After years of dereliction of duty, and multiple attempts to delay or cancel the election, Circuit Court Judge Orders rogue Board to stand down and hold election.
Court-appointed receiver—not ousted Board— to run election
After four years with no Annual Meeting and no Board elections, and after the ousted Board contested the validity of the Special Meeting called on April 23, 2023 by this group, Unit Owners for Change, and the ensuing election, by filing a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) against Heath Bourne, Robert Haddad and David Gilmore, a hearing was held on May 30, 2023 in Prince George’s County Circuit Court. Details of the hearing can be found here, or in the News section of this site. The Hearing resulted in a Consent Decree explained below.
Consent Decree
We (Heath Bourne, Robert Haddad and David Gilmore) agreed to enter into a Consent Decree that stipulated the following, pursuant to Judge Snoddy's Order:
1. The Ousted Board (i.e. Lucas, Warner, Judge and any other of their appointees) are out. They can no longer represent themselves to be the Brookside Board of Directors.
2. The Board of Directors elected on April 23, 2023 (i.e. Haddad, Williams, Bourne, Neamo and James) is also out. We can no longer represent ourselves to be the Board of Directors.
3. A new Special Meeting and Board election is mandated to occur on July 10, 2023 at which point a new Board will be elected. [The Brookside Receiver, MEINC, changed the election date to July 19, 2023].
4. MEINC will become the Receiver for Brookside for a period of up to 45 days, to run the day-to-day affairs of the Association, ensure all invoices are paid, ensure continuity of services to the community, and organize & run an upcoming Special Meeting and Board election.
5. CC (Crespo Accounting) will work with the community and with MEINC to produce and certify eligible voters consistent with our by-laws and the Maryland Condominium Act (MCA).
6. Karen Straughn of the OAG will oversee the election process and mediate any issues of contention between parties.
Is this a Good Outcome for Brookside?
Absolutely! We believe this is a good outcome for Brookside. Of course, we would have preferred that Judge Snoddy ratify the April 23 proceedings, however, we recognize that the priority was then, and remains today, to have fair, open and regular elections. That is what we sought all along--in 2021, 2022 or 2023. That is why we collected 197 petitions demanding the removal of the entire Board and calling for new elections. That is why Heath Bourne and Robert Haddad filed suit in Circuit Court in December 2022. Lucas and the former Board have now been definitively removed, serving notice to that Board (and any future Boards) that holding regular elections is mandated by our by-laws and the MCA, and that our community will hold that Board (and any future Boards) accountable for the fiduciary responsibility we have entrusted them with.
Next Steps
Under the aegis of our Managing Agent, MEINC, our community will hold another election on July 19, 2023. This is a small inconvenience for Brookside to hold another election only weeks after having conducted one. On the other side, we have not had elections in 4 years, so perhaps it is not such a bad thing to have two back-to-back elections in 2023. We expect to hear from MEINC about the process for the upcoming elections. We look forward to your continued support in this next phase of rebuilding Brookside Park with competency, integrity and transparency.
Thank you
We would like to extend a sincere thank you to those members of the Brookside community who came to Court on Tuesday May 30, 2023 to witness the proceedings and lend their support. This proceeding was long overdue. It took a tremendous level of effort and commitment to get to this point, including months of effort collecting Petitions for removal; weeks of campaigning and electioneering, dozens of community-wide communications, Zooms and email campaigns. Thank you to those who took time out of their day to come to Upper Marlboro and show your support.
It is not lost on us that, while Heath Bourne and Robert Haddad spent their time and money prosecuting this case, the ousted Board (Lucas, Judge, Warner and any of their appointees) used Association funds, i.e. your money, and a multitude of lawyers, to prevent an election at every turn. This will warrant further scrutiny, regardless who ends up on the Brookside Board.