A Timeline of How We Got Here

In the interest of full transparency pertaining to the origin & structure of the Fairfield Neighborhood Association, the Board of Directors provides that which led to the formal & required incorporation of the Fairfield Neighborhood Association. Such was undertaken after exhaustive due diligence, and to ensure full representation of residents, which in turn protects & forwards the best interests of the neighborhood.

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SUMMARY

The Fairfield Neighborhood Association was incorporated by long-time neighborhood residents Allison Bricker, Kelly Frahm, and Victor Ritchie following a year plus attempt to encourage the group of individuals claiming to represent Fairfield to follow & be beholden to the group’s bylaws, i.e. their guiding principles/constitution/rules . Order after all, is preferable to the corrupting influence of chaos. Thereto rules established to ensure a fair and level playing field, provide a mechanism to hold those in leadership accountable, and buttress Minority Rights against a tyranny of the simple-majority must be enforced by the Body, i.e. residents, lest an organization be made ripe for abuse.

Whereas, said group failed to hold a regular business meeting in excess of one-year; and

Whereas, said group made Materially False Public Statements to both residents & the City of Fort Wayne pertaining to the redevelopment of Packard Park; and

Whereas, said group operated as unincorporated ‘sole proprietors’ exposing both themselves & the neighborhood to litigation; and

Whereas, the City of Fort Wayne required incorporation to be a recognized neighborhood association; and

Whereas, said group commingled monies intended for the organization into private personal bank accounts; and

Whereas, said group failed to file annual taxes; and

Whereas, said group saw multiple public grant distributions be made to the street of ‘officer’ residences to the detriment of the rest of the neighborhood; and

Whereas, said group continually refused to publish a newsletter and/or provide reasonable public communication; and

Whereas, said group was and remains in abject breach to multiple articles of the group’s published bylaws; then

Therefore, be it so resolved, that to ensure proper full representation of all Fairfield Neighborhood residents, establish proper & consistent communication with all residents of the Fairfield Neighborhood, establish full and transparent distribution of public grant monies to the benefit of the totality of the Fairfield Neighborhood, and enforce duly adopted rules of the neighborhood association; the FAIRFIELD NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION became to be INCORPORATED on February 16, 2023, by & under LAWS of the STATE OF INDIANA.

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TIMELINE

• October 2021- last voluntary meeting held by “FNA”
• November 2021- No Meeting (Breach of By-laws/Article 12, Section 5)
• December 2021- No Meeting
• January 2022- No Meeting
• February 2022- No Meeting (Breach of By-laws/Article 5, Section 1)
• March 2022- No Meeting
• April 2022- No Meeting (Breach of By-laws/Article 5, Section 1)
• May 2022- No Meeting
• May 2022 – Allison telephones FNA-President asking the status of FNA, FNA-President responds they are now working a regular job and has less time, but hopefully sometime soon.
• June 2022- No Meeting (Breach of By-laws/Article 5, Section 1)
• July 2022- No Meeting
• August 2022- No Meeting (Breach of By-laws/Article 5, Section 1)
• September 2022- No Meeting (Kelly emails FNA-President asking about state of Neighborhood Association- FNA-President responds that the Vice President and Secretary left in early 2022, says they have been looking for replacements, but have not been successful, and asks if Kelly would be interested. Kelly replies, yes, happy to. No response from FNA-President.)
• September 2022 – Allison requests a copy of the bylaws from FNA-President. FNA-President replies & sends incorrect outdated superseded bylaws.
• October 2022- No Meeting (Breach of By-laws/Article 5, Section 1)
• November 2022- No Meeting (Breach of By-laws/Article 12, Section 5)
• December 2022- “Election” Meeting (Attended by 2-3 people, who elected themselves as officers. Only notice given to membership/neighbors was via Facebook post.)
  • Dispute on Number in attendance:
  • FNA-President responded via email there were three (3)
  • Eyewitness recalls only seeing two (2) present.
  • Important because two (2) does NOT equal a quorum.
• January 2023- Article 5 Meeting (Membership not notified/Breach of By-laws Article 5, Section 2, Prior to Article 5 meeting,
• February 2023- “Nomination” Meeting (FNA-President expresses Robert’s Rules of Order will not guide meeting- Breach of By-laws Article 5, Section 3- FNA-President expresses that residents can become paid members and have voting rights in March 2023 “Election” Meeting if paid 14 days prior to “Election” Meeting- without having ever attended a previous meeting)
  • FNA By-laws are inconsistent here when trying to correct all prior breaches. Following the By-laws as written, in a typical year, memberships are due by June 30th (Article 4, Section 3) with elections held in October (Article 8, Section3) , which means a resident would be a member for at least 90 days prior to voting in an election. However, Article 6, Section 1, states Voting rights begin 14 days after payment of initial dues.
• FNA-President is nominated for officer of President and accepts nomination (Breach of By-laws Article 8, Section 6- No one may serve more than four consecutive terms.) Further, Article 10, Sections 4- The revision shall take effect immediately.
  • For clarification on amending By-laws as was done in February 2020: refer to Robert’s Rules of Order 57:16:

“Amendments to the article on officers may raise difficulties in relation to the time at which adopted changes take effect, unless special care is taken. A society can for example, amend its by-laws so as to affect the emoluments and duties of the officers already elected, or even to abolish an office; and if it is desired that the amendment shall not affect officers already elected, a motion so specifying should be adopted before voting on the amendment, or the motion to amend can have added to it the proviso that it shall not affect officers already elected.“

RONR (12th ed.) 57:16

• The prima facie example of the nature of implementing ‘term-limits’ without disrupting those presently in office is evidenced by the Seventeenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, to wit fundamentally altered the construction of the U.S. Senate from appointed by the several states’ legislatures to direct popular election.

• Hence, Article 8, Section 6 voids the ability of FNA-President who has served as an officer for at least four (4) years and is therefore ineligible to hold a position as an officer for the 2023 term.