A REPORT ON THE RESULTS OF THE RECENT
REFERENDUM
RELATING TO THE CLOSING OF THE CORAL
CASINO
AND
THE LEGAL RIGHTS OF
MEMBERS
February 24,
2006
Dear Fellow
Member:
The results from the recent referendum
have been received and counted by the accounting firm of Larry
Woolever, C.P.A.
The results are as
follows:
Question #1 – 100 votes
total
88 votes:
“The Member
Committee should represent the Members’ interests by taking
action to secure the prompt reopening of the Coral Casino for
Members until such time as the owner has obtained the
necessary permits to begin construction.”
12 votes:
“I do not
object to the closure of the Club before the owner has
obtained building permits from the County to begin
construction.”
Question
# 2 – 94 votes total
87 votes: “The Member Committee
should promptly obtain expert, independent legal counsel to
report to the membership with regard to the rights of the
membership, specifically as they relate to the operation of
the Coral Casino as a private club, and in
general.”
7 votes: “I do not feel that it
is necessary for Members to know their rights regarding the
operation of the Coral Casino as a private club.
The many kind thoughts expressed in
written comments on the ballots by members are very much
appreciated and each query will receive a response. Congratulations are
due to the vast majority of voters who expressed their support
for member rights and expressed an interest in being
contacted.
WHAT THE VOTE
MEANS
The membership has spoken. Members have made
clear their desire to see the Member Committee work to secure
the reopening of the Club until the owner has obtained permits
to begin construction.
The membership also wants the Member Committee to
obtain expert, independent legal counsel to advise the
membership on its rights as they relate to the private status
of the Coral Casino Beach and Cabana Club. This legal counsel
should not have a prior affiliation with past or present
Member Committee members and should be retained to advance and
protect the interests of the membership – not the owner.
The Member Committee should take
immediate steps at its next meeting to fulfill the desires of
the membership on both of these matters. It is earnestly hoped
that they will rise to the occasion and undertake this work on
behalf of the members who elected them (see the proposed
Agenda below).
Ultimately, any elected body is accountable to the
people who put them in office. As ethical and responsible
individuals, the members of the Committee have a duty, even if
it is one of which they personally disapprove, to respond to
the wishes of the membership.
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE
VOTE
The significance of the referendum vote
will be challenged or downplayed by Warner Resorts, Davies
Communications and other associated parties for the obvious
reason that the results run counter to their interests. A few points are
offered in rebuttal of this anticipated challenge:
·
100 members chose to respond to the
call for a referendum, a surprisingly large number given the
“blind” nature of the opinion solicitation. From a statistical
point of view this is a very significant sample. The Gallup
Organization and other polling firms use a sample of roughly
1,200 to measure the opinions of 280 million people in U.S.
presidential elections-- a sample of .000001 %. From the relatively
large sampling in the Coral Casino referendum, the sentiment
of the membership can be determined with a high degree of
probability.
·
The overwhelming margin of the vote
(88% favoring Member Committee action on the re-opening of the
Club) is indicative of a clear consensus of opinion on the
matters addressed by the vote.
·
This was a vote publicized with only
one letter that was unsanctioned by the Club, making the
response even more remarkable.
·
The 100 member vote total is a
significant percentage of the number of votes cast in recent
Member Committee elections; put another way, even some of the
members of the Member Committee may have received fewer
affirmative votes.
·
Warner Hotels and Resorts can’t use the
member agreement as a basis to counter this poll, as that
agreement does not address these
matters.
·
Finally, the votes were counted by a
CPA.
UNITING THE
MEMBERSHIP
The
purpose of this and the previous communication is not to
create dissension but to reduce it by encouraging all of the
members to unite behind one common goal: that of maintaining
the Coral Casino Beach and Cabana Club as a private facility
serving the community of Santa Barbara, as it has for so many
decades. This is not an
“elitist” view, as Greg Rice was quoted in a London Times
article, but one which intends to protect the rights of
families to continue to use a Club that many have enjoyed for
generations.
These private rights have been bought and paid for by
the Club’s past and present membership and any attempt by
ownership to diminish and recapture those rights so that they
may be remarketed to non-members is akin to selling the same
asset twice.
THE MEMBER COMMITTEE’S RESPONSE TO THE
REFERENDUM LETTER
Mr. McGowan, the Chairman of the Member
Committee, suggests that the January 20th letter to the
membership was an attempt to mislead; on the contrary, it
contained 10 accurate statements of fact. Mr. McGowan’s
January 31st letter tries to rebut only two of the ten
statements and fails on both counts: He contends that the Club
was closed because it would soon become unsafe. If true, this is an
amazing admission, as the owner has a contractual obligation
to its members to maintain the Club in a fit condition and not
allow such deterioration and deferred maintenance to
occur. Further,
it is the responsibility of the Member Committee to
communicate to the owner the members’ expectations in this
regard. However,
there is actually no evidence to support the contention that
the Club is not safe.
The Four Season’s Hotel verified several weeks ago
that there are no safety concerns of which they are aware, and
they are in a position to know. To demonstrate the
absurdity of the logic in Mr. McGowan’s letter, consider for a
moment: the Club
is not really closed; it’s open for business every day of the
week. The hotel is using the Club as a restaurant and kitchen
while the Biltmore is being renovated; how then can it be
unsafe? Let’s be
completely clear about this: if the Club is safe for hotel
guests, then it’s safe for members to use, regardless of what
the owner’s representatives may
say.
A public challenge is hereby issued to
Mr. McGowan and to Ty Warner Hotels and Resorts: Provide written
evidence from the Coral Casino’s insurance company that there
are concerns about the Club’s safety that would disallow
maintaining insurance and reopening the Club; and if you
can’t, then so acknowledge. (A mere statement from one of the
owner’s employees to the effect that the Coral Casino is
“falling down,” will not suffice – and, for reasons that
should be obvious, any evidence that is produced should
pre-date this challenge.) If the next
communication to the membership from the Member Committee or
Warner Resorts fails to include a copy of this written
evidence from the insurer, it should be clear to all members
that this evidence simply doesn’t exist and that they have
been misinformed on this
point.
The second fact that the Chairman of
the Member Committee attempts to refute relates to the closure
of the Club’s stairs providing access to the beach. No one disputes that
the steps may have needed repair. The issue at hand is the
fact that the Dept. of Building and Safety says that the owner
could have received a permit to replace the steps at any time
during the two years that members were denied access to the
beach. Mr.
McGowan does not address this latter point, as he knows it
cannot be refuted.
Members can verify this by calling the Dept. of
Building and Safety.
THE MEMBER COMMITTEE SHOULD REDEDICATE
ITSELF TO PROTECTING MEMBER
RIGHTS
The time has come for the Member
Committee to reassess its policies and actions. Mr. McGowan, the
Chairman of the Committee, is a conscientious and dedicated
individual, as are the other members of the Committee. It is not the
character of Committee members that is at issue here – but a
series of actions on the part of the Committee that
collectively dilute and diminish member rights and which have
allowed the Club to be closed.
To cite one of many examples, Mr.
McGowan recently proposed on behalf of the owner, and the
Committee unanimously approved, a rule change that
allows the Committee to suspend from the Club any member who
exercises his rights to take legal action against the owner,
even if such action is taken to protect member rights. What is to be made of
such a rule change?
Its obvious consequence is to limit the legal options
of members to the benefit of the owner. The message from the
Member Committee to the membership seems to be: “If you take
legal action against the owner to protect your contractual
rights to use the Coral Casino, we will suspend you from the
Club.” To put it
simply, in passing this sweeping resolution, the Member
Committee was acting as an agent of the owner and not as a
body representing the membership.
If the Member Committee truly wants to
demonstrate that it is working on behalf of the members to
uphold and protect the rights of the membership, it should, at
its next meeting, consider the following Members’
Rights Agenda:
1.
Re-Opening
of the Club:
Pass a Resolution calling for Ty Warner Hotels and Resorts to
re-open the Coral Casino at the earliest possible date, and to
keep the Club open until such time as the owner has received
permits to begin construction.
2.
Determination
of Member Rights:
3.
Rule
Changes: Pass a Resolution
revoking the recent rule change allowing for the Committee to
suspend members who exercise their legal and constitutional
rights to seek redress from the courts with regard to
violation of their contractual rights as members of the Coral
Casino; repeal the elimination of term limits for the Member
Committee; and develop a true conflict of interest rule for
the Member Committee.
It is to be hoped that these actions
and others soon to follow will reduce and eventually eliminate
the dissension that has recently become a part of life at the
Coral Casino, for all members can and should actively
support the idea of protecting member rights. It is clear from
the margin of the recent referendum and the comments written
on the ballots, that there is a critical mass of the
membership that is deeply dissatisfied with the current state
of affairs and which is primed to insist that member rights be
protected.
If the Committee will not undertake
reforms and oppose the owner’s contention (and his actions to
back up that contention) that the Coral Casino is not, in
fact, a private club, then it will be the Committee that is
responsible for creating dissension – for they will be
dissenting from the will of the members who elected
them.
DIRECTION FOR THE
FUTURE
The Membership has given a clear
indication that they want a change of direction. At some point in the
near future, Members concerned about the direction the Club is
taking may need to come together to consider their
alternatives. Let
us wait and see if the good people of the Member Committee
respond to the concerns that have been expressed at the next
meeting of the Committee before taking this step.
Finally, a note to those critical of
the author for maintaining anonymity. There is a long history
of writers who have chosen to remain in the background, Thomas
Paine and Benjamin Franklin, for example. It would be one thing
if these letters were not in service of the truth, however,
their purpose is simply to put on paper what so many members
have been thinking and saying, in hopes of galvanizing the
membership to speak up and protect their rights. Why should it be so
important who writes the words? The truth stands or
falls on its own merit.
Please visit the website at http://www.coralcasinoprivateclub.org from time to time as it will be
updated periodically. All members are strongly
urged to download the summary of the legal advice letter
described therein and to read it carefully so that you may
better understand your rights. If you have questions,
please send your emails to privateclubone@aol.com.
All Members are urged to contact the
Member Committee and make their views known. Please call or
write them and insist on immediate consideration of the
Member’s Rights Agenda described
above.
Sincerely,
A Concerned Member
The Coral Casino Member
Committee
Please do your part and call or write
each of the members of the Committee and insist on immediate
consideration of the Member’s Rights Agenda described
above.
Telephone Number Address
John McGowan, Chairman
682-6066
1005 Tunnel Road
Santa Barbara, CA 93105
Melinda Mars, Vice Chairman
969-3393
605 San Ysidro Road
Santa Barbara, CA 93108
Marie Larkin
969-1222
PO Box 5704
Santa Barbara, CA 93150
Victoria Hines
969-4104
445 Hot Springs Road
Santa Barbara, CA 93108
Daphne Ireland
969-2414
PO Box 5211
Santa Barbara, CA 93150
Scott Brittingham
Not Listed
1559 East Valley Rd.
Santa
Barbara, CA 93108
John Henderson
969-6991
PO Box 31
Summerland, CA 93067
John Wilczak
cooltools@aol.com
719 Lilac Drive
Santa Barbara, CA 93108
Penny Bianchi
969-1110
1721 East Valley Road
Santa Barbara, CA 93108
Karen Crawford
899-2174
210 Las Alturas
Santa Barbara, CA 93108
