READERS:

UPDATE at the bottom includes links to responses sent Thursday by George McFadden!

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ORIGINAL POST:

The Woodmoor Improvement Association has become more like the Woodmoor Infighting Association, according to a group of ex-presidents and ex-officers of the homeowners association.

In the last six months or so, five officers resigned from the nine-member board, which runs one of the largest homeowners associations in the state. Woodmoor has about 3,000 homes spread across 2,000 acres surrounding the Woodmoor Country Club golf course. It has 51 miles of roads, 130 acres of common space, a barn, ponds and trails.

The list of resignations includes: president Steve Malfatti, vice president/treasurer Terry Holmes, secretary Kevin Weese, forestry director Amy Smith and public safety director Jake Shirt (also the Monument chief of police.

Several described board meetings as exercises in petty bickering, power politics and personal attacks.

The board of the WIA presides over an annual budget exceeding $1.2 million. It has three full-time staff members who collect dues _ among the lowest in the region at $209 a year _ provide personal service and deal with complaints, covenant violations, architectural questions and coordinate the seven-member private security service which patrols around the clock.

Many Woodmoor residents and ex-board members highly value the staff, led by executive director Camilla Mottl, and the security service. They like having their homes regularly checked when they are on vacation and knowing an officer is a phone call away, supplementing the single El Paso County Sheriff’s patrol assigned to the region.

But they say the WIA board, led by president George McFadden, apparently wants to cut dues and reduce services by eliminating the staff and hiring a professional management company and security service to handle those duties.

McFadden wouldn’t return phone calls to Side Streets, but you can get an idea of what he thinks of his predecessors in past newsletters available on the Woodmoor Improvement Association Web site.

For example, read the president’s point of view in the January newsletter.

Former officers especially object of efforts to oust Mottl, led by resident Hilary Brendemuhl, whose husband, William, recently became vice president of the board and supervisor of Mottl.

In fact, Hilary Brendemuhl tried hard to get Side Streets to “expose” Mottl. In a series of emails and phone calls a year ago, she attacked Mottl.

Brendemuhl accused Mottl, in letters and phone conversations, of being “a habitual liar” who was guilty of “fraud” for falsifying her resume when she was hired in 2000. Brendemuhl also accused Mottl of irregularities in the handling of ballots at the WIA’s annual meeting and board elections and suggested she might sue Mottl in civil court.

Mottl refuses to discuss the allegations. She acknowledged her resume said she was a certified professional community manager when in fact her certification had lapsed. But she disclosed the error to the board during interviews and she was hired anyway.

– UPDATE — UPDATE — UPDATE –

Although George McFadden did not return phone calls over a two-week period, he found time to email my bosses and me a couple times Thursday, after the column and blog appeared.

You can read his thoughts, attacks and allegations at the following links. They include material in links I posted above with the original blog.

http://www.gazette.com/entertainment/year_47960___article.html/wia_employment.html

http://www.gazette.com/entertainment/board_47962___article.html/woodmoor_three.html

http://www.gazette.com/entertainment/woodmoor_47963___article.html/interest_specific.html

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