STATE OF UCO

     I know that State of the Union addresses are usually in January, but I decided that it behooves us to perhaps do a mid year assessment. Just what is the status quo of UCO? Where does it stand in terms of meeting its goals, and in meshing them with the goals and needs of our Village and the residents?
     Well, the officers of UCO obviously feel that their personal and individual goals are or should be those of the Village. That is wrong, so very wrong. People are more receptive to reading the truth printed by the CV Messenger as well as outside agencies  and have found the reluctance of David Israel and representatives of UCO to answer questions that might prove to be awkward and highlight their negligence. Tsk, tsk! I have warned that the truth will out. It always does.
     So what do we have in our state? We have secret pushes for Wi Fi in the form of broadband which the Village has overwhelmingly turned down and indeed, have gone on to do their own things in associations. The Village is now worried about the condition of the roads and walkways, finally getting confirmation from that same UCO that has been denying their wrongdoing in this area for years and now have no option but to tell the truth as it has been outed. Again.
     So to further the state of UCO, we ask, how are our finances? Well, sorry to say, they are not good. In fact, it is very hard to actually pin all these things down as most funds appear to have been deposited into one slushy, very slushy fund wherein it is very difficult to figure out what has been spent on what. This is opposed to what we had before under Dorothy Tetro who very carefully had separated all funds so that irregular movement and transfer of monies as had been done before by UCO under Bob Marshall and David Israel could and would not happen again. Evidently the people of UCO now, including Ed Black, a non elected person who seems to have his fingers in all pies, says that robbing Peter to pay Paul is a great system and never mind what is coming down the pike. Try running your house that way!
     So what else? Let's see. Well, we have a UCO that is uncaring and unconcerned about the needs of the Villagers and neglect them to the point of danger, physically, financially and even emotionally. It is a scary thing for an elderly person, perhaps alone in the world, on teetering financial feet, who looks towards UCO to have his/her back, and then find out that not only are they not having all these, but that UCO has possibly even colluded in these nefarious plans much to the detriment of the Villagers and specific associations as they ignored what was happening and even allowed it to happen. It is only because a certain group, the opposition, the reformers of the Village pushed them, shamed them, into conceding that they had a responsibility here, that they knew for YEARS what had been going on and even had a great relationship with the offender and threat to our way of life.
     And the state of UCO continues on in its miserable way. Our security contract is quite bad for us, our guards who have worked for years and knew us, the Village and the tempo, have been treated in a raw manner, and many new guards are untrained and pretty damn snippy. We have been shorted in certain aspects of the contract with no second Rover, cameras that do not work and cameras that have been put in places so as to spy on us. Excuse me, but I did not buy here to live with Big Brother.
     And has anyone noticed in the new brochure for the shows that we are having even fewer shows than ever. Now we do not beginning weeknight shows until the last Tuesday in December, a month later than last year and a whole lot less than previous years. It is a big pity because the shows are a great perk and benefit and I thought the shows last year were great with a nice variety to them.
     Finally, we have officers who do not show up to fulfill their commitments to the residents and a Treasurer who never says anything and is absent from many meetings. I understand if he is not well, but then resigning would be the way to go and not the rumor that I am hearing that he wants to run for President? Is he kidding? Under whose auspices? David Israel who can then think he will avoid a battle for reinstatement of term limits and just be right there behind Howie? And next to him Ed Black. I think not!!!
     So what do we need? We need a new and improved UCO, a UCO with fresh air, with fresh blood and the best of the current volunteers. We need a UCO which will reach out to all, form a unity UCO and encourage all Villagers to do their fair share, with proper atmosphere and no threats or intimidation. We need a UCO with sane financial planning and policies. We need a UCO that cares, that addresses the needs of the Villagers.
     We need a draft movement wherein the Villagers need to speak up and out and say here is a name for a candidate. Here are names for a few candidates. Here are the people we want out, out, out!! Stand up for yourselves people for no one else will do it. Certainly any person brave enough to take on the nastiness of a campaign against the current UCO officers whose terms are up will need encouragement, active support and perhaps even funding, and they will certainly need the Villagers to insist that censorship be forbidden, that the channels of communication within the Village are open to all, that rooms are available and that debates are held. Speak up. Stand up and let us make the state of UCO a much better report next year.