Be sure to click on the RED WORDS for additional information.

Based on own research and interviews with the people involved, we have come to understand the events that led to where the HOA is today with regard to Don Harris.  Here is what we've learned and here are some reasons why you should NOT vote for Don Harris.  He doesn't deserve to be on the Board and he has a conflict of interest, which he refuses to acknowledge (which disrupts the Board from conducting business).

The problems the HOA has had with Don Harris did not begin in 2006, they have actually been on-going for many years.  According to Board members from years ago, they wanted to terminate his contract in 2003.  The effort was stymied when Harris bamboozled them into thinking they couldn't cancel his contract if it was less than 90 days prior to the end of the current term.  As ridiculous as that is, the Board is made up of volunteers and they were no match for Harris' threats to sue if they canceled his contract like they wanted to (he pulled that same crap on the 2006 Board). 

Apparently, the Board even back then was very concerned about Harris' behavior, including his nasty habit of recording members without their knowledge or consent.   In 2003, the Board reprimands him for it and he agrees, in writing, to cease secretly recording people in the community.  Yet, he readily admits to recording members without their knowledge or consent after that.

Even though there were many issues with Harris in 2004 and 2005 (and prior for that matter), we'll skip forward to May, 2006.

It was on May 9, 2006, that Harris is involved in a physical confrontation with a female member of the HOA at the Lake.  Apparently, he was unhappy that she had been talking to the "Duck Lady" two days in a row.  To put it mildly, the Duck Lady was and is not a fan of Harris.  He wanted to know what she had been talking about with the "Duck Lady".  When this female member refused to tell him, Harris began to harass and photograph her.  When she went to the Management office to complain, Harris met her there and a physical altercation occurred.

It was shortly after this event, the Board decided that there was potential liability if they continued Harris' contract, so they gave him 90 days notice on July 10, 2006. 

Needless to say, Harris was not pleased with his termination notice and he proceeded to try a number of tactics to get the Board to change their mind.   He tried pleas, he made threats, he tried to get the Board recalled, he sued the HOA, he took HOA property, he defrauded the HOA,  he disconnected working equipment in pool pump room, and he tried to discredit his replacement, he tried to use his lawsuit to coerce the Board into resigning, among many, many other things.  This disgruntled contractor's tactics were very destructive and cost the Association lots of member's money.   The new Board will be relentless is trying to recover these losses.

On September 6, 2006, the matter escalates as Harris is informed that his replacement has been hired.  Apparently, all of his tactics since July, including leading an effort to recall the Board that terminated him, seem to have failed.  We're guessing at this point, in early September, 2006, he figures its time to try some different tactics and he proceeds to lash out and goes after those who were responsible for his termination. 

First thing he does (after threatening the new Lake Manager) is to sign a contract with a duck exterminating company.  He does this without any authority from the Board, he does this months after his termination notice,  and just hours AFTER being informed he has been replaced.   Besides all of that, a contractor can't sign a contract on behalf of the HOA!  It has to be signed by an officer of the HOA (and even that Officer of the Board needs Board approval).  Note that this contract is NOT a contract between HIS company and the extermination company, it is a contract that is between the HOA and the extermination company.  The exterminator thought he had the authority to sign this contract -- he didn't.  Examine the contract carefully, there are lots of clues to indicate intent (hint:  look at the address the reports are to be sent to, look at the note at the bottom, look at the date it is received back from Harris, look at the date it is originally faxed to Harris, and there's more). 

Thirty-three ducks are killed late in the night on September 26 as a result of Harris' fraudulent and unapproved contract. 

On September 21, he and a few others meet with an attorney to get advice on how to "takeover" the Board.

He "takes over" the HOA's website and posts vile and nasty stuff about the Board members that fired him and accuses them of all sorts of things. 

He somehow gets the Board President to agree to pay him through the end of December, even though he wouldn't do any work October - December.   We can't find any Board approval for this. 

In September, 2006 alone, Harris wrote checks to himself or his company out of the HOA's checking accounts for over $69,000!!.   He writes himself checks twice for managing the pool in September.  He pays himself an extra $175 per day for 3 days in October (even though he had already been paid his full contract amount for October). 

The lifeguard and boat monitor invoices he submits in August and September are much higher than usual.   Of course, he racks up these lifeguard and monitor hours based on time records that he keeps, and refuses to provide timecards of the people he claims worked.  

He prints and signs several checks out of the Lake account AFTER his last day as Lake Manager.  He prints and signs checks out of the Beach Club account AFTER his last day as Pool Manager.

On September 21 (remember, his last day as Lake Manager is weeks earlier), he calls the Country Club and tells Jesse to turn on the water to fill the lake.  He tells Jesse to leave the water on until further notice.   There are major problems with this; 1) Harris' lake management services were completely terminated as of that date and he had no authority to turn the water on and, 2) the lake was only a few inches low at the time (we have pictures of the lake dated 9/22 and it nearly full).  The water stays on for 9 days and the bill for the water totals a whopping $14,400!  Most of it went right down the drain!

On October 2, Harris lies and bamboozles the HOA President and VP, and tells them he owns the lifeguard chairs, medical equipment and other things at the Beach Club and offers to "sell" these items to the HOA.  He is well aware most of the items are already owned by the HOA.  Besides his own statements in emails that these items are owned by the HOA, the lifeguard chairs have been on the Reserve Study AND on the HOA's insurance policy since 2001!  Yet he writes up an agreement anyway where he declares "under penalty of perjury" that the items he's selling are his.  The HOA President, now believing Harris' lies, agrees to buy these things from Harris (after all, he "warrants" under penalty of perjury, that all these things he's selling are his).  Harris gets a check for $3,500, written out of the HOA account.  Subsequently, the CFO of Diamond Brothers writes a letter to the HOA stating that ownership of all the equipment at the Beach Club was transferred to the HOA in 2001.  Harris has still refused to return the $3,500 he fraudulently obtained from the HOA.

In early October, on one of his last days on the job as pool manager, he disconnects fully functional pool equipment requiring extensive repairs. 

He absconds with lake blueprints, lake manuals, pool blueprints and diagrams, manuals, files, bookkeeping records and door knobs (yes, door knobs!) from the office the HOA allowed him to use.  He refuses to return this HOA property and the HOA is forced to spend thousands to sue him to get the stuff back.

On October 16, 2006, contrary to telling the Board in early September that if they paid him through the end of December, he would "go away quietly like a church mouse", he sues the HOA and three of the Board members who voted to fire him.   (It should be noted that we have been unable to find any record the Board approved paying Harris through the end of the year.  It is revealing however, that the checks written and signed by Harris for these payments are NOT co-signed by the CFO even th0ugh it is our understanding that the Board passed a motion requiring the CFO's co-signature on ALL checks. )

On October 20, 2006 Harris sells a truck belonging to the HOA to O'Connell Landscape Maintenance and POCKETS the money!

In late October, he conspires with Brad Beckett to hack into certain Board member's email accounts, this website (while it was under different owners), and the email account of a current Board member (a non-Board member at the time).  The Sheriff's department raided his home in February, 2007 and seizes all of his computers as a result of the evidence against him in this case.  They also raid the home of his former employee, Brad Beckett, in Watsonville, California, on the same morning and seize his computers as well.  The DA is still considering pressing criminal charges. 

In November, 2006, a Superior Court judge grants a permanent restraining order against Harris to prevent his continued harassment of the new Lake Manager.  Now, most of us have been fired from a job at some point in our lives -- ask yourself, when that happened to you, did you go back to your former workplace and harass the person they hired to replace you??!!  Well, that is what Harris has been doing for over 2 years!  We thank Ken and Water Resources for hanging in there in spite of this continued harassment.

In January, 2007, a different Superior Court judge grants another permanent restraining order against Harris, t0 a 70+ year old female employee of the new lake management company -- again, to prevent Harris from threatening and harassing her.  Of course, Harris will claim she lied (just like he claims everyone else lies), but the fact is, two different judges looked at the evidence in two different cases and granted these permenent restraining orders.  He will say restraining orders are easy to get, and yet, when he tried to retaliate and muzzle his opposition, Rick Savard and Jim Roach, a temporary restraining order was obtained, but once a judge heard all of the evidence, the judge DENIED it (they aren't easy to get after all, if there is no harassment or real threat).

In Spring, 2007, Harris is detained for several hours by the Sheriff's department for chasing and cornering with his car, a former supporter of the recall who had turned against Harris after learning the truth.   The next day, this same person discovers a knife stuck in her car tire with a threatening note attached. 

A week later, another FORMER Harris supporter who had just informed him via email that she didn't want anything more to do with him, discovers a phone book on the hood of her car.  The phone book has knives stuck into pictures of community members that are taped to the phone book.  They question Harris and run the knives for prints.

In January, February and September, 2008, Harris violates the restraining orders in place against him.  In February, the confrontation turned physical and Harris assaults Ken Durante.   The interesting thing about the timing of this incident is that is occurs just one day before the Board is to meet and decide if Ken Durante's contract is to be renewed for another year!  Harris will have to answer to these charges in front of a judge on October 8.  What do you think will happen? 

This is just a partial list of the things that happened around the time of, and after Harris was terminated and became a disgruntled former contractor to the Association.  His behavior indicates he  is 'hellbent' on taking revenge on those who fired him, and on the Lake Manager who replaced him. 

He continues to create liability for the HOA (just as predicted back in May, 2006), he continues to try to discredit and harass the new Lake Manager and he continues to disrupt the business of the Board and the HOA. 

The sad saga continues.  We'll keep you up-to-date.

The point is, why would anyone vote for Don Harris to be on our Board and frankly, why would anyone in this community support this guy after knowing all of this?



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