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You Keep Using That Word

 



Today’s word is “disenfranchised.” A lot of people are throwing it around lately. A lot of people don’t appear to know what it means. 

The Columbia Association has not disenfranchised any villages or the people who live in them. This is what has occurred:

The CA Board of Directors voted to remove three members for violating their own ethics policy.

  1. The CA Board created an enforceable ethics policy.
  2. After a thorough investigation, they enforced it.

Which part of that do you disagree with? Ethics? Investigation? Enforcement?

Friends, we need to talk.

Something about the CA rep/Board Members that many people may not understand is that, unless they are personally motivated to be responsive to their own communities, they aren’t really required to do so. Honestly, you can’t make them.

I’ve tried.

When I served on the Oakland Mills Village Board our CA Rep would attend meetings, participate in discussions with the board about community issues, receive complete feedback about our concerns, and then go to the CA Board Meetings and not share any of it. I know this because I checked. 

If our consensus didn’t match with this person’s goals, it never made it past our village board meetings. 

The explanation we received when we called them on this was that representing Oakland Mills was not what they were elected to do.

“When I’m here I have my Oakland Mills hat on. When I go to the CA Board Meetings I have my Columbia hat on.”

This person kept a secret email list and sent out a private newsletter to select members of our community. They met regularly with a small group of friends who informed their statements and actions.

I am not saying that the record of this one person is representative of all CA reps. I am saying that there was absolutely nothing to prevent them from using their office in exactly that way, and just enough vague language and unspoken tradition over the years to make it possible.

When CA Reps treat the office they were elected to do as giving them a sort of magical carte blanche to wield power, manipulate others, and ignore community engagement: that is dishonoring the community and the votes of the people who elected them.

As a Village Board member, getting “up close and personal” with the workings of the CA Board was one of the most disenchanting experiences of my adult life.

If your village finds itself with a “representative” who behaves like this, you may see them going to meetings and casting votes but they are most assuredly not representing you or your village. I find it odd that so many folks talk big talk about elected officials abusing power and the need for ethical standards and yet…

…when it comes to holding these CA reps responsible for their own actions: nothing.

People are running around with their hair on fire about being “disenfranchised” when the truth is that unethical representation is no representation at all. 

This is ridiculous. Either we are going to:

  1. hold members of the CA Board accountable, or 
  2. we are saying that it’s totally fine for some folks to treat that office as their own personal fiefdoms and do tremendous damage to Columbia in the process.

I’m not exaggerating here. This kind of behavior has had a stranglehold on the CA Board for quite some time. Are we going to do anything about it? 

If we really care about how the Columbia Assocation works and how our communities are represented, now would be a really good time to require ethical behavior from our representatives.


Village Green/Town² Comments 



Comments

  1. Julia A. McCreadyJuly 6, 2026 at 4:26 AM

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