The assault upon Newberry Springs starts with the failure of leadership against solar from CSD President Robert Springer and has spiraled downward through directors Paula Deel, Jack Unger and Vickie Paulsen.

    Director Larry Clark has been honestly upfront about favoring solar development.  So, I have long ago written him off as not standing with the community.

    A part of the problem appears to stem from the widespread arrogance of the directors and their failure to seriously listen to the community and the CSD's lack of professional training.

    The CSD directors want total control of the decision on the solar litigation and do not want to share it with the co-Petitioners, the Friends of Newberry Springs ("Friends").  The Friends are counter-punching, fighting so that the community's residents' voices will be heard.

    Following within the direction of CSD director Vickie Paulsen's statement,

"From what I gathered from at the talks with the attorney, the Friends of Newberry need to organize, get counsel and bring their own suit."

the community has indeed organized and has banded around the existing Friends of Newberry Springs.

    The Friends share two attorneys with the CSD as their Attorneys of Record.  Since Paulsen's "talks with the attorney,"  the filing deadline has passed, and with the failure of the CSD to communicate, the community's Friends must remain with the Petition that it is named to, and with its Attorneys of Record unless substitutes are accepted.

    The attorneys, Mike Gatto and Mitchell M. Tsai, have filed themselves as the attorneys for the Friends, a long existing group in the community probably selected to best support the CSD.

    Apparently, the CSD has later instructed the attorneys not to recognize the community's Friends.  It is not believed by the Friends that the attorneys can simply drop one Petitioner in favor of another.

    At the February 2020 board meeting, obstructive Jack Unger spoke in defiance of the community's Friends group.  Claiming that he founded the Friends first and that the community group's Friends is not legitimate.  He states that the Friends is actually him!  (Hear recording below.)  Obviously, Unger has not lived nor been active in Newberry long enough to know that the Friends of Newberry Springs predates him.

    What is wrong with this egomaniac ?  Who should care who came first?  Unger should be thinking of the community, not himself throwing a monkey wrench at a collaborative community organization that is the organization recognized in the filed Petition.

    Ornery Jack Unger had even prepared a written statement before the February Board meeting expecting to argue his Red Herring position as a CSD power player against the community's residents.

    Well, Unger's arguments fall flat.

    Instead of removing himself, Jack Unger is attempting to use his Friends claim as a tool to now maliciously obstruct the community's Friends with the conspiracy assistance of the CSD.

    The other CSD directors should have clearly seen this conflict-of-interest and their complicity in continuing the malicious obstruction.  The Board's wanton action and inaction is very serious and troubling.  For the attorneys, their play in ignoring the community's Friends appears to be violating their fiduciary obligations that could lead them to liability misfortune.

    No matter how one looks at the calamity mess, the CSD Board has been acting like uneducated fools.  Any attempt to strip and deny the Friends their right to be represented in the Petition can have dire consequences.  Why can't the CSD work with the community's Friends of Newberry Springs?

    On the behalf of the Friends of Newberry Springs and at the direction of the Friends' representatives, I have written several communications including an introductory e-mail to attorney Mike Gatto on February 17, 2020.

    In not having received the courtesy of an acknowledgment, at the direction of the Friends' representatives, on March 4, 2020, I sent a Notice communication to both attorneys representing us, Mike Gatto and Mitchell M. Tsai.  This was to place both on Notice of the Friends minimum settlement offer to the County for the Mandatory Settlement Conference scheduled for March 9, 2020.

    On the same date, March 4, 2020, a communication was sent to the Newberry CSD.  The communication includes,

(1), my displeasure of inaccurate Minutes for the Special Board Meeting on February 12, 2020;

(2), recognition of the lack of the Board's transparency to the Friends and the community regarding the business of the Board;

(3), the CSD Board's apparent conspiracy and obstruction in wilfully denying the Friends their legal right to knowledge and participation in a Mandatory Settlement Meeting scheduled on February 20, 2020;

(4), that the Friends will hold the CSD and its directors responsible for any damages should the CSD illegally close the litigation without the consent of the community's Friends;

(5), that the Friends desire to work with the CSD for the mutual benefit of the community; and

(6), the Friends strongly suggest that representatives of the CSD meet with the community's Friends prior to the March 9, 2020, Mandatory Settlement Conference (MSC).

    The CSD has not given the community's Friends the courtesy of a response.  It would appear that the CSD is conspiring to freeze the community's Friends from any participation in the MSC and the litigation.

    Late Saturday afternoon, March 7, 2020, I received two e-mail communications from attorney Mike Gatto.  He claims that he will not be representing the community's Friends.

    On the behalf of the Friends as the designated spokesperson, I informed Mr. Gatto that he is registered as our Attorney of Record and that we intend to continue to recognize him and Mr. Mitchell Tsai as such until the differences in the understanding can be mutually resolved.

    Should the attorneys damage the community by settling with the County outside of the minimum settlement perimeters presented by the community's Friends, a very serious breach of fiduciary duty will need to be addressed.