The 2011 annual membership meeting for FTBOA has dissipated like smoke in a cool morning breeze.  Hopefully the membership will reap some benefit from what transpired.  The majority opinion seems to be that it won’t.While members did find some hope in the words of two board members (Roy Lerman and Phil Matthews), they have heard the same time and again and they watched the very “solution folk” become part of the problem.  What happens in that brick building is a mystery, but I can say this, it seems to turn snorting stallions into silent geldings!When the day is done, the same members that still muck their own stalls will find themselves behind the eight ball in the thoroughbred business while the very people that claim to represent them will be high-fiving and toasting in the club house.

Phil Matthews (later elected president) was speaking after the meeting and  he proposed to give the new CEO, Lonny Powell, a “honeymoon” and try to bring the organization together.  A great thought, but when you have board members grinning and telling members, “you don’t have a quorum ” when a motion was made from the floor, it smacks of a board that thinks it is there to compete with the membership rather than serve them.  I believe that Matthews has good intentions, but the proof will be in the pudding.

The reality of the situation is very simple.  The members that have rallied around Gordon Reiss and others have a tremendous head of steam that has the attention of people throughout the thoroughbred world, not just Ocala and Marion County.

Board member, Brent Fernung, even made the comment that it was costing him money just to be on the board due to breeders shifting their mares to other stallion sheds.  I can attest to the fact that as many as 50 mares have found themselves rerouted from going to his stallions due to that very fact and the approach he has taken.  My figures are based on what breeders have told me.   At an average of $5,000 a breeding, it runs about $250,000 on the loss of revenue.  That pays a lot of feed and hay bills and what is more important, stallion owners should not be losing revenue over unpopular remarks made by the person managing their stallions.

Economics is a great motivator, especially when people think they are taking it in the ear from the very person that should be helping them.

The fact that Lonny Powell has been hired, regardless of the way it was done, means that the membership should support him and look to the future.  That does not mean that the logic of the hiring process should not be under scrutiny.

When his many jobs in such a short time was questioned by members, Fred Brei  brought it to the membership’s attention that anyone who has worked for Frank Stronach has been fired and hiring Lonny Powell will help the FTBOA with negotiations with Gulfstream.  Yeah right!   If one of the reasons Lonny Powell was hired was to smooth things withGulfstreamPark, the board wasted a bullet.  The worst thing that Mr. Powell has going against him is the way he was hired and not the FTBOA membership.  If he doesn’t work out, the members can look forward to Fred Brei telling them next year that he was totally against hiring him.

The entire situation is quite fixable according to the membership.  Most simply, they  want the following:

1.  Change in the election process.

a)   One vote per member without the “slate” that the board puts forth each year in what is perceived to be an effort to keep the board’s death grip on controlling the members.

b)   None of the fifty signatures members must have while the board picks who they want.

c)   Do away with the “proxy” scam that is being thrust upon the members.  If you are not at the meeting, you forfeit your vote if you did not mail it in.

(Without an election process that the membership is comfortable with, you really have a hopeless situation.  Members feel that the proxy is just a way of board menbers keeping votes in their pockets for whatever they need to vote on.)

2.  Stipulate that board members who are never at meetings be asked to resign.

a)   The use of the conference call to keep board members in the hip pocket of the board when needing a vote, must be done away with.

b)   All board members should be at the annual meeting.  If they don’t find that they can attend with six months notice (barring an emergency), they should resign.

(Some board members should find their picture on a milk carton, they have been missing from meetings so long.)  

3.  Board members should disclose any conflict of interest they might have.

a)  Some board members are shareholders in corporations that, at times, are in direct conflict of the interests of FTBOA.

b)  Board members should be subject to background checks just as employees would be.

(According to one source, two board members held up the quarter horse permit for quite awhile due to their background check.  The welfare of the FTBOA cannot be jeopardized.)

An interesting quote from out-going president Fred Brei,  regarding the fraud case, also showed up in the Ocala Star Banner.  ”When this fraud came up, the way this was spun when it was reported to the board of directors, it was spun as, ‘Well, we believe this man took us for $10, $11, $12,000.  We later found out that that was spun as being the profit …. We have found that the true fraud was the gross amount of 90-some-thousand dollars.  That was known by Hancock and a couple of officers,” Brei said.  “It made an ass out of every member of the board and also made it time for Mr. Hancock to retire.”

Let me point out a couple of facts here.  Some board members were already made!  Since you are going to keep beating Hancock like a pinata, how about banning those two officers from holding office ever again in the FTBOA as well and if either is currently on the board, their resignation should be tendered immediately!   It seems like the right thing to do!

Phil Matthews has expressed his desire to bring the membership and the board together and he sounds sincere.  He has done more in one week than the last three presidents did in their entire year of office.  Surely we all know that a divided house is a weak one bent on failure.  The points outlined above are basic tenets of any democracy and why anyone would want to subdue them under the guise of doing “what’s best for you” is beyond comprehension.  This country rose up against England for the very same reasons.  I can assure you that if the changes are not made, there is no hope for any type of reconciliation.