Note regarding last Wednesday’s AHCA meeting

This is Alistair Watson, Recording Secretary for AHCA. I’m writing on behalf of the AHCA officers to everyone that registered for our July meeting to apologize for our part in the confusion over the meeting agenda.

A lot of people attended with the incorrect expectation that AHCA had planned a community discussion and vote on softball fields. That wasn’t the case, which led to a very messy meeting, claims of misconduct, and unannounced vote.

I’d be happy to provide a detailed timeline, but long story short, I had been talking with Bart Epstein for several weeks about softball fields, a topic he is passionate about and wanted to discuss and hold a community vote. I told him his topic would be on the agenda, but I did not share details with other officers and never confirmed the agenda, so none of the other officers knew before it was too late to handle correctly.

While this was a miscommunication among the officers, the President of the Association did reach out to Bart by email after learning the full details of the situation the day of the meeting. He explained that no field discussion was ever on the agenda for July and that it would be inappropriate to add a new topic at the last minute, especially one asking for a vote, without letting people know by including it in the distributed agenda. As the July meeting started, Scott again apologized and clarified that no field discussion was planned.

Leading up to the meeting, Bart had already shared with friends that this was on the agenda, encouraging them to attend. A lot of people did. I love seeing people be engaged, so I’m happy about that. I’m just sorry the rest of our neighbors were excluded.

One very important note – while the agenda was messed up, we are extremely concerned about misinformation that contributed to the incorrect expectation and heightened tension. We discovered afterwards that claims were being made that the “anti-sports” association had planned a vote to “completely remove” both softball fields. This is absolutely false, and should have been clear to anyone that asked or checked. Still, this was distributed by Arlington Little League in “urgent” alerts to supporters urging them to attend the meeting. It led many to believe AHCA was up to some nefarious plot. Again, not true, and not how we do business.

Our newsletter and agenda are always publicly available and clearly outline what is planned for meetings, especially any planned votes. The last field-related discussion was at our April meeting three months ago, where we had an agenda item on community activation of one field and the difficulties that volunteers and residents were experiencing with shared use. This was included in the agenda and newsletter, in paper format distributed door-to-door, and electronically by email, nextdoor, social media, etc and was followed by an motion to move scheduled games from one field to allow open community use and interim placemaking until a master plan can be completed, which is also documented on the web site.

I’m writing this to you because I love this neighborhood. I am probably the most passionate person you will ever meet about public service and wish everyone would be part of the civic association. We officers will continue to do our very best to inform and represent everyone that lives here. Please reach out to an officer if you want to chat. You can also reach all of us at officers@aurorahighlands.org.

Thank you!

Category: Uncategorized