Notes on Waterford Board Candidate
Rob George
The good news is that I believe Rob George has generally good intentions. The bad news is in this summary below. The most concise way to put this into the current context is this:
- The Borg (from Star Trek): "Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated."
- Ray Myers (my impression): "Communication is futile. You will be assimilated."
- Rob George (my impression): "Communication is futile."
Here's the bad news in brief...
Rob George has a history of maintaining false beliefs, at least with respect to the roofing issues of the past 3+ years.
Trying
to deal with this leads to the feeling that communication is futile, if
possible at all. A major milestone is that Rob George is the first
person to refuse to communicate with me in my 20-year history as a
Waterford resident. It is actually far easier for me to communicate
with Neil Armstrong than with Rob George.
Rob George's false beliefs
with respect to roofing issues are shared by Ray Myers and probably by
allies recruited by Ray Myers. These false beliefs are identically
those discussed in the Property values, Homeowners' Opinions, and What Else? web pages.
It is reasonable to infer that one factor behind false beliefs is inadequate research. In the case of property values, finding explicit evidence
from reliable sources (mainly in peer-reviewed economic research) that
roofing type does not affect property values requires a very diligent
research effort. Reaching the same conclusion by finding lack of evidence
of effects on property values requires an equally diligent research
effort. Similar findings can be made in local neighborhoods by tracking
real estate statistics and driving the same neighborhoods to survey
roofing types for the various recently sold homes and currently listed
homes. These and additional forms of research require a very substantial investment of personal time and effort.
Based
on Rob George's beliefs regarding property values it is reasonable to
infer that at least one of the following two statements is true, and it
is possible that both could be true:
- Rob George has not done research at this level for residential property value economics.
- Rob George maintains fixed beliefs regardless of contrary evidence.
Why
would Rob George have strongly held false beliefs? I have no
definitive answer for that question. In the special case of roofing
issues his advocacy has been consistent with an actual conflict of
interest situation: He sells roofing materials and is best known
as our area's distributor for Bartile concrete roofing tile. In the
past 3 years approximately ¾ of Waterford's new concrete tile roofs
have used Bartile, and these have been about ½ of all new roofs in
Waterford. The essence of the conflict is that he stated at one point
in an open session Waterford board meeting that he would sue the
Association if we did anything that would harm his personal income in
any way.
In additional concern is that I have heard four reports
of local roofers refusing to work with Rob George. I spoke with one
directly but deliberately did not ask why. Based on my own experience,
especially in the Roofing Committee, I would anticipate an answer
somewhat like my own feeling that "communication is futile".