At 6:15 PM on Wednesday the 13th, several candidates for offices that will be representing Lansdowne got calls or emails (or a note through their websites) from John Whitbeck (who is running against Dave Butler for 10th HOD) inviting them to what had been a “residents-only” meeting at 7:00 PM that same night. The meeting was to discuss whether or not to begin a suit against Open Band.
This seems to have been a way of enabling Ralph Buona, who is running for Ashburn Supervisor against Lansdowne resident Valdis Ronis, to attend a meeting that Valdis was entitled to attend.
Considering that Buona has received quite a lot of money from MC Dean, Bill Dean, and other executives from MC Dean, that MC Dean owns Open Band, his presence at a closed “residents-only” meeting, where other attendees had to show proof of residency is questionable, at best.
Inviting other candidates less than an hour before the meeting was due to start does not grant cover to what is pretty obviously political game-playing by Whitbeck.
According to my sources, neither Dave Butler nor Randy Minchew were invited.
Mr. Whitbeck’s acceptance of campaign contributions from his retained HOA consultants and his support of the corporate interests of Open Band over the interests of his own Lansdowne citizens shows exactly what kind of delegate he would be.
His vote would be available to the highest bidder. Corporate lobbyists take note.
Sherry,
Your posts are confusing. What street do you live on? You don’t have to name the house, just the street. I thought I knew almost everyone in the room. Did you speak? Where were you sitting?
If you are a Lansdowne resident who wants action taken against Openband, why attack Robin? She is working on the issue and has been blocked by others. I am not saying you are not really a resident, but it really looks odd that you claim to have been at the meeting when you are not on the sign up sheet and nobody remembers a Sherry. Almost everyone in the room spoke and if my memory is correct, all the females in the room spoke except one lady that I know personally and you are not her.
If you care about the Openband issue you will be smart and not say anything but the truth at all times and will be smart about who you blame for issues. I am not defending Robin, just confused by you.
So what street do you live on and where were you sitting in the room again?
GOBGN is Gold Old Boys and Girls Network.
what are you talking about,
Not really. Just shot one board member a very quick email asking if any vote has been held yet. The person said not yet. It was quick.
Your neighbor may be the other person. In any case, I really do hope the vote turns out the way you say.
Don’t read tooconservative so that wasn’t me. that is the information i received from a neighbor who is very plugged into this openband thing. johnf, you sure have a lot of time on your hands.
Fyi, I just released a couple of older comments from moderation.
What are you talking about,
I just checked. No such vote has been held. Assuming you are the same person posting on tooconservative about this vote, I suggest you get your facts straight. We can only hope that a 5-0 vote occurs like you have said.
I also have to question the President who was/is/has been aware of many of John’s actions in the past. Why NOW are they finally proceeding with the lawsuit?
REAL leaders in Lansdowne are not stepping up because of the bad history of the Board. There has been the daycare fiasco, the pool fiasco and the OpenBand fiasco, to name a few. They were handled poorly at great cost to the residents. The person above complaining about people not stepping up, I assume, is part of the problem rather than the solution – he/she sounds very frustrated. Leadership can be thankless when done poorly, or rewarding and fulfilling when done well – my guess is the writter above falls into the former catagory.
Perhaps both Whitbeck and the writer above have reached ther fill with the stress and accountability such a position fills, and both should step aside to make room for others to try and unite our community.
One other note. Your comment about stepping up and doing the job ourselves is exactly right, There are many other people who want to sit on the Lansdowne board and address the issues that community has. John Whitbeck should step down and allow that to happen.
What are you talking about,
Are you breaking news here?
“Last i checked, the Lansdowne HOA is going to sue Openband by an unanimous vote. Oh yeah, unanimous.”
How do you know that? That wasn’t said at the townhall and no vote has been held.
You are mostly incorrect on your assessment of this situation. John initiated the Buona presence request with an indication that more than one candidate for supervisor had expressed interest in attending. Only Buona attended and it is unbeleivable that another candidate asked to attend since one was out of town and others he didn’t even have contact information for.
There is more discussion of these details on the Lansdowne HOA facebook group. Not the one that is run by the HOA itself, but a more popular private one that has a lot of discussion.
John Whitbeck HAS abused his position and has taken in unethical contributions to his campaign. There is a post on the form of Lansdowneliving on this that I have made along with a call for him to step down.
http://lansdowneliving.com/forum/topics/it-is-time-for-john-whitbeck
What do YOU think the point is? Being an HOA Board member can either be a thankless job (if done poorly) or a rewarding job (if done well). I know, I have been there and experienced both sides of the coin. If it appears thankless to you, then perhaps you are in over your head. People will NOT step up to the plate to lead when a poor Board scares them away. Lansdowne, over the past several years, has had the daycare fiasco, the pool fiasco, and the OpenBand fiasco, to mention a few. They were only fiasco’s because they were poorly handled, thus very expensive. I think your post “doth protests too much”, and wonder how many of these issues you and Whitbeck have been involved with. Leadership is about more than having one issue you are passionate about, or having friends on the Board. It is about having the right wisdom, experience, knowledge and patience…all leadership qualities this current Board, as a whole,seems very short of.
this is ridiculous. this conversation is so slanted and misinformed its laughable. no one has abused any authority (as if being on one’s HOA embeds anyone with ‘authority’). Step up and do the job yourselves on HOA boards if you don’t like what someone is doing. Last i checked, the Lansdowne HOA is going to sue Openband by an unanimous vote. Oh yeah, unanimous. If it was a bit sloppily handled it isn’t all on one HOA member as this group is saying, but you are missing the whole point. I am not surprised.
Robin – Sherry – back to your corners! Take a deep breath. The name calling just masks the real issue… how/why the Board allowed this last minute change of invitees. At this point, it seems Mr. Whitbeck has abused his authority and has an obvious conflict of interest. He should resign and concentrate on his own campaign.
Yes, they have.
The four candidates were:
Ralph Buona
Matt Letourneau
Suzanne Volpe
Janet Clarke
It is my understanding that Open Band has previously given significant contributions to Delguadio as well, but I’m not sure on it.
LI, Don’t you think it is fishy that on June 21, 2011, MC Dean held a candidate party for four Republican Candidates and on the same day, executives from MC Dean and Open Band gave these four candidates in excess of $15,000 in combined cash and inkind donations? This comes one week after the Board of Supervisors began to play down the cancelation of the Franchise Agreement (See Loudoun times article from last week). Then John Whetback holds a meeting at the Association where he is Vice President (and former President), invites the most important candidates (by email) less than 45 minutes before the meeting starts (except Buona of course), and then tries to explain it by saying that all of the other candidates were invited, he couldn’t find contact information for candidates and no candidates showed up anyway? Fishy is an understatement. These are carefully planned actions by an Attorney whose training would teach him to act in such a way. It is funny he an Buona would even try to explain away this event. How are they going to explain the fund raising party?
Open Band had a party for Republican Candidates on 6/21/2011 and made the following contributions:
Janet Clarke $4,050
Matt Letourneau $3,500
Suzanne Volpe $3,750
Ralph Buona $3,750
Additionally, there were a number of contributions from Lansdowne Development LLC
You tell me, are they trying to pack the Board to influence the outcome?
Doesn’t pass the sniff test, Whitbeck has some explaining to do.
Robin,Instead of providing a thoughtful and informative dialogue to residents, you offer red herrings. You are just as bad as John Whitbeck with zero credibility. You ran on the platform of bringing action against Open Band, it’s been almost a year, you and the board are all talk and no action.
Since you wrongfully doubt the veracity of my attendance allow me let help you refresh your memory; Hani read a prepared statement, the “older” attorney proceeded to render a drawing of the various easements, a lengthy discussion over the estimate the legal cost, a detailed discussion of the easements, actions by another hoa (referenced the leesburg today stories), lansdowne’s actions would be slightly different based on the entities involved and my favorite was Whitbeck asked a rhetorical question; “who would be opposed to a $150 assessment” and no one raised an objection.
So as a board member, why did you wait 45 minutes to invite only a selected few candidates? This was a closed meeting to residents but the board authroized Bouna’s attendance. Either our board are complete morons or someone didn’t have enough foresight to inquire if Bouna received donations from McDean – either way the board was utterly incompetent. As evident in the lack of action of lansdowne, broadlands seems to have their act together and makes us look like open band apologist.
GOBGN?
I wasn’t able to make this meeting, but would have been a bit upset to show up to discuss our Open Band options with a non-resident there who had recently received Open Band money. Seems a bit of a conflict…? Since John Whitbeck has been so pro Open Band and he went to great lengths to jusitfy Mr. Buona being there, perhaps it was so they could report to Dean what was going on? I am not saying we should or shouldn’t pursue a case — just wonder whyi t has taken so long for the HOA to get to this point, why now, and why have a politico funded by the potential defendants there to hear our options?
Why in the world did Ralph Buona get to attend this meeting??? This makes no sense whatsoever, except for more GOBGN Loudoun-style political malfeasance.
Pingback: Whitbeck, Buona, and OpenBand
It’s interesting that there is no Sherry at all on the list of attendees. I suspect that the same person who has been slamming the HOA in other forums has created yet another sock puppet.
I’d like to hear the “legal strategy” that was allegedly revealed.
I would also like to know whether the board has been snowed by one if its own. This will be discussed in private.
What the HELL?!? My HOA Board just proved they are completely inept. This was a closed meeting, I had to provide proof of residency just to get in. How STUPID could my HOA be? They disclosed legal strategy in the presence of a non-resident Ralph Bouna, who just happened to accepted $3,000 from McDean. I say we should recall the entire HOA board, they are incompetent and are so dysfunctional it could be it’s own reality show.
I was wondering why Ralph was there! We should have been informed ahead of time that this was now an open meeting, and absolutely should NOT have spoken about legal strategy – especially in front of someone bought and paid for by MC DEAN. Further research reveals that Whitbeck has received donations fromVendors under at will contracts with Lansdowne.