June 23, 2021: This News Site's previous endorsement of current president Jeff D. Green is officially rescinded for what in our opinion constitutes unsportsmanlike behavior, fiscal irresponsibility, abuse of power, and callousness toward his fellow members of the community.  For further details, see our June 23, 2021 Synopsis and Commentary entitled "En Garde!"

CASCADE LAKES ELECTION REPORT 2021

Musical Chairs:  let the games begin.

We are gathered here today to join you and four Board members who are up for election in an unholy union lasting for two years. 

We will dispense with the bouquet and the rice, but not the wedding harpist:

Ok, enough with the formalities.  Let’s Get Ready to Ruuuuumble! 

Your Editor thanks all the residents who requested guidance in choosing the next Board.  We offer these thoughts after careful review of the candidates’ records and their behavior. 

Clearly in anticipation of this report (because we had announced it was coming), your Editor received two written requests for my demise:  one resident (an admitted friend of candidate Marion Weil’s husband whom he specifically identified by name) who emailed me and likened himself to a dead terrorist named Achmed and who said he was going to kill me (his words, not mine), and one resident (a known go-to toady sycophant of candidate Diane Fiorillo-Green) who emailed me and told me, after a diatribe filled with expletives, to go “play in traffic” (hereinafter referred to as “Traffic Clown”).

The latter emailer circulated his vile and defamatory email to many residents in the community who are on his email list, which prompted a few residents to complain to us in disgust over having received his vile email.  They asked us if we would be pursuing legal action against him.

Both emailers are officially disqualified from being Resident of the Month, the latter of whom was already disqualified because he appears on our Calling Out Bullies page along with his false idol, candidate Diane Fiorillo-Green, who also graces the Calling Out Bullies page. 

We told you this would happen:  see our February 17, 2021 synopsis and commentary entitled “The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere?” wherein your Editor advised the community that we would be putting out this election report and your Editor stated about the upcoming election cycle, “Let the backstabbing begin!”  Your Editor isn’t even a candidate, but clearly some individuals feel threatened and worried by reminders of the truth.

We proactively removed these two emailing miscreants (Mr. Achmed and the Traffic Clown) from our email database in lieu of filing a police report.  Nothing says you’re over the target like a little back noise from the peanut gallery.

These wannabe hoodlums can be a tad pesky, sort of like gnats or mosquitos you might flick away and then forget about as being wholly irrelevant to your life.

And now without further ado, here are the seven candidates, in random order, from which you get to choose four:

Marion Weil, Harvey Ginsberg, Bob Dingee, Mike Gentry, Diane Fiorillo-Green, Jeffrey D. Green (no relation to Diane Fiorillo-Green), and Alan Silver.

Here is our report on each candidate, our conclusions, and our recommendations, with the proviso that while this report contains facts, our commentary and conclusions are strictly our opinion of these candidates who seek political office, that of Board member of the HOA. 

However, before we dive into it, a situation was raised at the March 3, 2021 Board Meeting which needs to be addressed here.  Marion made a point of personal privilege which we report here.  Marion stated exactly as follows:

“Around February 15^th I received an anonymous letter containing libelous accusations against me signed by ‘Concerned Citizens of Cascade Lakes.’  The identities of the concerned citizens are actually known to me due to the references in the letter.  Without going into detail, it seems the writers take exception to my duties as president of the Board of Directors.   Additionally, the facts in the accusations are incorrect.  The writers of this letter threatened to make their accusations public if I run for the Board. 

I did put in my Intent to Run Application as you all know because it was posted in an email blast from the property manager.  One of the Concerned Citizens of Cascade Lakes’ is in fact running for the Board.  It is against the culture of Cascade Lakes to make derogatory statements about other residents.  That is the only reason for my not disclosing the names of the concerned residents.  When residents run for the Board, we try to present our best features and qualifications rather than diminish those of other Board applicants. 

Through the years I have always encouraged residents to apply for the Board, because I truly want the best Board possible for the Association.  For that reason, and only that reason, I am not going to ask the concerned residents to identify themselves at this meeting.  So, if the cowards who had to send this anonymously somehow whisper in your ear or make good on publishing their drivel, you, too, will know who they are.  Thank you.”

At the First Residents’ Input Session, your Editor made the following exact comments:

“What you described sounds like an attempted extortion from what you say is a candidate and her acolytes.  Now this attempted extortion, which is what it sounds like to me, is illegal, and you should consider filing a police report against these alleged attempted extortionists, because there’s no place in this community or anywhere for that matter for extortion on anyone. 

And it’s infuriating to me, regardless of opposition and policy opinions and whatever else, issues, that anyone has with you, or anyone in this community, that you would receive such a letter.  This is outrageous, it’s unacceptable, and if I were you, I would seriously consider filing a police report against this other candidate and her acolytes.  Thank you.”

By way of comparison, according to a Tampa Bay Times article dated November 30, 2015, a Largo commission candidate allegedly sent an anonymous email to his opponent threatening to expose certain things unless the opponent dropped out of the race.  He was charged with felony extortion.  In that case, the alleged victim dropped out of the race.  Hence, the alleged extortion was complete. 

Now back to Cascade Lakes.  This alleged attempted extortion by another candidate against Marion reminds us of the May 7, 2020 email sent to Marion and the Board which was signed by candidate Diane Fiorillo-Green and her retinue and which was specifically sent after a Board meeting when these individuals were incensed that they did not get their way on re-opening the pickleball courts during the pandemic in exchange for their “gift” of a canopy at the pickleball court.

Diane Fiorillo-Green sent out this May 7, 2020 email as the claimed president of the pickleball club (and she was also the then-Chairwoman of the Entertainment Committee) and she stated that Marion and the Board’s actions would be remembered at election time, among other things. 

Diane Fiorillo-Green was also part of a self-labeled group called “CLEAR” which they said stood for “Cascade Lakes Empowering Active Residents” who sent an email to the Board on May 25, 2020 at 6:40pm imploring the Board to reopen the pool during the pandemic. 

This May 25, 2020 email was signed by some known community agitators/bullies who are on our Calling Out Bullies page, including Diane Fiorillo-Green, Debbie Berenholtz, and Chick Coletta aka Traffic Clown, the latter two who appear to be her go-to goons and thugs.  (CLEARly this group likes using acronyms and mnemonic devices.)

When that didn’t work, Diane Fiorillo-Green also used her access to the HOA pickleball club’s email roster when she was its fake president (more on this below) to send out an email on June 15, 2020 at 2:15pm to all pickleball club members concerning her wrath over the failure of the Board to re-open the pool to her liking. 

Using the privilege of the HOA club e-mail roster to promote unrelated matters is inappropriate to say the least.  But in our opinion, this is what you can expect from someone who shows you that she has no boundaries.

Keep this in mind as your read this report and ask yourselves, do you want an alleged extortionist in charge of your life here?  This is the lowest form of dirty pool in our opinion and we believe you can expect more of it, because if a candidate will do it once, rest assured, they will be emboldened to conduct themselves similarly going forward.

Now we address each candidate on the merits. 

Marion Weil: 

This is clearly Mr. Achmed’s favored candidate.  Does a candidate really want her followers to be issuing death threats to a resident/constituent?  We give her the benefit of the doubt and assume not.  Marion is not responsible for the bad behavior of others and under no circumstances do we believe that she would encourage this; in fact, to the contrary, we believe she would never condone this and would roundly and vociferously reject it.

Marion is a current Board member and current president of the HOA.  She conducted secret board meeting behind your back in flagrant violation of the Florida Statute.  She made promises to select groups in private emails.  In our opinion she abused her position in punitive ways to try and silence those critical of her. 

For a brief recap, here’s a short record of Marion’s conduct as Board member and president:

1.  conducted several illegal closed board meetings;

2.  removed truthful message board posts that called out her behavior;

3.  repeatedly allowed message board posts of one resident attacking other residents with impunity;

4.  improperly tried to seize a resident’s microphone at a board meeting when she unilaterally decided that the resident would only have two minutes to speak instead of the required three minutes per statute and the HOA’s governing documents and then had the resident’s mic cut off;

5.  repeatedly permitted repetitive heckling of residents by other residents at board meetings (where one of her few functions is to preside over and control the conduct of board meetings);

6.  allowed a resident to bash other residents at the First Residents’ Input Session on matters that were not part of the Agenda;

7.  repeatedly focused her efforts on trying to silence residents who air the truth about her alleged malfeasance;

8.  sicced the HOA attorney on your Editor and Roving Reporter without ever convening a Board meeting for such purpose, which cost the community thousands of dollars in legal fees which were entirely the result of Marion’s inappropriate conduct toward your Editor. 

Marion also gave the HOA attorney misinformation which he failed to vet for its veracity or lack thereof, and based on her unvetted statements, the attorney wrote your Editor a letter wherein he made demonstrably false and defamatory claims against your Editor.  His claims were thoroughly debunked.  Marion did this twice, once in 2019 and again in 2020, all with your money;

9.  engaged in multiple behind the scenes “Weiling and dealing” to select groups of people;

10.  demonstrated lack of ability to control Board meetings and failure to follow through once Board orders are made;

11.  As we reported in our December 16, 2020 synopsis and commentary entitled Can’t Touch This, Marion usurped the Board’s responsibility when she took disciplinary matters into her own hands as to the alleged November 3, 2020 election day aggressors, to the detriment of the alleged victims and their rights, and this was thoroughly improper.  In fact, one of those alleged election day aggressors was none other than candidate Diane Fiorillo-Green.

If any of the above disturbs you concerning Marion’s conduct, then prove it and place your vote elsewhere.  However, if you must choose between Marion and her female competitor, Diane Fiorillo-Green, choose Marion because the alternative in our opinion is infinitely worse. 

Also, if you must choose between Alan Silver and Marion, please choose Marion; see our report below on Alan Silver, Diane Fiorillo-Green’s admitted mentor and leadership groomer. 

Few have been harder on Marion than we have, but given the choices, in our opinion this community cannot tolerate the election of Diane Fiorillo-Green or Alan Silver.  And lastly, if you have to choose between Diane Fiorillo-Green and Alan Silver, then pick Alan Silver.  But you should not have to make these choices because there are better choices as described below.

Harvey Ginsberg: 

Harvey is a current Board member.  This man is your “piecemeal” poster boy.  For a refresher, see our October 7, 2020 synopsis & commentary entitled Three Dog Night where we exposed his intention to go around a required community vote (fence/gate) by doing a fence and gate project piecemeal, which proposed fence just happened to conveniently abut the back of his property. 

He only begged for your forgiveness, after defaming us, when he wanted to be Vice President, which he falsely claims to be despite not having won the required majority vote.  He interrupts other Board members.  He’s rude. 

But he actually has the potential to be better if only his ego would stop getting in the way, and without Marion, perhaps he will be a more diligent Board member without his bosom buddy.

Is it time for him to go?  Well, that depends on who else is running.  Believe it or not, because of the dearth in candidates, you might be best served by voting for this candidate.  In fact, that is what we will be concluding at the end of this report. 

On the bright side, he did vote to order that club rules are not legally enforceable, and that was a huge deal.  That issue should never have even needed to be dealt with but for candidate Alan Silver’s push for those asinine rules. 

Also, Harvey has shown growth in recognizing the importance of transparency, and he has mentioned that at several Board meetings in the past.  He is better versed on the rules than he was when he first came on board.  And we think that Harvey learned a very hard lesson with fence/gate and will not likely repeat it.  We slammed him pretty hard, and he deserved it, but the matter was remedied after our exposé, so let’s now move on.

And at least Harvey is his own man and independent and recognizes and understands that his vote is independent.  Alan Silver has displayed evidence of his inability to grasp that concept, i.e., that he has an equal voice on the Board, which is very troublesome. 

Understandably, some of you may be loath to cast your vote for Harvey, but the alternatives, in our opinion, are far worse and under no circumstances should you leave the one vote blank and let others decide for you.  You decide.  Make sure you vote for four candidates. 

In this case, we believe that the fourth vote cast needs to be for Harvey, even though we’re the ones that exposed the fence/gate scandal and he defamed us for doing so.  We have the most right to urge a vote elsewhere, and yet here we are urging a vote for him based on a serious and thoughtful comparison to his competitors. 

Bob Dingee: 

Bob is a current Board member by appointment by the Board when his predecessor resigned.  He prefers a “utilitarian” look to the community, to use his word when describing his preference for galvanized poles for the community signs.  This necessarily means he is not your go-to guy for community beautification. 

We think the “utilitarian” approach is better reserved for prisons, not 55+ communities in Palm Beach County.  This is purely a judgment call:  if you like this austere approach, then perhaps he has earned your vote.  But if you are looking for something a little north of the design structure of San Quentin, you might want to consider other candidates if there were any. 

However, there are presently no other additional candidates who would better serve this community, and in all other respects, we really like the guy.  He engages in quiet contemplation; he’s smart; he doesn’t waste time on endless discussions at Board meetings; he listens well; he comports himself professionally; he appears to work hard; and he presents as an honest and decent human being with a high level of integrity.

We think he deserves to be elected.  We were about to say “re-elected,” but he has never held an elected position because he was appointed to fill a vacant Board seat when another Board member resigned.  He is the Gerald Ford of the group:  appointed to the top post, but never elected to the position.  We endorse him with open hearts.

Mike Gentry:

It appears to us that here’s your chance for honesty, transparency, and integrity. Now it’s up to you to prove that you really want those things.  Mike is the current Chairperson of The Long-Range Planning Committee.  He has expressed the desire that the Board should be transparent, honest, and make decisions on matters and then follow through with those decisions in a timely manner. 

He wants Board members to be prepared for Board meetings and read their pre-meeting Board packets.  He wants oversight of major projects by the appropriate Committee members and Board members alike to ensure the project is being carried out as specified in the contract.  He wants the Board to hire vendors based upon experience, competency, and what’s best for the community.

This Gentry fellow seems like a good bet.  Can he be blustery?  Yes, and so can some of you.  He’s passionate about what he wants.  Do we agree with all his policy points on specific items?  No, but he will listen, and he appears to be willing to be swayed by a fair and decent argument.  He wants fairness.  He wants openness.  He wants adherence to the rules.  What more do you want?  Give him the opportunity to prove his worthiness and vote for him.  We endorse him.

Diane Fiorillo-Green: 

This is the Traffic Clown’s favored candidate.  In our opinion, this candidate supports this type of bullying because she has engaged in bullying herself.  What Traffic Clown doesn’t understand is that because of his severe low self-esteem, he erroneously believes that by doing Diane Fiorillo-Green’s dirty work, he will garnish favor with a small group of individuals in this community whom, for reasons unfathomable, he desperately wants to like him. 

What Traffic Clown doesn’t realize is that he is being used, and he would be cast aside the minute his usefulness ended.  A good example of this is the fact that candidate Diane Fiorillo-Green’s inner circle of women has never included Traffic Clown’s wife.  And why is this? 

In our opinion, it is because Traffic Clown’s wife is likely perceived by Ms. Green as not being particularly useful to Ms. Green.  Traffic Clown’s wife is a very good pickleball player.  She plays fair and she doesn’t cheat.  She follows and adheres to the rules.  Ms. Green prefers subservient and needy types who are much easier to control and manipulate and who will be much more understanding and who will look the other way when rules are bent, ignored, or broken.  Hence, it is better to keep Traffic Clown’s wife at a distance.

Traffic Clown’s wife plays by the rules.  Diane Fiorillo-Green, in our opinion, plays by her own rules, regardless of whether those rules are compatible with the actual rules. 

This candidate is the woman who was an integral part of the group who rigged the 2019/2020 pickleball club elections.  For a complete review, see our June 24, 2020 synopsis and commentary, entitled “Pickleball exposé.”  She resigned from her position as fake president of that club when we exposed her improper usurpation of that office.  In our opinion, her conduct was dishonest.  We don’t like dishonesty, and neither should you.

She also resigned in disgrace from her position as Entertainment Committee Chairperson when the Board was going to give her the boot for insubordination.  We don’t like insubordination, and neither should you.

This is the woman who with her friend got in the face of election volunteers on election day, November 3, 2020, because they supported a candidate she didn’t like.  She allegedly got in the face of another resident whose political opinions she didn’t agree with; see our December 16, 2020 synopsis and commentary entitled Can’t Touch This.  We don’t like this bullying behavior, and neither should you.

This is the woman who has engaged in character assassination of your Editor and Roving Reporter for not carrying her water and for exposing her character to the community.  She engaged in relentless and reckless character assassination, all false, of your Editor and your Roving Reporter to anyone who would listen, and upon information and belief, continues to do so.  We don’t like character assassination, and neither should you.

This is the woman who engaged in character assassination of your Roving Reporter when he called her out for breaking the rules when he was the Secretary and she was the Chairperson of the Entertainment Committee.  We don’t like it when people break the rules, and neither should you.

This is the woman when she was the fake president of the pickleball club who tried to curry favor with the Board by having the club purchase a canopy with the understanding that the quid pro quo for that “gift” would be a Board ruling opening up the pickleball courts at the beginning of the pandemic.  She even signed a letter dated May 7, 2020 essentially admitting it.  On July 9, 2020, she resigned in disgrace and the club had to redo its entire election process. 

Trying to trade favors for favorable Board rulings is strictly verboten and is dishonest in our opinion.  We don’t like quid pro quo dealings to replace decisions on policies and issues that should stand or fall on their own merits or lack thereof, and neither should you.

When she didn’t get her way on the reopening of the pool during the pandemic, she went ballistic because with this personality type, cross her and you will feel the wrath. 

As fake president of the pickleball club, she arranged for a party on the beach for June 20, 2020 and encouraged all pickleball club members to leave the courts during the limited time the courts were open during the pandemic and instead join her on the beach to party.

Prior to the pandemic, during pickleball play, she rearranged paddles in the queue and physically removed your Roving Reporter’s paddle and moved it toward the back of the queue so she could play with her friends.  Prior to that, she screamed out loud about your Roving Reporter, “I’m not playing with him!”  We don’t like unsportsmanlike behavior, and neither should you.

This conduct was totally lacking in sportsmanship and petty, and it was also dishonest.  She was the fake pickleball club president at the time, and the then-communications officer, Sue Leonard, even called her out about it.  She ended up on our Calling Out Bullies page for this behavior.  Someone with this lack of impulse control and anger management issues should not be on the Board.  We don’t want someone at the helm of this ship who in our opinion clearly has impulse control issues and anger management issues, and neither should you.

This incident was just another example in our opinion of her lack of impulse control and anger management issues in addition to the alleged election day outburst against a fellow resident on November 3, 2020 as described above.

This individual, in our opinion, lacks integrity and lacks honesty and she is manipulative and untrustworthy.  If she perceives you are slighting her (even if you’re not), you’re toast, and she will demonize you to anyone and everyone who will listen. 

Believe it or not, this choice would be far worse than enduring another two years of Marion.  We know that is very hard to believe, but in our opinion that is really what you’re in for if you vote for her, at which point we will say, “told ya’ so.”  Be forewarned and don’t fall for the fake charm which she is an expert at turning on; we’ll give her credit for that talent. 

In our opinion, this candidate is in it purely for the power and to stroke her ego.  When she was the Chairperson of the Entertainment Committee, we observed the following troubling behavior:  as a Board meeting was going on, we observed her heading to the pool; as another Board meeting was going on, she had a hair appointment and missed that one.  At yet another Board meeting, she was seen leaving early and advising those within ear shot that she was headed for the beach.  That was three separate Board meetings. 

Does that sound like someone truly interested in the community?  And now, all of a sudden, this candidate wants you to believe that she is in it for you.  This person in our opinion is a master manipulator and has already displayed her penchant for breaking the rules when she helmed the Entertainment Committee.  The very last thing this community needs is more of the same. 

And now we have Marion at the March 3, 2021 Board meeting reciting yet another disturbing and allegedly threatening letter she purportedly received from this candidate as detailed above, thus adding alleged attempted extortionist to Ms. Fiorillo-Green’s list of nefarious accomplishments.

There is another reason this candidate is seeking a seat on the Board in addition to her need for power and control.  This is the woman who is the main protagonist of the Covid Cavorters.  She posted this memorable Facebook comment on or about June 11, 2020, during the raging pandemic:

Quote: “And that is why the plan is to be outside the gates as much as possible!”

She traipses around the state in apparent abandon and then wants to open up the pool area so she can party hardy during the pandemic.  The motto of this individual is that if you are afraid, “stay home.”  We think that’s selfish and not very neighborly because it would deprive you of your right to use the common areas that you pay for, and so we roundly reject this particular policy.  

We don’t want someone leading this community who has little or no regard for the health and safety of every resident, and neither should you.

If you are concerned about the pool and facilities being reopened without necessary restrictions and precautions during this raging pandemic, in our view this candidate has amply shown that she doesn’t give a hoot about your concerns.

As a final point on this matter, the safety, security, and well-being of the community should always come first and should always be the paramount determinant when voting for a Board member.  This candidate, by all available evidence, does not appear to us to fit that criterion. 

One cannot be a Covid Cavorter and a community protector at the same time.  The two are inherently incompatible.  For this reason alone, this candidate should be roundly rejected.  She is in her late 50’s and it appears to us that she has little regard for those of you who are older than she based on her writings and her conduct.

Jeff D. Green:  Jeff (no relation to the above Diane Fiorillo-Green) is Chairman of the Audit Committee and Chairman of the Budget Committee.  He has been here a long time.  He appears to be very level-headed.  He appears to be open to listening to differing points of view.  He appears to be very intelligent. 

There are back stories for sure (who doesn’t have some of those?) but moving forward we believe he may be an asset on the Board.  We don’t know him all that well.  Therefore, we are taking a leap of faith and endorsing him.  Hopefully he won’t disappoint us and cause us to regret our endorsement.

One concern we have is that Jeff was quite upset when the Board voted that members can play in league tournaments without being club members.  He worried that no one would be incentivized to join a club.  League play involves use of the common areas.  No resident should be deprived of use of the common areas because he or she doesn’t want to join a club.  With ownership and residency comes the right to use these facilities without having to pay extra. 

Nevertheless, we would endorse Jeff’s bid for the Board for the reasons stated above.

Alan Silver: 

When Alan was a Board member, he told your Editor that the president of the Board, Marion Weil, had veto power over what goes on an agenda, which is completely false, so if he really believed that, then he has no idea how to properly represent you as an equal Board member and has no business being on the Board. 

He allegedly allowed himself to be bullied by Marion to the point where he almost resigned.  We want strong leadership, not people who cannot stand on their own two feet and tell another Board member to go stick it where the sun doesn’t shine if that other equal Board member tries to bully him off the Board.  Anyone who does not understand that all Board members are equal has no right to be your representative because he is ceding his authority to another Board member, thus diluting your vote.

When the aforementioned disgraced and disgraceful Diane Fiorillo-Green made false statements about your Roving Reporter to get Arthur off the Entertainment Committee because he objected to her rule-breaking, Alan Silver went along with this character assassination and never once sought to seek your Roving Reporter’s input on the matter or to seek out the true facts.  He surreptitiously voted to kick Arthur off the Committee without a hearing on the day that we brought over homemade soup to his ill wife which Arthur himself made.  We had no idea at the time.  Nice guy. 

This is the man who was one of the main architects of the bogus pickleball club rules which sought to immunize officers, including himself, from any potential malfeasance whatsoever (at press time, the club rules are still on the HOA website, but finally the Board ordered that those rules have no legal effect).  The Board rightly put the kibosh on those rules, but only after we pressed the issue and were relentless in our insistence that these rules were a danger to our community.

These asinine rules sought to allow an unlimited amount of non-residents to join the club and cause wear and tear on our common areas, and they also exposed the HOA to potential liability if any one of those unlimited outsiders injured himself or herself at a club event.  Under these rules, anyone on the planet could be an official Cascade Lakes pickleball club member and use the facilities without limitation.  After we relentlessly pushed back against these nutty rules, the Board ordered that only residents can be club members. 

These rules also demanded club membership with the aforementioned immunity clause in order to play in the league (which the Board finally also disallowed).  This immunity clause forced you to agree to immunize all officers, including Alan Silver himself who is the vice-president of the club, from anything and everything they do; thus, it can be said that he created these bogus rules to immunize himself.

These rules for which he was one of the chief architects also sought to permit the officers, including himself, to determine whether or not any club member gets to review the club’s financial records.  Now why would he do that?  Why would he create a rule where a club member might be denied the right to review the club’s financial records?  Between your Editor and your Roving Reporter, this part of the rules he created raised a total of four eyebrows.  Does this sound like transparency to you?  Is this what you want?

He also created these rules for the purpose of squelching dissenting opinions, especially because he was incensed that we were objecting to these rules which were harmful to the HOA at large (see our September 2, 2020 synopsis and commentary entitled “Togas and Tantrums” for a good review of the discussions leading up to his creation of these improper and outrageous rules).  As you can see from the above quick recitation of these rules, they are the opposite of transparency and they harm the community at large.

These pickleball club so-called leaders, with Alan Silver at the center of this group along with a couple of others, tried to create their own little fiefdom within the HOA community, with little regard for the rest of you and your rights to use the common areas free from being overrun by outsiders as well as your rights to voice your concerns as they may arise.

These rules are still posted on the pickleball page on the HOA website at press time because apparently Alan, the vice-president of that club, erroneously believes they govern the club and since he helped write them, he is likely loath to see them removed; in fact, he was one of the chief architects of these rules and he was mighty proud of them when he wrote them. 

When the Board ruled that they could not be legally enforced, he as an officer of that club should have immediately removed them.  Marion Weil, who is the current president of the HOA, is obliged to make sure that the Board’s orders are carried out, and the officers of the pickleball club jointly are obliged to remove them, and yet these emasculated rules remain posted on the HOA’s website’s pickleball page as of press time, in all their impotent glory.

This candidate also considered himself the mentor of co-candidate Diane Fiorillo-Green and was grooming her (among others) to be a future leader here; we know this because he admitted to it in an email to us.  This is an example of his complete lack of good judgment in our opinion.  Neither of these individuals should be anywhere near the Board table.

Your Editor’s opinion:  show him the boot.  A definite and hard “no” vote for this candidate.

Conclusion: 

Are any of them perfect?  Are you?  We’re certainly flawed.  There’s no crime in that.  Do we agree with all the candidates’ policy points on every single issue and/or their voting record?  No, but if you’re looking for someone in your own image, you will have to run for the Board yourself, because you won’t find it anywhere but in the gaze of the visage lovingly looking back at you in your bathroom mirror. 

Vote for things that matter:  ethics, honesty, integrity, openness, fairness, transparency, following the rules, and fiscal responsibility.  These are the things that are sorely needed if you really want to make Cascade Lakes into a community that you can be eminently proud of. 

That being said, and based on the candidates who are seeking to represent you, here are your Editor’s picks, in random order, i.e., the candidates who are officially endorsed by this News Site:

Mike Gentry

Bob Dingee

Jeff D. Green

And while not endorsed, by process of elimination because another candidate will fill the fourth open slot: Harvey Ginsberg is the best alternative given the choices presented.

Under no circumstances should this community elect either Diane Fiorillo-Green or Alan Silver.  These two in the opinion of this News Site are disasters for this community.  Don’t let it happen. 

Upon information and belief, Diane Fiorillo-Green is the alleged attempted extortionist whom Marion referred to at the March 3, 2021 Board meeting.  Marion stated that she knows the identities of the writers due to the references in the letter and that one of them is a candidate.  No other candidate other than Diane Fiorillo-Green fits the description.

We here at the News Site have spent the last year and half trying to ferret out dishonesty and dirty politics and we have taken enormous flak for doing so.  Diane Fiorillo-Green, in our opinion, will open the floodgates to unfettered bullying, strong-arm tactics, and other similar gangster-type behavior in addition to creating an open cesspool of germs for Covid19 to flourish.

Alan Silver has proven his lack of leadership, his weakness, his lack of understanding that he is an equal Board member, and his intentions not to be transparent, as evidenced by his creation of the pickleball club’s officer-immunizing rules where he gets to decide with other officers whether or not you get to see club financial records.  Therefore, your Editor highly recommends sinking that election ship as well. 

We wholeheartedly endorse Mike Gentry, Bob Dingee, and Jeff D. Green.  Your Editor strongly suggests voting for Harvey because the remaining choices are almost intolerable, and for that reason, your Editor is saving Harvey from the election guillotine. 

Also, to give credit where it is due, Harvey has never tried to immunize himself from potential liability or hide financial records and he has made efforts to encourage the Board to be more transparent.  In our opinion, he is the only fourth choice.  If for whatever reason you cannot vote for Harvey, then vote for Marion.

Remember, you must exercise your vote as to four candidates.  Do not vote for three and leave the fourth one blank.  Cast your fourth ballot for Harvey.  Otherwise, you are letting other residents decide the fate of the last seat; don’t give up your voting rights for every single seat.

The choice is yours.  Vote well.

Yours truly,

Your Editor with the concurrence of your Roving Reporter, your neighbors