2023 CBWRA Chair Elections: Unfair by any reasonable measure

Grossly unfair elections – again!

The 2023 CBWRA Chair elections were unfair for a number of reasons

Two candidates stood jointly, thus pooling their votes, in a massive and clear violation of the constitution

• One candidate was banned from the CBW app and subjected to a daily onslaught of character assassination and defamation by the former Chair and other committee members to which he was unable to respond
• Racist abuse of one of the candidates (Mike O’Driscoll) by a resident on the CBW app was not removed for at least 2 days
• At the request of Larissa Villar Hauser and Louis Sebastian Kendall, Garton-Jones estate agents contacted around 500 leaseholders by email , while voting was live, sending them a voting link and a strong recommendation to vote for Louis-Sebastian Kendall and Larisa Villar Hauser
• One candidate withdrew from the ballot after (in his view) being intimidated by the former Chair at a committee meeting and following the meeting, in the CBW piazza. This led to a Police complaint.
• The recording of the meeting between candidates for Chair and residents, just prior to voting ( a meeting which went very well for me and not quote so well for the former Chair or his proteges 🙂 was ‘lost’ – according to the CBWRA secretary this was because of a ‘poor wifi connection’. (I am not sure why a phone requires wi-fi to record but I guess I don’t understand CBWRA technology).
• The CBWRA committee reportedly asked Rendall and Rittner to reinstate automatic CBWRA fee deduction from residents because ‘MOD will run’ and they need funds to ‘help their cause’. But the use of any CBWRA money to help or hinder any candidate would have been against the constitution and a total misuse of residents’ money.

Election results
The election results as given by CBWRA are: 30.14% Mike O’Driscoll, 69.86% Larissa/Louis. There were apparently only 355 votes (from a potential 1122 properties approx. at CBW). It is not clear whether this is just low turnout or whether some properties/leaseholders were not contacted – hopefully that will be clarified soon. It is quite hard to understand why we only have 2 votes from Hawker (out of 37 flats) so some questions to be answered there, and there has not been independent inspection of the data. Although CBWRA claim they have contacted every leaseholder at least once, and that may well be the case, I would like to see evidence, given the major issues with databases which came to a head at the time of the election (Rendall and Rittner did not pass its leaseholder database to CBWRA – only those who opted in via a last minute email). It would be useful to see evidence that CBWRA have a full list of leaseholders or how they contacted those who were not on their database).

This election was a very long way from fair, in my view – my being banned from the app (seemingly for insisting that Right to Manage was possible when CBWRA was saying it was not in May 2022 and unspecified rule violations), routine and cowardly defamatory attacks on the CBW app in my absence, attacks on those supporting me on the CBW app, and the fact that a joint nomination was allowed in blatant contradiction of the constitution (i.e. had the candidates stood separately they would most likely have got have got around half of their vote each i.e. around 35% assuming they were equally popular). This advantage of doubling up means that at the next election there will be pressure on others to pair up in order to compete and one might ask, if joint nominations are allowed, what is to stop a joint application by 3 or 4 people? It makes a nonsense of the whole process and it is in clear contradiction of the constitution.

Garton-Jones covert intervention in the Chair elections
That is not even to mention that Garton-Jones estate agents seem in effect to be acting as a survey administrator : not just endorsing Larissa and Louis but sending out survey invite links, which for some leaseholders may have been the first or even only email they opened regarding the election. That is in my view an outrageous and massively inappropriate intervention in the election (It is not clear of this was with CBWRA’s sanction). Did Garton-Jones estate agents also do this in the last election (January 2021)? we should be told. Let us not forget also that one candidate felt they had to withdraw from the ballot after an ‘incident’ involving the former Chair.

Thank you so much to those who supported me in the campaign and by voting for me
It was never going to be a fair contest for the reasons I have mentioned but a good number of people had the courage to stand up and call out the many issues around governance of CBWRA /the CBW app over the last two years, which I have raised. Some of those people have in my view been relentlessly targeted and bullied on the CBW app but have stood firm in the face of much idiotic and provocative behaviour. To get 30% of the vote under these extreme circumstances was an amazing result, so wear your ‘30%’ badge with pride – we are on the right side of history – the rest will catch up in due course :). It would seem that the perennial dismissal of ‘Mike O’Driscoll and a handful of other residents’ (from certain parties) is very wide of the mark, as shown in getting 30% of the vote despite being excluded from the app, being subject to character assassination on the CBW app and not having the benefit of endorsement by Garton-Jones estate agent. Thanks also to the many in Warwick (43%) who supported me – this is important to me as it shows that there are nearly half who know that the things said about me by the former Chair and a few others are not true and that I have always had the best interests of residents at heart, and worked hard for our collective interests over many years.

Some victories
Although this was not a fair election in my view I am very glad that I fought this campaign. The toxicity on the app (often involving those who are supposed to be leading) and arbitrary account closure /censorship has been highlighted as has what I feel is poor governance in the CBWRA in terms of lack of consultation or even meetings with residents, unclear information and lack of progress on Right to Manage, the lack of transparency in finances and the lack of understanding re data handling which ultimately led to CBWRA not being able to provide proof of 50% leaseholder membership and notice of derecognition by Berkeley Homes (the attempts by CBWRA to blame me for their derecognition was yet another example of the dysfunctional culture in CBWRA). The 140% increase in membership fees without any meaningful justification also raises many questions.

The dreadful legacy of the last two years – misinformation on Right to Manage, huge amounts of wasted time and money on ‘retendering the management contract’, a toxic CBW app, censorship, arbitrary closure of CBW app accounts, no consultation with residents, massive service charge increases, and massive increases in CBWRA fees,

The greatest achievement of this campaign in my view is the standing down of the former Chair, Mr Thompson. The legacy is not one to be proud of in my view and it seems it is being continued by the current co-chairs. The ‘collegiate relationship’ approach with Rendall and Rittner has been worse than pointless in my view as has the attempted retendering of the management contract – this has in my opinion simply wasted two years and up to £15,000 – and the attempts to supress opposing views (such as mine) by any means has simply led to much unnecessary conflict and division on and off the CBW app. It is a shame that the current co-chairs did not have the courage to call out the poor governance and dysfunctional behaviours which have occurred in CBWRA over the last 2 years including CBWRA misinforming residents that Right to Manage was not possible because of the supreme court judgement of First Port v Settlers Court. We could have achieved Right to Manage by now, and saved a lot of unnecessary conflict and bullying. The person who did call all of that out, 18 months ago (i.e. me) is banned from the CBW app, despite getting 30% of the vote in a very unfair election, while many who have engaged in full on bullying and misinformation over long periods of time are very welcome, so it would seem the current co-chairs support the previous Chair’s policy of arbitrary account closure and censorship.
Hoping for better and more united times ahead for all at CBW. This is still a great place to live – hopefully we can make it even better.

Mike O’Driscoll

6.3.23