RCSD Crime Report

Why won't the HOA publish monthly Crime Reports from the Richland County Sheriff's Department?

For years the RCSD monthly Crime Report for the Summit was published on the website of the HOA. On the homepage, look under Public Service Announcements. That ended when the Community Assistance Team (CAT) deputy was re-assigned.

Later one copy was emailed or faxed to the office, after my perseverance with RCSD, and published. That Report was for the three-month period of 3/14/2022 - 5/27/2022. 

That report is incomplete. See the footer on the first page, which reads "Page 2 of 9". The office had not noticed that five pages were missing. It's a nine-page report, but only the even-numbered pages were published. I told the office about that error and obtained the full nine-page report for them, but the office didn't replace the incorrect version. The office also went through the report and deleted addresses listed in the Crime Report.

Somebody among the directors made a decision to discontinue publication of the RCSD Crime Report. I recently obtained the August 2023 Crime Report from RCSD and provided it to Dennis Rybicki, chair of the Safety Committee. I sent it to him on October 9th and again on October 22nd. 

Dennis hasn't even extended the courtesy of an acknowledgement or a reply, and the Crime Report for August 2023 hasn't been published on the HOA's website.

Dennis expressed his personal feelings toward me at the August board meeting. I think Dennis' feelings were hurt, because I had continued to point out that he should not have accepted Justin's unilateral decision to limit his (Dennis') appointment to the board in May 2022 as Paul Hill's successor. Dennis' appointment should have been for the full unexpired term (to November 2023). Justin had no authority to shorten Dennis' appointed term and tell him he had to run in the November 2022 election. (By-Laws, Art. III, A, §7, ¶2, which reads, in part, "Any director appointed by the Board ... shall serve for the remainder of the term of such director.") Dennis has never formally resigned from Paul's board position.

I had also objected to Dennis' position regarding debtors of the Association. At a board meeting, during a discussion of the enormous total of bad debts, Dennis said, "We don't want to put anyone out of their homes." 

The HOA is a business, not a charity. As of 8/31/2023 Accounts Receivable (Line 1200) are $498,271.51. Of that, a whopping $471,162.07 (94.6%) is listed on Line 1300 as Allowance for Uncollectible Accounts.

Board members are supposed to stuff their personal feelings when conducting board business. Several don't.

In fact, one phrase that guides the Nominating Committee in selecting candidates for board of directors is "free of any personal agenda". There are board members, in addition to Dennis, who lack that qualification.

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