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WHAT BOTHERS ME THE MOST

For those of you who do not know, the members of our HOA Board as set forth on the High Gables website are the following: (i) Bob Clark, President; (ii) Cheri Curtis, Treasurer; (iii) Linda Ebert, Secretary; (iv) Mark Joiner, Director: ACC Chairperson; (v) Mark Coussan, Director: Pool Chairperson; (vi) John Elliott, Director: Landscaping Chairperson; and (vii) Lisa Ann McDougald, Director: Social Chairperson. I obtained the foregoing information from the public information page of the High Gables website www.highgables.com (9/18/05 Announcement No. 0041 posted by RKClark). Ironically, one can only wonder after this debacle if the next HOA Board will be able to duplicate the thanks the Announcement gives to last year's Board members "...for being good stewards of our association funds and [giving us] a strong financial base to continue improvements in our community...." Id.

Some combination (or all) of these seven people have cost me at least $4,000.00 in my time and firm's resources to date (not including my labor of love on this web page) and our HOA more than $7,000.00 (unless the insurance company is covering the costs or they recover their costs from me), and not one of them (other than Linda Ebert, who at least gave my wife, Lynn, the courtesy of a visit before we were served with the Complaint) has bothered to sit down and talk with me about any of this, despite my December 13, 2005 and January 9, 2006 offers to do so (not to mention my January 7, 2006 explanation about how I am prohibited from talking to them directly by virtue of legal ethics). While it is true that I have received correspondence from some of them, their predecessors and their legal and management representatives, what would have been the harm in meeting with me, and if that option has been lost, why does that have to be the case? I recognize that these folks may have the support of a number of you by virtue of a petition they may have circulated that I have not yet seen, but even if you signed that petition, did you do so with full information? Sadly, I must accept the possibility that none of them or you other members of the HOA who are against me and my family ever really cared about our side of the story.

At this point, I only know by face-with-a-name Linda and Lisa Ann, and I like both of them and their families (although I have yet to meet Linda's husband). I understand from my wife, Lynn, my brother, Steve, and others in the neighborhood that Mark Joiner and his family are quite nice. I spoke on the telephone once with Bob Clark and it was a reasonable conversation, although it ended with him telling me I would be hearing from the HOA's attorney. Unfortunately, the only things I have "heard" from the HOA's attorney to date is the Complaint I was served with by the Forsyth County Sheriff's Office and the pleadings and correspondence he has sent to me. I believe I have already made clear that I do not appreciate the way Mr. Pontrelli chose to go about handling this matter from the outset, and I expect that any conversations I actually have with him will be in the course of furthering this litigation. Still, I find it odd that he did not call me to discuss this matter prior to having me served with the Complaint.

I just cannot understand it, folks. Is it this web page that has caused the disconnect, when all I have really tried to do is to explain to you readers what is happening here and to make sure that you have access to all of the relevant information without any filters? Is it that the HOA's counsel or their friends at the management company have told them that some harm may come out of them talking to me? I cannot for the life of me understand why neighbors cannot work this matter out in an agreeable fashion, and I guess I never will be able to accept that. In any event, I find it a shame that we cannot get together, with our without counsel, and at least discuss our differences like adults.

If you know any of these people, encourage them to talk to me, even if those discussions can only take place at a meeting their attorneys attend. What in the world can it hurt? I am not going away.

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