all current jobs, services, contracts and all other expenses to eliminate waste.

· Fill empty units as quickly as possible to keep money coming in to Garden Grove Manor.

· Keep the office open on a regular schedule and post the office hours on the office doors.

· Supervise all employees to make sure they are doing their jobs correctly, respectfully and competently.

· Make sure shareholders know the names of all employees and what their exact job is.

· Make sure all employees treat shareholders and their rights with respect, honesty and fairness.

· Make sure all contractors have the proper licenses, insurance and qualifications.

· Supervise the move-in waiting lists to make sure they are accurate and updated regularly.

· Make sure the HUD Section 8 and Basic certifications are completed accurately and on schedule.

· Bring back the waiting lists for replacements and repairs based on need and fairness.

· Have a Maintenance Technician live on site at GGM if that is what shareholders want.

· Perform necessary maintenance to keep GGM a safe, comfortable and clean place to live.

· Consider hiring a management company with experience in Section 236 cooperatives like GGM.

· Follow the Garden Grove Manor by-laws and California law as we are required to do.

· Hold annual election meetings on schedule.

· Hold the annual budget meeting on schedule and give shareholders a copy of the budget.

· Hold regular open meetings so shareholders can watch the new Board in action.

· Make the meeting minutes available to all shareholders so they know what is happening.

· Post the meeting agendas and other documents by the office so shareholders can read them.

We look forward to talking with you about your priorities for Garden Grove Manor. Thank you very much.

Cooperatively yours,

Nelson Cuervo, Nominee for the Board of Directors of Garden Grove Manor
Milina Kasalian, Nominee for the Board of Directors of Garden Grove Manor
Tom DePalma, Nominee for the Board of Directors of Garden Grove Manor
Alicia Boatman, Nominee for the Board of Directors of Garden Grove Manor
Keith Campbell, Nominee for the Board of Directors of Garden Grove Manor

Our Nominees for the Board of Directors of GGM

Last Monday we held a community meeting to determine which candidates for the Board of Directors in the June 2010 recall election will best represent the interests of Garden Grove Manor and its shareholders. We thank everyone for coming out on a chilly evening to volunteer for the Board or express their support for the recall.

These are the candidates we support and we urge you to vote for them when you receive your recall election ballot:

• Nelson Cuervo
• Milina Kasalian
• Tom DePalma
• Alicia Boatman
• Keith Campbell

Each candidate needs to be nominated only once for their name to be put on the ballot. We already turned in nomination forms for these five candidates, so you don’t need to nominate them again. Also, the GGM by-laws allow up to 2 directors who are elected or appointed to the Board to be non-members, so remember that non-members can be nominated, too.

Some members say they did not receive a mailed nomination form. Members should be able to call the GGM attorney, Stanley Feldsott, to ask about missing nomination forms and to make sure everyone receives a recall ballot.

Who Is Paying for the Garden Grove Gazette?

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.

Meet the Candidates: Monday, April 5, 2010

Are you tired of the Board and the Manager ignoring your concerns?

Do you want to elect a new Board of Directors that will work for you?

Are you confused about the nomination forms and the recall election?

Would you like to talk to some of the candidates for the new Board?

You are cordially invited to join your neighbors and meet the candidates Monday, April 5, 2010 at 6:30 p.m. We will see you at the benches by the laundry room!

New Petition for GGM Resident Members

We started to collect signatures on the petition we intend to submit to HUD. Here is the text of the petition:

We the undersigned Garden Grove Manor, Inc. resident members respectfully request that you at HUD, who approved the Board of Directors as the managing agent for GGM and as the only agency overseeing their actions, hold them accountable for their violations of our GGM by-laws, which are part of the GGM regulatory agreement with HUD, and for our other concerns listed below, and we request that you compel them to fulfill their fiduciary duties immediately as follows:

* The Board has not held an annual election meeting since April 2007, which was actually the October 2006 delayed annual meeting. Annual meetings are required by the by-laws and California law.

* The 3-year Board terms of Ann Marie McCartan and Margie Alexander expired in 2008 or earlier and they should not continue to act as directors or as managing agents or enjoy any benefits of directors paid for by members, including Directors & Officers insurance, managing agent insurance or legal advice. The Board did not hold the October 2007, October 2008 or October 2009 annual election meetings as required by the by-laws and California law.

* The Board did not hold at least 4 open meetings with members in 2009 as required by the by-laws.

* The Board holds executive sessions to review GGM business that should be reviewed in open meetings with members per the by-laws and California law. The Board does not disclose actions taken in executive session in the open meeting minutes as required by California law.

* The Board held meetings with members in December 2009 and February 2010 that met all the criteria of open meetings, but the Board claimed they were not “real meetings” and they have not provided members with minutes of these meetings within 30 days as required by California law.

* The Board did not hold open meetings with members to review and approve the annual pro forma budget that must be made available to members no later than 30 days before the start of the new fiscal year on December 1st. As of March 2010, the annual budget for 2009-2010 is more than 120 days delinquent per the by-laws and California law.

* The Board did not provide all directors with the same meeting notification or access to meetings as required by the by-laws and California law.

* The Board denies members access to minutes, member lists, financial records and other corporate documents that members are allowed to see as required by the by-laws and California law.

* The Board did not give members a 60 day notice of the recent increase in carrying charges under HUD regulations and California law.

* The Board and its employees used threatening tactics and materials purchased with membership funds to intimidate members during and after signatures were collected on the recall petition in violation of California law.

* The Board failed to respond to the recall petition, schedule the recall meeting and send the meeting notice to members within 20 days as required by California law. Members were forced to schedule the meeting themselves for March 4.

* The Board failed to mail the recall ballots to members 30 days before the March 4, 2010 recall meeting as mandated by California law. The Board delivered illegal recall ballots to selected members’ units less than 24 hours before the meeting in violation of California law. The ballots and envelopes were not in the format required by California law and the Board excluded 33 members. As of March 2010, a new recall meeting has not been scheduled.

* The Board delivered illegal nomination forms with the illegal ballots in violation of California law. When the Board delivered the illegal ballots and nomination forms, they used the time to persuade members to vote against the recall in a political violation of California law. As of March 2010, members still have not received legal ballots.

* The Board allowed the On-Site Manager to send letters to 33 members notifying them that they are not allowed to vote in the recall election as copies of the stock certificates for these members are not in the GGM residential files, which members do not access. Only past and current managers are responsible for these files. This is false information as nothing in the GGM by-laws or California law requires stock certificates to be in the files before members can vote. This appears to be a civil rights violation known as vote suppression and may be punishable as a crime.

* The Board is discussing taking out a new loan without getting the prior approval of members, as required by the GGM by-laws and California law.

* The Board gave On-Site Manager Dyan Gibbs an unprecedented payment in the amount of $4,400 for auto damages sustained on GGM property, which was a violation of GGM policy.

* When several residents reported flooding in their units, Dyan Gibbs told them to have their husbands fix the flooding and damages in violation of the GGM by-laws and California law.

* A majority of residents attended a meeting with the Board on December 10, 2009 to demand that the Board fire Dyan Gibbs immediately.

Rally at GGM: Thursday, March 18, 2010 at 7:00pm

We are holding a rally on Thursday, March 18, 2010, at 7:00pm by the Laundry Room to share information regarding the Board of Directors, HUD and the recall process. We will also have a new HUD petition to sign to stop the Board from taking out any new loans without the approval of shareholders. Be sure to visit our new website for regular updates and information.

As shareholders know, the March 4, 2010 recall meeting was canceled by the attorney for Garden Grove Manor because the Board of Directors failed to fulfill their duties and tried to hold a recall election in violation of the GGM by-laws and California law. The Board delivered ballots the night before the meeting to selected shareholders only and tried to prevent 33 of 76 shareholders from voting in the recall election under false pretenses. On-Site Manager Dyan Gibbs sent those 33 shareholders a misleading letter claiming that they could not vote in the recall election because copies of their stock certificates were missing from the office files. There is absolutely nothing in the GGM by-laws that prevents shareholders from voting in any GGM election due to missing copies of their stock certificates. All shareholders in good standing are allowed to vote and “good standing” has always been defined as shareholders who are current in their carrying charges.

Shareholders have their own attorney and he is helping those who signed the petition to recall the Board and who received the misleading letter from Dyan. Our attorney shared information about what the Board has been doing with the GGM attorney, which stopped the Board from holding the phony recall meeting. Our attorney continues to work for us to protect the rights of GGM members and preserve the integrity of the recall election process, as well as to hold the Board of Directors accountable to shareholders for their improper actions or lack of appropriate action. He is also communicating the concerns of shareholders directly to the GGM attorney.

At this time we are compiling a list of all shareholders who received the letter from Dyan Gibbs. The list will be shared with the GGM attorney. If you received the letter about missing stock certificates, please sign the list at the March 18th rally and keep your letter in a safe place for future reference. We look forward to seeing you at the rally! If you can’t make it to the rally, see Darlene about the stock certificate letter and petition (10692 #7).

Welcome to the Garden Grove Manor Watchdog!

Have you ever wondered who you would be if you had different parents? No matter how frustrating they may be, you wouldn’t exist without either one of them. In a way, Garden Grove Manor was “born” with two bossy, controlling “parents” and owes its existence to both of them. One “parent” is HUD, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the other “parent” is the State of California.

In 1971, Garden Grove Manor (or GGM, as we like to call it) began the process to become a non-profit stock share cooperative under the HUD Section 236 Program and a corporation under the State of California. The building of GGM was completed with a subsidized loan from the federal government. In return GGM agreed to offer affordable housing to applicants who qualify under HUD’s income guidelines. In 1994, GGM signed a contract with HUD to offer Section 8 housing assistance payments to shareholders who qualify. HUD rules govern our waiting lists, income certifications, financial statements, and carrying charges (i.e., the monthly assessment shareholders pay for their housing unit plus their portion of the corporation's expenses). Shareholders purchase a stock share in the corporation that earns limited equity, which accrues monthly.

Garden Grove Manor is also a common interest development subject to civil and corporation codes including the Davis-Stirling Act. Each year the State of California passes laws that affect Garden Grove Manor. These laws govern the rights of GGM shareholders and the responsibilities of the Board of Directors. The Board has a fiduciary duty to act in the best interests of the GGM shareholders in accordance with the governing documents of Garden Grove Manor and the laws of California.