7/9/21, 6:20 PM
WATERBOARDING
At Tuesday’s (7/6/21), Work Session Meeting, President Carl Harbour provided a very limited update regarding the Water Company lawsuit/Settlement and Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).
Harbour stated,
“If we can get consensus from the Water Company on ONE SENTENCE, then I think we have an MOU we can sign.”
Ranch Manager Judy Lapora chirped in reminding the Board to be careful about the final wording.
Ranch Matters checked in with Water Company General Manager Frank Day and he said,
“It appears that the MOU Settlement is down to one sentence.”
We asked Day, why no final agreement? Supposedly the case settled via mediation last November and still no final agreement? Day responded, “Since the settlement, we’ve been negotiating over final verbiage and an updated MOU.”
In the mean time, the lawyers are racking up some serious billable hours and according to Day, the “Real losers are the Ranch Homeowners and the WINNERS-Lawyers.”
RECAP
On Christmas Eve, 2019, the Crooked River Ranch Board filed a lawsuit against the Crooked River Ranch Water Company.
Jefferson County Case No: 19CV55620
The lawsuit/Complaint: Trespass; Breach of Contract; Breach of Implied Duty of Good Faith and Fair Dealing; Unjust Enrichment; Damages.
As reported earlier, Ranch VP Bill Burt read from one of his prepared statements listing the reasons why the Ranch Board filed the lawsuit against the Water Company at the January 6, 2020, Work Session Meeting. He stated the Board needed to ratify the lawsuit, which had already been filed on December 24, 2019 and entertained a motion. Director Jerry Cooper, after properly identifying himself, made a “motion to move forward with the litigation.” “It was seconded by Director Stephanie Proffitt”, who failed to identify herself and the vote was unanimous.
Director Proffitt’s husband, Steve, serves on the Water Company’s Board of Directors. We asked, should Ranch Director Stephanie Proffitt announced any potential or actual conflicts of interest due to her husband’s Water Board position?
In one of our former reports, we covered an interesting ORS (Oregon Revised Statute) 94.662, that begs the question, is there a NOTICE REQUIREMENT obligating the Ranch Association to notify the affected homeowners prior to filing the lawsuit against the Water Company?
ORS 94.662 states in part, “At least 10 days prior to instituting any litigation or administrative proceeding to recover damages under ORS 94.630 (Powers of the Association (1) (e) (E), the homeowners association shall provide written notice to each affected owner of the association’s intent to seek damages on behalf of the owners.”
ANYONE RECEIVE A NOTICE?
Who approved filing the lawsuit and paying for an attorney out of Ranch Association Funds before the January 6th Board Meeting?
Interestingly, the Ranch Board is accusing the Water Company of not operating FAIRLY and in GOOD FAITH?
The WATERBOARDING Continues
