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The Challenge to our Trails
Background The properties in question, the Defendant 1 parcel, purchased in 2001, and the Stuart and Susan Drake parcel, lots 28 and 27 respectively of Tract 340 (see page 15 of parcel maps) These parcels originally had two types of easements. One was a shared access/utilities easement for a large adjoining property west of both parcels, and the other is a pedestrian/equestrian/public utility easement (P.U.E.), both dating to the original 1965 subdivision maps of Unit 2 in Timber Cove. The P.U.E. was accepted for public use by the County of Sonoma and they declined the offer to make the pedestrian easements public. All knowledgeable legal sources and the judgement of Sonoma County Superior Court in 2022 concur that the county’s action does not affect the underlying private rights to those easements, as legally shown on the map, only the rights for public access. The shared access easement allowed the seven-acre parcel west of the Defendant 1's property access to a residential street, Timber Cove Road, so that it would not be landlocked.(see page 15 of parcel maps) Defendant 1 first blocked access to the owners of that seven-acre parcel, an elderly couple named McKusick, in 2005, refusing to honor the shared access easement clearly shown on the parcel map. Both Defendant 1 and the new owner of another adjoining parcel (Merin McCabe) expressed the belief that the seven-acre parcel should have been theirs. Defendant 1 worked with McCabe, to engage in an expensive, protracted lawsuit against the elderly couple, and convinced other neighbors not to grant the McKusicks an access easement on their properties. Thus the elderly couple, now in ill health, was faced with mounting legal expenses and a worthless, landlocked seven-acre lot. Finally they opted to sell that lot to Defendant 1 and the owners of an adjacent parcel, the Drakes. Defendant 1 and the Drakes then proceeded to abandon that shared access easement by owning both parcels, and each did a lot merger of a portion of the purchased lot. However the official county survey map of that lot merger of February 25, 2014, paid for by the property owners, clearly shows the pedestrian easements still intact, validated by the surveyor. See detail. Records show trails on the TCHA Agenda The Smith Court Loop trail has been used by the Timber Cove community for decades. Many people have testified to using the trail and one relic that attests to that is a decaying handmade trailhead sign on Smith Court, carved by Dale Corbin in the 1990s (seen above). The trails were also a regular agenda item at the Timber Cove Homes Association Board of Directors meetings as far back as we have records. Over the years all of the trail survey markers were flagged repeatedly. During all of those years prior to about 2010, community members worked on developing these trails on a monthly and sometimes weekly basis. During the late 1990s, Tony Romeo and Paul Moe were in charge of some trail surveys by Adobe and Associates, and Romeo and Moe marked all of the trail easements in 1998. The last record we have of a resurvey of the entire trail system is in 2006. In fact TCHA board minutes indicate that part of Smith Court Loop was resurveyed by John Sperry in November of that year and the rest of the Loop in December, 2006. The Official TCHA Trails Map was published and mailed to all property owners in October 2008. After Defendant 1 purchased the seven-acre lot, debris from a 2011 clear-cut of the property blocked trail access in two places along the lower, western loop. ( View 1 and View 2 from California Coastal Records Project 2013. Image 201304364). See also: 2012.07.12_google_earth_annot._censored.png 2012.07.12 Google Earth detail 1 annot.png Smith Court trail user Joe Pearson stated at the TCHA Annual Meeting on September 6, 2014, that it was also apparent at the time of that clear-cut that the property owners did not want people to use the trail. Depositions from the 2008 lawsuit regarding the disputed shared access easement with McKusick (described above) state that residents were warned away from their accustomed trails by "No Trespassing" signs and verbal admonishment by both McCabe and Defendant 1 as early as 2006. That was when the Smith Court Loop fell into disuse. Deposition evidence indicates that Defendant 1 and McCabe planned to eliminate the pedestrian easements on their properties as soon as they had accomplished elimination of the shared access easement. Records show that the walking trails were a regular item on the agenda of the monthly meetings of the Timber Cove Homes Association just before Defendant 1 came on the board. Minutes of the TCHA Board of Directors meeting of July 16, 2011, place the date of Defendant 1's clear-cut (first reported to the board by Bob Ferguson), and the date that the trails were no longer on the agenda (see request by Tim McKusick to have them put back on the agenda). Attempt to Eliminate 502 feet of the Scenic Upper Loop Trail Defendant 1 and the Drakes approached PRMD (Sonoma County planning department) about vacating (eliminating) the pedestrian easement. PRMD staff informed them that they would need the approval by letter of the Timber Cove Homes Association Board. Having taken positions on that board, Defendant 1 and Drake did accomplish that vote on April 5, 2014, and sent a letter to PRMD that was unsigned. (You can read about a new development regarding this letter at the bottom of this page.) Soon after the April 5, 2014 easement vote was accomplished, Defendant 1 attempted to have her TCHA board position taken over by Sal Culcasi, as shown in a recently released email. However, Defendant 1 kept her position on the board until after the September 6, 2014 board election, and then resigned. To fill the vacancy the board appointed Sal Culcasi on October 18, 2014. Defendant 1 and Culcasi remained closely allied, with Culcasi often taking visual and verbal instructions from Defendant 1 in the audience while he served on the board. Defendant 1 and the Drakes applied formally for the vacation (elimination) of approximately 502 feet of the pedestrian easement on October 7, 2014. Application and Map submitted by Defendant 1 and the Drakes. Community members belatedly discovered the action in July 2014, and noted that the TCHA members had not been notified, the official agenda had listed only “Trail Improvements of Lots 27 and 28,” and the action had been represented as a “relocation” to PRMD and the surveyor Susan Ruschmeyer. Yet this was in no way a “relocation,” but rather an elimination of the majority of the upper loop, as PRMD would later confirm. The remaining fragment of the upper loop on the south would become a dead-end spur, requiring long stretches of backtracking for pedestrians. [See original documents described above Exhibits A through F] PRMD staff advised trail supporters to consult an attorney, and so they asked The Sonoma County Lawyers Referral Service, an independent nonprofit agency, to choose a reliable expert on the subject of homeowners' associations and easements. They chose Martin McOmber, who reviewed the case and made a report that has been corroborated by other sources. Link to report from Martin McOmber On February 21, 2015, the TCHA board rescinded the April 5, 2014 action to remove the trail easement on the property of Defendant 1. Defendant 1 later brought legal action against the TCHA to reinstate the first vote and a definitive opinion letter was written (and later published to the Board of Supervisors) by the TCHA attorney, the firm of Perry, Johnson, Anderson, Miller, and Moskowitz, dated Nov. 2, 2015. It confirms that the first 2014 vote was illegal and that the board cannot remove or change the pedestrian easements without the vote of the entire membership. Board of Supervisors Acknowledges and Protects Private Easement Rights Subsequently PRMD moved ahead with the vacation of only the public’s Interest in 502 feet of the pedestrian easement, despite the protest of local residents and the discrediting and repeal of the TCHA board’s April 5, 2014, vote and subsequent letter. The PRMD application to vacate by Defendant 1 and Drake itself contains false information. County Counsel Bruce Goldstein later determined that no TCHA board approval was necessary for the vacation, since it did not alter or affect any Timber Cove property owners’ rights, only public rights. At the Board of Supervisors hearing on May 10, 2016, County Counsel Bruce Goldstein and the Board of Supervisors made it explicitly clear in their decision and resolution that the vacation of public rights “…will not affect any private easement to which the property is presently subject.” They rejected outright any “alternate” private pedestrian easement proposed by Defendant 1 and the Drakes. Timber Cove Neighbors: Eliminate all Timber Cove Trails Defendant 1 has claimed that the County’s actions eliminated the private easements, and has cited misinformed speculation by attorneys (Zimmerman and Sax) who lacked expert knowledge of easement law and did not reference all the documents. Based on these opinions, she has asserted that none of the pedestrian easements exist, erroneously citing the County’s failure to accept them for public use in 1965. Even after an explicit denial of Defendant 1’s claims in a letter from County Counsel Bruce Goldstein (September 3, 2015) and the Board of Supervisors’ decision of May 10, 2016, Defendant 1 continued to claim that the trails did not exist, citing the same dated, discredited sources. In fact, former TCHA attorney Barbara Zimmerman wrote a completely contradictory opinion, affirming the validity of the pedestrian easements, in a longer, much better researched opinion she wrote a decade earlier. Although the subject of this September 24, 2004 letter to Dick Sturm, former president of the TCHA, was about beach access, Zimmerman covers the other pedestrian and equestrian easements in item #3 "Other easements on the subdivision map". The 2004 letter conforms to the case law (precedents) described in earlier sections on this page. The short opinion letter she drafted for Anne Roberts and Defendant 1 in 2015 after resigning as the TCHA attorney, does not. Defendant 1 revived a group she had previously formed in March 2015 with Anne Roberts, the “Timber Cove Neighbors” (originally named “TCHA Unit 2”). Once again they called for the dissolution of the TCHA in order to eliminate the CC&Rs which mandate the maintenance of the pedestrian easements (Clause VIII). They apparently believe that by eliminating the TCHA, they will eliminate the easements. This is incorrect, as the easements, just like Timber Cove roads and property lines, will exist as long as the subdivision map is the document of legal record. For years after, Timber Cove Neighbors continued to publish disinformation, distortions, and libel. This website page was established in January 2018 to present documented facts to correct the disinformation and false accusations made by Defendant 1 and her supporters publicly verbally and in print since 2015. All during this time the trail opposition group (now including Anne Roberts, Diane and Chris Feddersohn, Rosemary Gorz, Ron Case, his wife Carolyn Abst, Robert Leichtner, and John and Yvonne Gray) also kept up a barrage of emails and letters from themselves and their legal representation, targeting and harassing the former TCHA board of directors and other community members who support Timber Cove Trails. Sylvia Todd, a former TCHA board member who chaired a committee to conduct an Internal Dispute Resolution with Defendant 1, was particularly targeted with regular emails and phone calls at her home from Defendant 1 and Sal Culcasi, also a former TCHA board member, that became abusive. From 2015 to September 2017, the former TCHA board was often forced to respond to the letters from Defendant 1 and her various attorneys and allies. Board members thought they had no choice but to defend the homeowner's association against these claims and threats to the homeowners' rights. They also carried out costly internal dispute resolutions and meetings with Defendant 1 during this time, offering “alternate” routes, all of which Defendant 1 rejected. In one case, after many hours of attorney and TCHA board members’ time, an agreement for an alternate route was finally reached. Defendant 1, however, later rejected this agreement, making that costly effort a total waste. Since Defendant 1 and her allies have been the aggressors in this process from the beginning, with the former TCHA board in a defensive position, the cost of that legal defense must be attributed to Defendant 1. These are the costs tallied by the TCHA in dealing with actions by Defendant 1 just for the period 2014 to August 2016: $13,834.94 Since that time two of these former TCHA board members have been repeatedly harassed and their property repeatedly vandalized. Other trail supporters have also been systematically harassed. Some of those incidents are listed further down on this page. Culcasi-Todd Trail Connection One of the most targeted and harassed community members was trail advocate Brian Todd, a licensed civil engineer, who in various positions supported the trails, and as president of Timber Cove County Water District (TCCWD) stood along with the rest of the board, which denied Chris Feddersohn’s demand that the TCCWD “forgive” the cost of a major water leak on Feddersohn’s property. Former TCHA board member Sal Culcasi often harassed Todd at meetings and during phone calls to his home and after one meeting provoked Todd to defend himself. Despite other claims, there was only one actual witness to the first part of this altercation (as opposed to its aftermath), and that witness described Culcasi as the aggressor to a private investigator. It was Culcasi who pressed charges and influenced the district attorney to claim a felony assault, a questionable charge in a case with no verified injuries or witnesses. It is important to note that Judge Dana Beernink Simonds, who presided over the Culcasi-Todd case, after reviewing all the evidence presented, not only dismissed the case, but also found that Culcasi in several instances committed perjury, and refused even to hear any evidence on a lesser charge, as recorded in People v Todd , SCR679106 (2016). It is in fact Culcasi, and the others who may have encouraged him, who are responsible for all of the TCHA legal costs in this matter. Yet Defendant 1's group was able to convince a large number of Timber Cove Homes Association members otherwise with regular distorted and libelous mailings. They successfully defamed Todd, shifting the blame from themselves, and used this issue to win the election in August 2017. During the month leading up to the Culcasi-Todd trial, Brian Todd was approached through an intermediary by Rosemary Gorz, offering to have the charges dropped if Todd revoked his support of the Timber Cove trails. Covert Operations [Note: malicious falsehoods have been repeatedly stated in public and published by current TCHA board members Robert Leichtner and John Gray about the Carmen McKay v. TCHA complaint. In early 2020 these men knowingly and purposely published false information about a deposition I gave in that case on January 15, 2020. I was forced to correct the record with the following documented facts. All of this is verifiable through discovery documents and my deposition in the case.] During the summer of 2017, the TCHA was forced to comply with a demand for TCHA documents related to trail easements by Defendant 1's attorney: letter from Robert Haroche, dated June 7, 2017. This and other similar demands by Defendant 1 and her attorneys cost Timber Cove property owners $18,712 over three years. The group of Defendant 1 supporters gained a majority vote on the TCHA board in the 2017 election, running on a platform that decried spending homeowners' money on attorney fees in the Culcasi-Todd Case. The issue of the pedestrian easements was never raised by this group and never appeared in any campaign literature. They recruited and cooperated with a former TCHA employee, Carmen McKay, and published her unsupported accusations against the former board along with their own letters in their June 27, 2017 campaign literature. These libelous letters, distributed to all TCHA members by McKay and Defendant 1's group, were the result of prior coordination between them that began only weeks after McKay was hired by the TCHA in late February 2017. In fact, several members of the Defendant 1 group edited McKay's resignation letter. McKay did not start working at the TCHA office until mid-March. On March 13, 2017, one of her first days in the office, she skipped scheduled job-training sessions with a former employee to attend two off-site meetings with Defendant 1 and Defendant 2 (11 a.m.) and Diane and Chris Feddersohn (3 p.m.). Within weeks she was transferring confidential TCHA documents to these non-board members without notifying the board. McKay's cooperation and planning with the Defendant 1 group during the three months of her employment was meant to harm the reputations of their perceived "enemies," all trail supporters. It involved the transfer of enormous amounts of confidential TCHA documents, including legal opinions and files, personnel files, selected members' financial records, all TCHA emails, and the TCHA mailing list, to members of Defendant 1's group. While Defendant 1 and Chris Feddersohn received the documents, the entire group knew about the documents and in one case they are all asked to edit the misappropriated TCHA mailing list for campaign mailings. It is difficult to tell how widely the documents were distributed. In one of her letters to the membership in 2017 using that TCHA mailing list, non-board member Rosemary Gorz knew the date and time of Brian Todd's hiring by the TCCWD in 2016, information that would only be available from his employment agreement contained in his personnel file. The unauthorized and covert distribution of TCHA documents and other objects was subsequently discovered by two TCHA employees when the evidence was inadvertently saved by McKay on the TCHA laptop computer, which McKay returned to her attorney for pick-up several days after she resigned. The discovery of information saved to the laptop by McKay never involved the use of any email password or the "hacking" of any email accounts. Searching for the June 17, 2017, letter from Defendant 1's attorney, Bob Haroche (mentioned above), the unsuspecting employees pressed a desktop tab labelled "TCHA Gmail", which opened immediately with no intercession. McKay's covert activity was evident in the first few minutes, even before the switched account login save was realized. Evidence of large-scale misappropriation of objects and documents was reported to the TCHA board of directors, and the former board, in consultation with their attorney, filed a Report to the Sonoma County Sheriff's Department on the incident on August 30, 2017. The laptop was delivered in an unaltered state to the TCHA attorney. The evidence saved from the laptop now exists as recorded discovery documents of the McKay v TCHA case, which was produced by the TCHA staff in 2018, paid for with TCHA membership dues, and is explained in detail in a deposition given by Hannah Clayborn in the case on January 15, 2020. That deposition also describes the roles played by the Defendant 1 group named above and TCHA board member Russell Wells, who was recruited by the Feddersohns, via McKay, following a Timber Cove Volunteer Fire Department Mother's Day Brunch in 2017. (The same group has influence and partial control over the TCFPD.) It was Wells who, on June 2, 2017, told Carmen McKay that he had spoken to the Feddersohns and others, and that "everyone understands the debt we all owe you" and that McKay will be rewarded for her help after they dissolve the TCHA. "Someone will think of some way to do this." Wells assured her. Although John Gray later announced at a TCHA board meeting that he had the TCHA laptop computer used by McKay "wiped" by his neighbor to prevent any further incriminating evidence against themselves or McKay, the relevant computer actions had been preserved on film. The newly elected TCHA board members continued their very public cooperation with McKay, disregarding their fiduciary duties and repeatedly publishing her complaint and defending her actions at board meetings and in print, while at the same time attacking the former board and myself. The Defendant 1 group could never figure out how their caper was discovered. Robert Leichtner and John Gray speculated obsessively and endlessly at subsequent board meetings, literally for years, about an omniscient "hacker" who could invade their computers, divine their passwords, and extract their secrets. Leichtner and Gray tried hard to sell their "stolen password" fiction, to draw attention to the whistleblower and distract from themselves and their dishonest and unethical, perhaps even illegal work with McKay behind the scenes for the three months that she was employed by the TCHA. It did not occur to them that the door to their secret was simply propped open by McKay for anyone to see. Dismantle the Trail Supporters One by One After McKay's libelous, carefully timed, and publicly distributed resignation letter, dated June 12, 2017, she continued to work with Defendant 1's group, sifting through the huge store of misappropriated TCHA gmails, looking for material that could incriminate former board members or other trail supporters. Defendant 1 referred to those misappropriated TCHA emails at the very end of the July 13, 2017 TCHA board meeting minutes prior to the 2017 election. They built a Timber Cove Neighbors Facebook website page where they planned to display incriminating documents to TCHA members and the public. The entire Defendant 1 group was invited by McKay to help with that Facebook posting page of misappropriated TCHA documents. On June 22, 2017 McKay recommended "dismantling" the trail supporters "one by one." Carolyn Abst, Ron Case's wife, agreed with McKay's "person by person" approach, but cautioned that the attacks should not involve HOA politics, as that might "poison" the [Sunday] Market and cause "long-term irritation" in the wider community. That statement implies that the attacks would be personal. The CHCP Sunday Market, which this same group also influences and partially controls, was a favored place for Defendant 1's group to harass trail supporters and broadcast disinformation. (See incidents described below) Failing to find any actual incriminating evidence in the entire store of thousands of misappropriated TCHA documents and emails---Defendant 1 reported that the TCHA emails alone took three hours to upload to her Dropbox account---since that time Defendant 1's group has had to rely solely on repeated unsupported accusations. Once elected, in the fall of 2017, the Defendant 1 supporters then moved forward with their unpublicized agenda to defund and eliminate the Timber Cove trails, especially the trail on the Defendant 1 property, and dissolve the Timber Cove Homes Association. But first, having failed to find anything useful in the misappropriated documents and emails, their energies were focused on finding wrongdoing by the former board. In one instance John Gray, the new TCHA treasurer, after months of disappointment, finding nothing amiss in the TCHA finances, was so anxious to find something incriminating, that when he noticed a mistaken entry on the insurance application forms, he reported it to the insurance company, representing it as fraud. The mistaken entry was actually done by an insurance agent who filled out the forms and confused the development statistics of Unit 1 and Unit 2 of the subdivision. Nevertheless Gray's report and portrayal prompted the insurance company to cancel the TCHA insurance at that time, at great cost to the community. Gray has maintained and has hoped that his actions would cause harm to the former president of the TCHA board, Tim McKusick, a trail supporter of course. Gray, a former Safeway Store manager, was appointed by his friends as treasurer for both the TCHA and the TCCWD. The latter was a paid position for a public agency that was never advertised and for which no resume was filed. Defendant 1's group's strategy to attack trail supporters "one by one" and "person by person" was succeeding. Long-time resident, trail supporter, and TCHA board member Joe Pearson, a former Sonoma County Sheriff and Court Bailiff, resigned his TCHA board position in the summer 2017, after being harassed with false accusations by a group including Defendant 1, Sal Culcasi, John Gray, and Carmen McKay. Carmen McKay, coordinating with Defendant 1, used one of her last official working days for the TCHA to send false hearsay information about Pearson to Deputy Sheriff Mark Provost on June 10, 2017. Pearson subsequently sold his Timber Cove home and moved away. Trail supporter Eric McConn resigned his TCHA board position in October 2017. He also sold his Timber Cove property. Board members Sue Ellen McCann and Susan Moulton held out until February 2018. The resignation letters mailed to members by McCann and Moulton indicated the toxic atmosphere, pervasive unfounded accusations, and disrespect they had endured since the election. They both have subsequently sold their Timber Cove properties. Defendant 1's group also continued their "person by person" attacks on trail supporters who were not on the TCHA board. Long-time resident Bob Ferguson had an exceptionally beautiful coastal property outside the subdivision, but was so appalled at the actions of Defendant 1's group, originally his friends, that he became a trail supporter. He was publicly attacked with shouted unfounded accusations of a serious crime at a CHCP Sunday Market by Chris Feddersohn, John Gray and others on October 22, 2017. The attack was so vicious, so false, and theatrically public that a report was made to the Deputy Sheriff. Ron Case actually wrote Ferguson an email apologizing for the incident, promising that he would not participate in any more personal attacks. But that did not stop Case from participating fully in subsequent similar attacks with his allies. Bob Ferguson, who devoted many years of his life selflessly volunteering as a board member of TCCWD, subsequently sold his property and moved away. The group relentlessly continued their cruel public personal attacks on Brian and Sylvia Todd, a respected engineer and retired Healdsburg High School career counselor, two of the smartest, kindest, most civic-minded people I have ever known, who have also sold their Timber Cove home and property. Topping those attacks was a treasurer's "report" presented by John Gray in December, 2017, an inaccurate, inflammatory, and unprofessional PowerPoint presentation turned hardcopy. Its purpose was to demean, defame, and humiliate Todd (Gray's punishment for Todd's triumph in Sal Culcasi's court case, see above), and to implicate the former board. This "report" is addressed and corrected by the Revenue and Cost Report TCHA by former Treasurer Sue Ellen McCann. I (Hannah Clayborn) received threatening or harassing communications since 2014 from former TCHA board member Sal Culcasi, Defendant 1, Defendant 1’s attorney Robert Haroche, and a letter from current TCHA board members Ron Case, John Gray, and Robert Leichtner through the former TCHA attorney. A defamatory "hit" piece in the February 2018 TCHA Newsletter (by Gray, Leichtner, & Case) attempted to intimidate me and "ruin my reputation," a threat they have also made to others in the community who support the trails. The same TCHA board members continually printed lies and distortions about me, and publicly opined on the McKay v TCHA case and our Declaratory Relief suit for the trails at their regular board meetings. As a stark contrast to the plotting and malice of the Defendant 1 group, who met after Sunday markets at the Feddersohn home to plan malicious depredations during the summer of 2017, the former TCHA board was busy trying to achieve constructive things for the community. At the same time that Defendant 1 and McKay are desperately sifting though confidential TCHA documents looking for "gems" (McKay's name for harmful emails), the former board was attempting a final (third) official negotiation with Defendant 1 and her attorney Bob Haroche. Unfortunately Defendant 1 and Haroche acted in bad faith, and rather than offer any reasonable compromise or options, tried to force the board to accept an inequitable and bad alternative trail route. The sole option offered, Exhibit A, not only eliminated the upper loop of the trail, but also eliminated the trail on three neighboring properties, whose owners no longer or never complained about their pedestrian easement. On September 2, 2017, that sole option was viewed on site and I attended. Near the conclusion of the meeting Mr. Haroche threatened that if the board did not accept Defendant 1's Exhibit A, he could sue the TCHA for Defendant 1 and design that suit so that the TCHA insurance would not cover it. The TCHA Summer 2017 Newsletter summarizes what the former board was working on while Defendant 1 and her group were carrying out their takeover. The former board's focus on constructive works made them sitting ducks for Defendant 1's predatory group. The Trail Agenda As the McCann report shows, from 2014 to August 2017, the TCHA was forced to spend $18,712 to meet the demands and to fund arbitration with Defendant 1 regarding the easement on her property. Since the new board was installed in September 2017, they spent an additional $26,577 on legal fees, just to March 21, 2018, some of which may also be related to the easement on the same property. The TCHA board has refused requests for detailed documentation of legal expenditures, releasing only totals to $150,000, but never documenting the specific purpose of those expenditures or how much was reimbursed from insurance. Instead TCHA treasurer John Gray makes unsupported statements blaming various local residents for the expenditures, always his main trail-supporter targets, Hannah Clayborn, Tom Giacinto, and the former TCHA board. In February 2018, TCHA president Ron Case had the Trails Page, Trails Map, supporter contact information, and trails photos of the John Sperry Trail removed from the TCHA website. On March 8, 2018, we became aware that members of the TCHA board irreparably damaged historic trail signs hand carved by Dale Corbin in the 1990s, and damaged a hand-painted John Sperry Trail sign paid for by Timber Cove Trail Supporters. (Corbin sign March 2018; and John Sperry Trail Sign March 2018). The board members immediately responsible for this act were John Gray and Ron Case. On March 17, 2018 two separate trail working parties were accosted on the Merin McCabe parcel and the John Gallo property on Smith Court. Defendant 2, falsely claiming to be an agent for John Gallo, told workers on Gallo's land that they were trespassing and did his best to intimidate and photograph them. He also threatened them if they came on his property. On March 27, 2018, the TCHA board mailed a long email and attached memo to property owners claiming that the pedestrian easements do not exist and prohibiting the property owners from using them. We wish to point out the following about that communication: The email and memo are credited to two board members, John Gray and Robert Leichtner, neither of whom has expertise in land use or real estate law. There is no indication that any of the content of the email or attached memo was advised by the law firm representing the TCHA at that time, Perry, Johnson, Anderson, Miller, and Moskowitz. We disagreed with the content of the email and memo and believe we have overwhelming documentary evidence to support that position, much of which appears on this web page. Specifically there are letters on this subject from the law firm officially representing the TCHA, Perry, Johnson, Anderson, Miller, and Moskowitz, the opinion of the County of Sonoma County Counsel, Bruce Goldstein, and Martin McOmber, a real estate attorney recommended to us by the Sonoma County Bar Association, all of whom contradicted the opinions of John Gray and Robert Leichtner. County Counsel Goldstein also clarifies the statements by attorney Barbara Zimmerman, who had already resigned her position as TCHA attorney, and was working for Anne Roberts and Defendant 1 at the time she wrote the 2015 letter cited by John Gray. Lastly there is the 24 September 2004 letter from attorney Barbara Zimmerman, written a decade earlier, which affirms the pedestrian easements in item #3. The TCHA board allied with Defendant 1 then filled its vacancies by appointing their associate Rosemary Gorz, the author of defamatory and misinformed letters sent to members during the spring and summer of 2017, using the misappropriated TCHA membership list that she later admitted receiving from Defendant 1. In her letters before the 2017 election, Gorz deceptively posed as an independent TCHA member, claiming not to know or have been working with Defendant 1 and her group. Next they appointed Cindy Culcasi, wife of their associate, Sal Culcasi. Rosemary Gorz and Cindy Culcasi ran unopposed for two seats on the TCHA in the Fall of 2018. The first election failed to achieve a quorum of voters participating. An extension finally achieved that quorum. Reluctance of members to work with the group was evidenced by no competition for the seats since they took office in late 2017, and the repeated failure to reach a quorum evidences the large number of members who would not participate in the vote. Given the demonstrated predatory tactics of the Defendant 1 group, residents are afraid to oppose them. This has continued to the present time. The group had their new attorney, Peter Walls, draft a new set of TCHA Bylaws in 2019, which among other things, made it easier for them to dissolve the TCHA, pass changes with a very small percentage of membership approval, hold elections with smaller quorums, and they pointedly outlawed write-in votes in the election of board members. The lengthy document was presented to members without pointing out any alterations or comparisons to the original bylaws, but amazingly, it was passed by the membership without examination or explanation. During the 2020 election, Ron Case, John Gray, and Robert Leichtner also ran unopposed. Again the vote reached no quorum, and only 12 members (out of 217) attended the virtual 2020 annual meeting, an astounding lack of participation, given that no travel was involved. Finally after subsequent reconvened meetings they managed to re-elect themselves, but only after repeated exhortations and threats about money by administrative assistant Melany Collet. An example: On September 8, 2020 Administrative staff Mellany Collette wrote: ...If I have talked to you already please ignore this request. If we don't meet the quorum this Saturday we will have to postpone the election until we do reach a quorum. It is not too late to send in your ballot. I am asking you to please mail in your ballots. Even if you don't want to vote you can send in a blank ballot ( make sure you still sign the outside envelope). A blank ballot counts towards a quorum. I know this may seem silly to send in a blank ballot but if we don't have a quorum we have to pay to redo the election. Each time we postpone it will cost the membership money. The same process was repeated in August 2021 almost verbatim, with three candidates for three open TCHA board seats. A recruit, new resident Robert Mogford, replaced Russell Wells, who resigned. Mogford also purchased the landlocked remnant parcel from the lot merger of the seven-acre former McKusick property (described at the top of this page) from Defendant 1 and the Drakes. His home and this newly purchased parcel border a pedestrian easement on Smith Court. Action for the Defense of our Pedestrian Easements Following the unprecedented actions of the current TCHA board of directors, described above, who attempted to take away the rights of the property owners and dissolve the association itself, a core of volunteers stepped forward to finance and stand as plaintiffs for a legal action to protect and preserve our dedicated walking trails, filed on October 2, 2018. There were several actions, the most important being "Declaratory Relief." This will settle the controversy on the legality of our trails. We filed our First Amended Complaint on February 7, 2019. Our opposition to the defendants' demurrer was filed May 2, 2019 and our objection to the "Declarations" of John Gray was filed May 9, 2019. Judge Jennifer Dollard's approved order OVERRULING defendants' demurrer, is dated May 15, 2019. Defendants' Strategy to Blame Plaintiffs Backfires As seen above, Timber Cove Trail Supporters won its first legal point, as the Defendants' demurrer was overruled by Judge Jennifer Dollard's judgement (above) May 15, 2019. Defendant 1 and Defendant 2 through their former attorney, Robert Haroche, had tried to force the plaintiffs to name 63 additional Timber Cove property owners in the suit. Both before and after they filed their first demand or objection (called a demurrer), starting in December 2018, defendants informed property owners that it was in fact the plaintiffs who planned to sue many more members of the community. At one TCHA board meeting, Defendant 1 stated that property owners would be getting letters in the mail naming them in the suit. This alarmist message, publicized repeatedly on Defendant 1's personal website and at TCHA board meetings, was a disingenuous attempt to sway public opinion against trail supporters. It was in fact only Defendant 1 and Defendant 2 who were trying to involve 63 of their neighbors in a costly suit. This strategy was also meant to provide Defendant 1-Defendant 2 with defensive cover against liability. Our trial date in Sonoma County Superior Court set for April, 2020, was cancelled due to COVID-19. On October 18, 2020 our attorneys submitted a new group of documents, including the following: Plaintiffs' Memorandum of Points and Authorities in Support of Motion for Summary Adjudication Separate Statement of Undisputed Material Facts in Support of Plaintiffs' Motion for Summary Adjudication Declaration of Plaintiff Hannah Marie Clayborn in Support of Motion for Summary Adjudication At the hearing for our Motion for summary adjudication on January 27, 2021 at Sonoma Superior Court, Judge Jennifer Dollard declined to rule on the issues surrounding the legality of the trails, denying our Motion for Summary Adjudication. Although this in no way ruled against the legality of our pedestrian easements, it did mean that we had to wait for these rulings at trial. In our view there were two very positive outcomes of that ruling: Judge Dollard's concurrence with all of our basic points of law, and the fact that she OVERRULED all of the opposition points of law submitted by defendants Defendant 1 and Defendant 2. The only item of opposition that was not overruled, raised by the attorney for defendants Black and McCabe (who have since capitulated), was the issue of the intent of the developer, which our attorney, Lewis Warren, argued is not legally relevant to this case. Nevertheless we were confident we could demonstrate intent at trial. At a hearing on February 3, 2021 Judge Dollard DENIED Defendants Defendant 1 and Defendant 2's Alternate Motion for Summary Adjudication. In so doing she OVERRULED the points of law contained therein. Judge Dollard determined that plaintiffs' claims of nuisance and despicable behavior by defendants met the criteria of the law to submit at trial. It is important to note that while our basic arguments in favor of the trails remained consistent, the defendants' arguments changed several times over. Originally relying on document fragments taken out of context and undated, unsigned memos from PRMD personnel (later contradicted by County Counsel), they switched to citing unrelated street and highway codes and citing the Board of Supervisors action in 2016 (see below). Defendants tried several times to introduce the confused and conflated documents authored by John Gray and Robert Leichtner in March 2018 and 2019 as the designated "Legal Committee" of the TCHA. These documents pretended to make a ruling abolishing the trails and forbidding members to use them. These concoctions have not been seriously regarded by the judge or any attorney other than the defendants' and were stricken from the exhibits as having no foundation in fact by Judge Dollard. Our original trial dates were cancelled twice by the Sonoma County Superior Courts. Initial delays were encouraged by the defendants' attorneys, who made agreement on proposed deposition and discovery trial dates purposely difficult. The onset of COVID-19 caused the cancellation of our original April 2020, trial date, followed by a one-year delay in all court proceedings. The backlog in court cases due to COVID-19 caused the cancellation of our next trial date, June 25, 2021. The remaining defendants' attorney, Peter Mallon, stated a medical reason made him unavailable for any October or November dates. Mr. Mallon's refusal of the October and November trial dates resulted in a trial date of March 25, 2022, our third assignment since 2018. Documentation of Targeting and Harassment by Defendants and their Associates At Timber Cove Homes Association meetings from 2017 to 2023, board members Robert Leichtner, John Gray, and Ron Case disseminated and published false information about the Timber Cove Trails Declaratory Relief suit and the McKay v TCHA lawsuit, doing their best to defame their personal targets, all trail supporters, and to distract from their own culpability and affiliation with Carmen McKay in the latter case. These same board members worked to arrange a large settlement for that plaintiff through their attorney and repeatedly published her false accusations to the membership, while never once publishing anything in defense of the TCHA itself. The incidents of harassment of trails supporters by Defendant 1 and Defendant 2, along with their affiliates on the TCHA and TCCWD boards became so numerous and regular that they must be ordered by date. And please keep in mind that this is not the entire list. Other incidents, although hurtful and damaging to plaintiffs, cannot yet be listed here for various reasons of personal and professional privacy or pending legal actions, but will come to bear in our future court case. October 21, 2018 Kris Kilgore threatened at the Community Market Kris Kilgore was at one time a plaintiff to the trails preservation lawsuit. At a Sunday CHCP Community Market at Fort Ross School on October 21, 2018, Kris Kilgore was approached by Chris Feddersohn and John Gray. In Kris's words: Chris Feddersohn and John Gray walked up to a table where I was selling cookies for Aging In Place at the CHCP community market. This was about 10:45 to 11:00 AM. Chris did most of the talking. He said that the lawsuit (I can't remember his exact words referring to the lawsuit) that I was involved in would cost me $150,000 and would ruin my reputation...I asked, "Is this a threat?" Chris turned and walked away...They left the market shortly after that. November 10, 2018, TCCWD board meeting On November 10, 2018, one of the plaintiffs in the legal action to preserve the trails, John Howland, who was also a director of the Timber Cove County Water District, was harassed by the president and vice president of the TCCWD, Defendant 2 and Chris Feddersohn. The president, Defendant 2, a defendant in the trail declaratory relief case, and vice president, Chris Feddersohn, acted along with two Timber Cove Homes Association board members, Ron Case and John Gray, and John Gray's wife Yvonne. A third TCCWD board member, Warren Doyle, looked on silently. This harassment followed a regular TCCWD board meeting after staff had departed, and the subject of the harassment was the legal action for Declaratory Relief for our trails. The group tried to force Howland to resign from the TCCWD board, and the trail lawsuit was stated as the reason. When Howland refused, and left the meeting room, the group followed him out to the parking lot of Fort Ross School, all but Doyle voicing a chant, a taunt or threat, that he and his wife should leave Timber Cove. Yvonne Gray was shrieking. Later that evening, November 10, 2018, Defendant 1 sent Howland a harassing email referencing the trails legal action. The next morning an anonymous caller asking for Hannah Clayborn, made obscene sexual threats and accusations. December 8, 2018, TCCWD board meeting On the agenda for the December 8, 2018 TCCWD meeting, President Defendant 2 included a vote of no confidence aimed at treasurer Howland. Community pressure and letters, along with statements from members of the audience at that meeting, prevented that vote of no confidence, but did not keep the president of TCCWD, Defendant 2, from making a public statement referencing the lawsuit for the preservation of the trails as the reason for the action, and also making false and defamatory statements about Howland's work as treasurer. President Defendant 2 and vice president Chris Feddersohn included another action on the agenda, a reappointment of all officers. Feddersohn was voted president and Defendant 2 vice president, basically swapping their positions. Still they did not manage to remove Howland as treasurer, and only finally succeeded in appointing an additional co-Treasurer, Warren Doyle, the silent observer at the Fort Ross School parking lot incident of November 10, 2018. When the vote was first taken Doyle in fact voted against it. Chris Feddersohn then stopped the meeting, and hauled Doyle outside the building. When they returned Feddersohn resumed the vote and Doyle reversed his vote. Many other unfounded and false statements were made during the meeting, without any evidence, and many actions were taken that violated the Brown Act at this and subsequent meetings. A complete recording of the December 8, 2018 TCCWD meeting is in our possession. December 9, 2018, TCCWD President Invades Todd Home to Confront Plaintiff At about 1 p.m. on the Sunday following the TCCWD meeting described directly above, TCCWD president Chris Feddersohn entered a real estate open house at the Brian and Sylvia Todd home in Timber Cove. Feddersohn aggressively confronted Tim McKusick, a plaintiff in the trails case. After Feddersohn repeatedly threatened McKusick, Sylvia Todd demanded that Feddersohn leave and he would not. Sylvia Todd reported the incident to the Deputy Sheriff and thereafter obtained a legal order to prevent Chris Feddersohn from trespassing on her property because neighbors reported seeing a white truck like Feddersohn's parked there when the Todds were absent. February 13, March 14, 2019, TCHA board meeting On February 13, 2019 TCHA board member John Gray sent John Howland a long, bombastic email making false personal accusations against Howland and others who support him, another attempt to harass, intimidate, and silence him. Gray was enraged because Howland had sent a letter to members on January 30, making a calm, professional, and reasoned appeal to preserve the TCHA and its current CC & Rs. Very inappropriately and unprofessionally, Gray read his bombastic letter, full of obvious personal inferences and unsupported accusations aloud at the March 14, 2019 TCHA board meeting. There is stark irony in this event, a sputtering, enraged TCHA board member, who is charged with the fiduciary duty of defending the homeowners' association, publicly vilifying a TCHA member merely for making a reasoned defense of that same association, April & May, 2019, The Sea Ranch, CA Trails case defendant Defendant 1 and her supporter, TCHA board member John Gray, tried to harass and defame our first attorney in the trails legal action, Neil Moran, a part-time resident of The Sea Ranch. From June 2017 to October 2020 Defendant 1 and Defendant 2 were full-time residents of The Sea Ranch. From March 2017 to March 2020, they used their Timber Cove property as a commercial Airbnb. As reported in The Independent Coast Observer newspaper, on April 26, 2019, Defendant 1 stood at a public candidates' forum meeting and accused Mr. Moran of representing "wealthy private individuals who have repeatedly rebuffed prior attempts to mediate the situation..." TCHA board member John Gray, as reported by the ICO, chimed in as usual, making negative personal comments about Mr. Moran, whom he has never met. Nevertheless Neil Moran received the highest number of votes out of three candidates in an election on May 25, 2019 for two seats on the The Sea Ranch board. May 27, 2019, Defendant 2 Caught Trespassing on Howland property, undeveloped lots On Memorial Day, May 27, Defendant 2 was found making his way back to his truck parked at the end of Davis Way. He had been traversing undeveloped lots owned by John Howland and Hannah Clayborn. The lots lie below the Howland home. Intercepted by Howland, Defendant 2 was asked what he was doing. Defendant 2 replied, "Just Business." Since Defendant 2 is part of a group that had forbidden residents to use the walking trails, calling it "trespass," and in his position on the TCCWD board has claimed that TCCWD has no jurisdiction over undeveloped lots, Defendant 2 could not claim "business" there of any kind. He carried no clipboard or forms. Although the incident was reported to Deputy Sheriff Provost, Howland and Clayborn were informed that they must contact law enforcement at the time of the trespass. July 27, 2019, TCCWD board meeting After the TCCWD meeting on July 27, 2019, at Fort Ross School, TCHA board member John Gray approached John Howland. Gray referenced Howland's, June 30, 2019 letter, a response to the TCHA board's threat regarding payment of a non-conforming (Davis-Stirling regulations) "emergency" special assessments levied on Timber Cove Property owners in 2018. But Gray's main reference was to the Carmen McKay v. TCHA complaint. Speaking in an aggressive, loud voice, Gray threatened Howland, calling him a "F------- liar." Specifically Gray threatened that "We" will "get" his wife, Hannah Clayborn, by deposing her in that case. It is assumed Gray was referring to the TCHA board of directors as "we", or Carmen McKay and the TCHA board of directors. The incident was reported in detail to the attorney representing Clayborn in the case. November 9, 2019, TCCWD board meeting In September and October of 2019, TCCWD president Chris Feddersohn, and vice-president Defendant 2 began to threaten Howland with building a chain link "security" fence around water tank #2 on Howland's property. This tank was put there without a legal easement and without the permission of the owners by a prior TCCWD board while the owners were absent. That easement, Timber Cove County Water District #85-004463, specifically states that it is only for a water well, not a storage tank, and that all equipment must be underground where possible. Much of the current tank equipment is actually outside of any sort of easement. Howland had informed the prior TCCWD board multiple times in writing that the tank would need to be removed, but that being a good citizen and concerned for the community, he would allow the water district time to accomplish that during planned improvements. At the TCCWD board meeting on November 9, 2019, at 1 p.m., the matter of building both an additional fence and placing a new structure on Howland's property was discussed by President Chris Feddersohn, under an agenda item, labelled "security." Feddersohn made sweeping statements that the tank would never be removed, and made the menacing remark that he and Defendant 2 had compiled a file "this" thick (indicating two or three inches with his fingers) on Howland's property, and were consulting the TCCWD board's new Sacramento attorney, in preparation for the TCCWD's proposed incursions on Howland's property. The meeting was recorded in full. As is common, also attending the meeting were TCHA board members John Gray and Robert Leichtner, Defendant 1, Carolyn Abst (TCHA president Ron Case's wife), and Diane Feddersohn. Tim Winterer, Kris Kilgore, and Luciano Moretto also attended. October 12, November 13, November 22, 2019: The Curious Case of Sal Culcasi's Coat and the Disappearing Disc At the TCHA meeting on October 12, 2019, Defendant 1 and Sal Culcasi stated that they suspected that Hannah Clayborn stole a computer disc from Sal Culcasi in 2014. Culcasi theorized that the disc, given to him by Defendant 1, was taken by Clayborn from under his coat that lay on a counter. Culcasi produced no evidence, but somehow TCHA board members had already convened an executive session on the subject prior to the October 12 general meeting. Defendant 1 and Culcasi complained about two public documents from 2014 that appear at the top of this page. On November 13, 2019, three board members, John Gray, Cindy Culcasi, and Ron Case, met with Deputy Sheriff Jeremy Lyle at the TCHA office. These board members apparently made accusations that Clayborn got the three documents they dislike by stealing a disc from under Sal Culcasi's coat in 2014. Sheriff Lyle phoned Clayborn later that day and she invited him into her home. Clayborn was able to show Deputy Sheriff Lyle the source of those documents. The TCHA refuses to give any information about the executive sessions October 12, and November 13, 2019. On November 22, 2019, my attorney on another matter received a long threatening, accusatory letter from the TCHA attorney, Peter Walls, claiming, without foundation, that I (Hannah Clayborn) "misappropriated" three documents that appear on this website. He makes sweeping and absolutely unfounded accusations regarding other documents on the website, "irrefutably evidencing" (to borrow his phrase) Walls's failure to understand basic computer software or the nature of websites. It is disturbing to note that all three documents he complained of reference actions taken by Defendant 1. who is not on the TCHA board. Mr. Walls and the TCHA board, seemed most concerned with a letter sent by the TCHA to PRMD (Sonoma County Planning Department) as a Microsoft Word document (.doc) on April 8, 2014. We do not know why the current board was so worried about this elderly public document that they spent our dues money (conservative estimate: $1,000) to have Mr. Walls threaten me and attempt to have it removed from this website. February 24, 2020, Defendant 1's associates on TCHA board make unfounded claims against trail defender attorney Just as Defendant 1 and TCHA board member John Gray harassed our first attorney in this case, Neil Moran, in April and May of 2019 (see above), Defendant 1's friends on the TCHA board have made unfounded claims against our current trails attorney, Lewis Warren. In a long, rambling letter dated February 24, 2020, and signed by TCHA president Ron Case, the board once again tried to insert itself into a case in which they are not a named party. Once again, these directors are trying to assert and protect the personal interests of their friend Defendant 1 over the rights of the Timber Cove property owners. Most remarkably, however, TCHA president Ron Case unwittingly provided us with a new and valuable piece of evidence in support of our case, a letter written by TCHA attorney Barbara Zimmerman in 2004, in which she unequivocally affirms the legal validity of the Timber Cove Pedestrian Easements. (see Item 3 as underlined). This better researched and documented letter contradicts the hasty opinion she wrote when working for Defendant 1 and Anne Roberts in early 2015. June and July 2020: Drive-by Obscenities TCCWD president Chris Feddersohn and TCHA and TCCWD treasurer John Gray carried out multiple unprovoked "drive-by" harassments of trail supporters. They were reported to the TCHA administrator in writing. Gray drives by, rolls down his car window and pumps his fist with a middle finger raised up in the air while shouting obscenities through his car window. The latter end up being unintelligible (perhaps slurred speech). Gray, while admitting his behavior in writing, claimed it was justified due to his personal pique at trail supporters. Chris Feddersohn blasts his car horn when he passes trail supporters' houses, and is a suspect in other cases of private property vandalism reported to authorities. Both appear to have a lack of impulse control. September 2020: TCCWD Spends Water Customers' Money on Revenge In 2020 the TCCWD board, under president Chris Feddersohn and vice-president Defendant 2, took an unprecedented step in hiring their friend John Gray, a retired Safeway store regional manager, as a paid treasurer for a public agency, Timber Cove County Water District. The agency has never had a paid treasurer position and Gray was not elected by the voters as other members are. By specific vote of that board, Gray was not asked to submit a resume (which he did not), and his concurrent role as the treasurer of the Timber Cove Homes Association was not discussed as a conflict of interest. Kris Kilgore was the only dissenting TCCWD board member in these actions. Since his hire in 2020 Gray, at $50 per hour, spent a significant portion of his time combing through the fiscal records of TCCWD--meticulously kept and saved by former volunteer treasurer John Howland--in an attempt to find some sort of incriminating evidence against trail supporters. This was to aid their friend Defendant 1 in her attempts to eliminate the pedestrian easements. At a September 26, 2020 TCCWD meeting John Gray and Chris Feddersohn made baseless accusations against the Timber Cove Foundation, a private non-profit agency formed in 2017 primarily to support the Fire Abatement Ordinance. TCCWD spent thousands of water users' dollars on Gray's time and thousands of dollars of their specially hired Sacramento attorney's time to concoct Gray's slanderous and unsupported statements made at this pubic meeting. It also appears that unknown parties on the staff or board of TCCWD or TCHA withheld Timber Cove Foundation mail for an extended period and unlawfully opened it. The Timber Cove Foundation has answered those irrelevant and inaccurate accusations as follows: Timber Cove Foundation to Timber Cove County Water District 2020.10.09 Timber Cove Foundation to Timber Cove County Water District 2020.11.14 Update on item above: After finally receiving all of its mail, Timber Cove Foundation was reinstated as a 501 (c) 3 retroactive to 2017. The foundation has not pursued the identity of the individual(s) who unlawfully intercepted, withheld, and opened the Foundation's mail. Timber Cove County Water District lost both of its Water Operators in early 2021. Both resigned. Chris Feddersohn, Defendant 2, and Kilgore were up for re-election in November 2021 As a means to popularize themselves prior to that election, Feddersohn and Defendant 2 lowered the water rates during a period of historic drought. When properly calculated, TCCWD is, and has been, operating at a deficit. Their friend, John Gray, at that time was the most highly paid TCCWD employee, acting as a paid Treasurer (a position they created), with a higher rate of pay per hour than the water operators themselves. Gray personally received in excess of $21,000.00 of TCCWD water users funds. (2022 update: the administrative staff person is now reportedly making more that $50 per hour, which is 75% more than the licensed, professional water operators.The paid treasurer's position was turned over to Michael Sargent, another associate of this group, John Gray's neighbor, who also did not submit a resume for public review.) July 24, 2021 & August 29, 2021 At a TCCWD board meeting, July 24, 2021, I had the misfortune of listening to President "Chris "(Richard) Feddersohn's lengthy and false accusations about "Crimes" committed by board member Kris Kilgore, the lone trail supporter on the board. As usual, Feddersohn never stated anything specific, just made general false claims against Kilgore. He lied at the public meeting, saying that he had reported these "Crimes" to Deputy Sheriff Jeremy Lyle. He did not, according to Lyle, and no "Crimes" of any kind were committed. Feddersohn attempted to politically smear and isolate Kilgore, a trail supporter, taking away her rights as our duly elected representative to have access to TCCWD staff and important information that should be made available to the public. Feddersohn stated that only he and his allies on the board have a right to certain information about water operations, finances, administrative salaries, or the right to speak to employees of the water district. Kris Kilgore, Feddersohn stated, "Only has the right to attend a two-hour meeting once a month. That's it!" Meanwhile all plans for important water system improvements and any fire abatement have been halted by these same individuals for the last four long years. October -- November 2, 2021 John Gray, the paid TCCWD Treasurer, ran along with his friends Chris Feddersohn and John Rea for three seats on the TCCWD board. Trail supporter Kris Kilgore was also a candidate for re-election. Predictably John Gray made false accusations against Kilgore in an Independent Coast Observer newspaper article, which Kilgore refuted in a subsequent Coast Observer article October 22, 2021. Despite the lies and unethical behavior of her campaign rivals, Kris Kilgore was triumphant, garnering the highest number of votes in the water board election on November 2, 2021. The results would have been more dramatic if all voters had been aware that they didn't have to pick three of the four candidates, as the instructions implied. Former TCCWD board president Chris Feddersohn received the lowest number of votes of the four, failing in his bid for re-election. Subsequently Feddersohn canceled all TCCWD board meetings until January 2022, leaving important water business neglected until. 2022 Despite the historic drought and our community's vulnerable, undersized, and deteriorating water distribution system, at the January 2022 meeting new TCCWD president John Gray and Defendant 2, vice-president, set out an agenda to spend the coming year rewriting the TCCWD Standing Rules, an action aimed at blocking minority board member Kris Kilgore from access to water company records, operations, employees, and financial information. Rather than plan for any repairs or upgrades on our aging, technologically outdated water system, these directors are trying to hire architect Martin Breuer, their neighbor, to design a new clubhouse for them to meet in, a project that will cost hundreds of thousands of TCCWD's funds meant to improve our water system. May--July 2022 On May 19, 2022, TCHA director John Gray filed a formal complaint against Timber Cove Trail Supporters to Sonoma County PRMD and Sonoma County Code Enforcement. Among other false claims Gray accused the group of cutting down 17 redwood trees during the restoration of the John Sperry Trail in 2016. In fact the Sperry Trail required removal of only three saplings of less than 3-inch diameter and the work was done at the direction of and paid for by the Timber Cove Homes Association Board of Directors. To make his false complaint more personal Gray also informed Code Enforcement that the Howland property at 22050 Timber Cove Rd. had been illegally clearcut. Sonoma County Code Enforcement officials visited Timber Cove in July and determined that all of Gray's claims about the Howland property and the Timber Cove Trail Supporters were false and the complaint was dismissed. We are told that Gray has the largest file of false complaints against his neighbors of any single person in Sonoma County. July 2022 Long-time property owners know that the small fringe group that took over the board of directors in 2017 caused our community great harm and turmoil by passing a false edict pretending to abolish Timber Cove’s pedestrian easements to serve their personal interests. Community members have only recently been able to save our trails through a court action with great expense and trouble. At the hearing to present the draft ruling in April 2022, Judge René Auguste Chouteau stated that when the Timber Cove Homes Association issued its false ruling on the pedestrian easements in 2018, trail supporters had no other option but to file suit to clear our titles. The judge laid responsibility squarely on the TCHA’s board. Despite the fact that the cause of our trails has been won in the courts, the TCHA board members continued to spend its time and our money to do the bidding of its leaders and work against our trails. At its July board meeting the directors approved a $20,000 retainer to hire a new attorney to find a way to work against trail supporters and the use of our trails. In essence they continued to use our own money to take away our rights as property owners. Timber Cove Trail Supporters therefore did not endorse Richard Mogford or Margaret Grahame in the 2022 TCHA board election. Both are allied socially and politically to the anti-trail fringe and have signed their names to years of false and defamatory published statements about our pedestrian easements and TCHA members that have done great harm to our community. October 1, 2022 During a Timber Cove County Water District Board of Directors meeting on Saturday morning, October 1, 2022, trail supporter Kris Kilgore's car was "keyed" viciously while it was parked in the lot at Fort Ross School, where the meeting was being held. The vandalism caused $6,983 in damage, School was not in session and none of the children who attend the school were observed to be present. At the same time long screws were punched into the sidewalls of the two front tires on Kris's car. Kris did not become aware of the latter damage until she brought the car into a garage for repairs. This crime was especially heinous as Kris provided free transportation to disabled elderly residents and a school child, as she regularly does, before discovering the screws. She had to bear the additional cost of two new tires. The vandal who etched Kris's car carved a horizon line with a hilly landscape above it, jumping to the side rear view mirror to etch a series of rocks in the foreground. The screws were implanted in her tire sidewalls using an electric hand tool. The identity of the vandal, or vandals, is not known. A review of a recording of that October 1, 2022 TCCWD board meeting indicates there was very vocal participation by Defendant 1 and Chris Feddersohn in the audience, and their hostile remarks were directed at board member Kris Kilgore. February 2023 It was previously noted (July 2022), that the TCHA board had allocated $20,000 of property owners' money to hire an attorney to validate the board's opinions on the trails. It is still unclear what the attorney actually advised, as the internet failed at the January 2023 TCHA board meeting. Robert Leichner and John Gray, who are the authors of all the false rulings and proclamations of the TCHA "Legal Committee" since late 2017, apparently reported on the newly hired attorney's opinion. Lacking confidence in the accuracy of any report they might make, I will request any documentation provided by that attorney. In the most recent TCHA communications the names of Ron Case, Margaret Grahame, John Gray, Robert Leichtner, and Rosemary Gorz are no longer listed. Their resignations from the board, if they were officially entered, have not been made public to members. New board members Keith Thompson and Joseph Bettencourt, both next door neighbors to John Gray, were appointed to fill two of the vacancies. Mr. Thompson wrote to Timber Cove Trail Supporters on September 9, 2022 to declare that he was "firmly against the 'trails'", and likened trail supporters to Donald Trump. The en mass departure may mean that after 4.5 years of their steerage, the ship is sinking. They have nothing constructive to show for their tenure save the erection of one bank of mailboxes that a previous board purchased. On the other hand they got the TCHA insurance cancelled out of spite, spent unprecedented amounts of money, increased administrative salaries inordinately, misspent their budgeted funds, then bullied property owners with an illegal (nonconforming) emergency special assessment of over $800 per parcel without a membership vote, published two false rulings declaring that the pedestrian easements do not exist and forbidding members to use them, officially slandered the titles to each of our properties in escrow and to real estate agencies, and did everything in their power to carry out the will of their friends against the trails. Board member Robert Leichtner acted as a legal advisor to Defendant 1 and 2 and their attorney during the trial and he and John Gray testified against the trails in court and in court documents. That's the short list. There is a much longer one. The anti-trail and anti-fire abatement ordinance faction still holds majority vote on the Timber Cove County Water District board of directors. Board member Tim Winterer resigned effective January 2023. He has been replaced by Jay Kvapil, and we wish him the very best of luck. The new water company operator resigned in late 2022, the third to do so in the space of two years. Despite the legal victory in May 2022, establishing our rights to the trails in Timber Cove, a small group of residents who took over the Timber Cove Homes Association board in 2017 and the Timber Cove County Water District board in 2019, refused to accept the court's ruling. They continued to publish faulty legal opinions negating the trails and informing members that they could or should not use them. March 2023 It was previously noted (July 2022), that the TCHA board had allocated $20,000 of property owners' money to hire an attorney to validate the board's opinions on the trails. Robert Leichner and John Gray, who are the authors of all the false rulings and proclamations of the TCHA "Legal Committee" since late 2017, have proven themselves to be unreliable sources on any subject. The report by Leichtner on trails submitted in the January 2023 minutes does not convey advice received from paid attorneys, insurance companies, or actual documents, but rather records his own opinions and misinterpretation of the trial, the ruling, and judgement. As he has been in the past, Leichtner is wrong or reports inaccurately about all but two key points. Leichtner finally states accurately that the TCHA has no authority to remove or relocate the trails, and that the easements are owned equally by all property owners, something Trail Supporters published in 2014 after only a few weeks of research. Robert Leichtner reported and published erroneous legal opinions, analysis, and "rulings" about the pedestrian easements for the TCHA for six years. (2018--2023). Ron Case, Margaret Grahame, and John Gray have officially resigned from the TCHA board. New board members Keith Thompson and Joseph Bettencourt, both next door neighbors to John Gray, were appointed to fill two of the vacancies. Mr. Thompson wrote to Timber Cove Trail Supporters on September 9, 2022 to declare that he was "firmly against the 'trails'", likening Trail Supporters (officially numbering over 100 property owners) to Donald Trump, and labelling them "crybabies." The en mass departure may mean that after 4.5 years of their steerage, the ship is sinking. They have nothing constructive to show for their tenure save the erection of one bank of mailboxes that a previous board purchased. On the other hand, in roughly chronological order, they have:
That's the short list. There is a much longer one. The great majority of TCHA meeting time since 2018 was spent in unwarranted self congratulation by board members and equally unwarranted castigation of their predecessors and trail supporters. The anti-trail and anti-fire abatement ordinance faction still holds a majority vote on the Timber Cove County Water District board of directors. With the exception of board member Kris Kilgore, the other male board members are closely following the lead of President John Gray and unofficial advisor Robert Leichtner, the same disastrous duo who wasted so much money and caused such harm to the community while they were on the TCHA board. Unfortunately the male members of the TCCWD acted in a discriminatory and harassing manner towards Kilgore that was witnessed by many. Despite being the most technically qualified of all board members, and garnering the highest number of votes in the 2021 election, she was never appointed to a single committee or office during three years on the board. In October, 2022, during a TCCWD board meeting, Kilgore had $6,983 worth of vandal damage to her car and screws punched into her two front tires. She later resigned, and Robert Leichtner, one of the authors of the failed attempt to take away property owners' rights to the pedestrian trails during his tenure on the TCHA board, was appointed to take Kilgore's place on the TCCWD board. During their tenure on the TCCWD board this group
March 22, 2023 An unidentified person lodged a complaint against Timber Cove Trail Supporters with California Fish and Game, alleging that our trail work was interfering and damaging Timber Cove Creek. An official with California Fish and Game came out and inspected the creek, finding nothing amiss. John Howland received a call on this date from William O'Brien of California Fish and Game informing him of the false report and its dismissal. This is very similar to a false report lodged by former TCHA director John Gray on May 19, 2022, to Code Enforcement and Sonoma County PRMD. (see above). On the same day we received a baseless, threatening communication from the attorney for Defendant 1 and 2 in the trail case. The letter was meant to intimidate trail supporters and prevent them from defending themselves against continued harassment by reporting the facts accurately. He specifically accused trail supporter Hannah Clayborn of the alleged crime of "insinuating". There is no need for insinuation. The documented facts speak very well for themselves, and the public has a right to know them. April 16, 2023 On this historic day the entire two miles of the Umland Circle to Smith Court Loop Trail was reopened for the first time in 17 years. Evidence from 2008 depositions indicates that at least two property owners, working in concert, began putting up "No Trespassing" signs and verbally warding off property owners walking on this trail in about 2006. (See Archives page). On this day trail supporters also noted that both the courtesy trail and legal trail easement had been blocked with fallen or felled trees and arranged piles of debris by Defendant 1 and 2 on their property. Trail supporters cleared these blockages and will continue to monitor them. May 13, 2023 Robert Leichtner, one of the authors of so many erroneous legal statements and slanderous false personal accusations published by the Timber Cove Homes Association from 2018 to 2023, finally officially resigned from the TCHA. During his term Mr. Leichtner disseminated false legal information and erroneous legal opinions, He abandoned his fiduciary duty to the welfare of the TCHA membership by publicly advising Defendant 1 and 2 during the trial to save our pedestrian easements. [Note: after TCCWD board member Kris Kilgore resigned due to unbearable harrasment by president John Gray and others, Leichtner was appointed to replace her on the TCCWD board.] September 2023 The new Umland-Smith Court Trail has remained open and is being enjoyed by an ever-increasing number of residents. We note the peaceful Buddha and lotus that some resident added to a rocky nook on the steps leading to Umland Circle, (nicknamed the Stairway to Heaven). Until the trail is more permanently marked, please keep to the orange flags or orange line markers to stay on the trail. Contact us with questions, problems, or for a personal tour. The Timber Cove Homes Association board election and annual meeting in August had very little participation and attendance. As in every election since the anti-trail faction took over the board in late 2017, the vote failed to achieve a quorum by the annual meeting and had to be continued to another meeting on Sept. 9. A quorum was managed at the second meeting by virtue of revised bylaws they have installed, using money from an illegal (non-conforming) emergency assessment in 2018. They continue to discount the votes of property owners who protested the illegality of that emergency assessment. Four positions were filled, three by previous appointment of the anti-trail board. One of those appointed, Keith Thompson, expressed disdain for the trails and trails supporters in an email to us. The other two, Joseph Bettencourt and Jennifer Greenstein have not supported the trails during their tenure and refuse to state their views. One new resident, Aaron Weber, filled in the fourth position. Weber has stated that he will recognize the legality of the trails. In October the board considered monetary penalties for certain violations of the C C & Rs. an arbitrary selection of CC & R violations warranting punitive fines. The definitions were vague and would have allowed the board to continue its arbitrary enforcements. Some terms, like "exterior art", requiring fines, were invented and don't appear in the CC & Rs. Three of the sitting TCHA board members had clear-cut their own properties. Clear-cutting in our forest is a serious violation of both Timber Cove's CC&Rs (which allows cutting of live trees in the building area, not the entire lot) and Coastal Commission regulations. The TCHA board intended to officially exempt its own members and their friends from important restrictions, while targeting others for large monetary penalties. This is the worst type of violation of the CC & Rs and the board's own fiduciary duty. An unsanctioned trailer harms few and may be removed; a decimated forest harms us all and cannot be reversed. And what shall be the fine for the current and former TCHA board members who willfully denied and defied, and continue to deny and defy Clause VIII of the CC & Rs, which clearly describes and requires maintenance of our pedestrian easements? What shall be the fine for violating the CC & Rs while working for the personal interest of their friends and plunging our community into such discord and great expense? How can they hold others accountable if they are not accountable themselves for violating the CC & Rs? 
Above: "Exterior Art" once targeted by the TCHA and vandalized twice by unknown parties.
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