(The following article has been updated as of 9:40 PM on December 18, 2010.)

As found on [1] Anthem Today and [2] Anthem Journal, the following political hate mail is quoted and shown to be a potential violation of Sun City Anthem Governing Documents.  It is to Henderson Mayor Hafen and other City Council members, and drafted by former Director/Attorney David Berman, Current Director/Attorney Ann Small and about a dozen other hateful old people as listed below.

We are wondering if the Directors who falsely charged and illegally punished a SCA member recently for daring to question their financial management will also move to punish members of their own board for violations of the SCA governing rules and failing their fiduciary duty?

In the past, there have been some really hateful and all-round dirty political tricks played on some of our Sun City Anthem seniors by the members of this group, but this one is perhaps the most outrageously bogus action in some time.

“November 30, 2010

Dear Mayor and Councilors:

The undersigned signatories are all residents of Sun City Anthem (SCA), and the purpose of this letter is to express our concerns over what we believe to be unacceptable behavior by fellow SCA resident Rana Goodman, an appointed member of the Henderson Senior Citizens Advisory Commission.

Ms. Goodman owns and publishes one of several online blogs/forums that serve our SCA community. Her blog is titled Anthem Today, and its Internet address is www.anthemtoday.com. As the owner and publisher of this communication channel, Ms. Goodman holds ultimate responsibility for the content posted on her publication, including the authority to remove or delete offensive or inappropriate material.

In a community such as ours, with 7,144 homes and about 13,000 residents, it is inevitable that differences of opinion will arise over the policies and decisions of our elected HOA leaders. Most of our residents are fully capable of expressing their differences in a respectful, responsible manner, and they demonstrate this capability when they have strong opinions to share with our elected leaders and their fellow residents.

As is their right, Ms. Goodman and the vast majority of those posting to her blog are quite vigorous in opposing SCA management and operational decisions. This is an ongoing expression of their collective freedom of speech, and they are breaking no laws in doing so.

But Ms. Goodman has recently allowed articles to be posted on her blog which are so extreme as to anger a wide segment of SCA, especially those of the Jewish faith but also many of other faiths. Specifically: She permitted an article to be published which, in expressing disagreement over the temporary suspension of our SCA community website message board until a method of moderating the messages can be devised, compared our Board of Directors’ action to the murder of millions by Adolf Hitler in The Holocaust. The article was illustrated with a cartoon showing Nazi soldiers beating Jews in the street and two photographs of concentration-camp prisoners.

Several residents who lost family members in The Holocaust were among those who were outraged by the article.

After a firestorm of protests ensued, with Ms. Goodman refusing to remove the offending article, the writer of the article removed the images and instead changed the slant of his writing to compare our Board’s actions to McCarthyism, illustrating the revised article with several images from the McCarthy era.

Ms. Goodman did not write the offending articles, but she has, on a continuing basis, tolerated these types of written attacks which diminish the level of discourse in our community and refer to community leaders and residents who disagree with her viewpoints on many issues in the most vile and near-defamatory terms.

You might ask why we are putting our names on this letter to you (reverse side). It is not a petition, and we are not asking that Ms. Goodman be removed from her volunteer position on the Senior Citizens Advisory Commission. Rather, we want to put ourselves on record as believing that as a member of a body that is supposed to be sensitive to the issues and concerns of Henderson’s senior citizens, her tolerance of such divisive behavior is not sending the right message about what our wonderful city and its dedicated volunteers and elected leaders stand for.”

Signed by:
1.   David A. Berman (former SCA Vice President and former MA attorney)
2.   Ann Small (SCA Director & Secretary, Member of NV Bar, Former member of Henderson City Attorney
staff, Former Henderson Judge Pro Tem, Former Nurse)
3.   Michael Wolf (Former NY attorney)
4.   Gerrie Katz-Wolf (Former member SCA Web Site Committee and member,
SCA Communications Committee)
5.   Robert Sansing (Former SCA Director and Former President, SCA Current Events Club)
6.   Roberta Sansing (Has since demanded her name be removed–had not approved the letter as claimed)
7.   Al Daly
8.   Sherryl Daly
9.   Stuart Schweit (Active member of Performing Arts Club/Channel 99as “Chef Stu)
10. Robert Murphy (Former member, SCA Finance Committee and 1 of 3 members of
SCA Restaurant Selection/Lease Negotiation Committee with Roz Berman & Dan Forgeron)
11. Elaine Izaks
12. Paul Fogelson
13. Deborah Fogelson (Has since demanded her name be removed–had not approved the letter as claimed)

 AV COMMENTS:

Lawyer/Director/Board Secretary Ann Small, Former Attorneys Wolf and Berman, former Directors Berman and Sansing,  Former Finance Committee member Murphy and (especially) Communications Committee Member Gerrie Katz-Wolf know that such an obviously political and potentially defamatory letter can not be sent to the Henderson City Council without being reviewed by the Communications Committee and approved by the Board of Directors.

Why is it NOT considered an item of free speech by the signatories to the City Council?  Because Board Secretary/NV Attorney Ann Small is a CURRENT  Director and the others with relevant expertise are not free to ignore the SCA governing documents .  They have a lawful, fiduciary duty to the Association that governs every act they take as long as they are serving as a SCA Director.

Since this letter could be considered highly damaging to the community’s reputation with the City, as well as to Rana Goodman, active participation by Director/Attorney Ann Small might be judged violations of NRS 116.3103.1 on fiduciary duty, the NV Bar Association Code of Ethics, and NRS sections on defamation.

Also, Communications Committee Member Gerrie Katz-Wolf should not be allowed to ignore that SHE KNOWS such types of PUBLIC communications to government officials containing multiple personal endorsements by current directors and standing committee members MUST be reviewed by the new Communications Committee–before it is released.  And, she knows the letter would have failed to get official approval by the CC and the Board.  So, why did she participate if not to play dirty political tricks and to try to hurt Rana Goodman’s reputation in the City?

Director-Secretary/Attorney Small is REQUIRED by Statutes and Bar Ethics Codes concerning fiduciary duties to ENSURE that anything going to any government or other official organization with her name, or any other current director’s name, is properly reviewed before being released.

Board Secretary Small knows that she is required to ensure that the “Editorial Content Committee (ECC) Standards” are used to review everything citing sponsorship by Directors (regardless of whether their titles are used or not).  Although the ECC has been merged into a new “Communications Committee”, nothing has been said about declaring the SCA communications Standards of Acceptability have been revolked.  Those standards are:

“STANDARDS OF ACCEPTABILITY
1. Communications shall serve the good of the Sun City Anthem community as a whole, by
promoting the community lifestyle and fostering a sense of community.
2. Information shall be disseminated in a variety of media formats in order to reach all
residents and support their pursuance of independent living within the Sun City Anthem
community.
3. Priority shall be given to items of significant interest to a majority of the community.
4. With the exception of breaking and emergency news, all media shall be produced
according to a predetermined production schedule.
5. Clear visual/verbal presentations and/or readability are essential for all communications.
All material shall be professional, including quality sound, lighting and editing for video.
6. All material shall he accurate, and all sources shall he attributable. Accuracy shall be
established, fact shall be distinguished from rumor, and content shall not be colored by
personal opinion.
7. The media shall conform to the Association’s legal documents and to the policies of
SCACAI Board of Directors. The Board retains the option of final review.
8. No libelous, defamatory, inflammatory, or insulting material shall be used.
9. No obscene material shall be used.
10. No vulgar or offensive language shall be used.
11. Material shall not be presented in an adverse or antagonistic manner.
12. The media shall not be used to express religious or political views with exception of
issues approved by the SCACAI Board of Directors and official SCACAI elections for
which equal time and/or space will be provided each candidate.
13. Legitimate controversies of interest to all residents shall be reported objectively in a balanced pro/con format. Scripts, video and sound bytes shall be fair and balanced.
14. All advertising shall be informative, targeted and representative of Sun City Anthem’s
uniqueness.”

A review of the letter shows it flagrantly violated a number of the SCA rules and it deserves to be asked,

Why was this violation allowed by the informed directors, former directors and members mentioned?

What sanctions for the involved director and current standing committee members should be recommended?

Should SCA Members ask Ann Small and Gerri Katz-Wolf to resign?

Should SCA members who truly care about Rana Goodman’s good name and those of others who have been defamed by this group write to the Mayor and City Council and expose the long record of hateful behavior by certain signers of that letter?   Although the City Council is probably smart enough to recognize the defamatory intent of the letter, such a bogus letter should not be allowed to stand without being corrected–or get ready to see many more like it in the future.

By the way:

1.  Why were the names of Lanie and Joel Berg missing on the letter?   They were the ones most outraged at the board meeting and subsequently expressing hurt feelings at the original blog post.  Maybe this David Berman letter was just too disgusting for even their tastes?

2.  Why would SCA Director, Board Secretary, and NV Attorney (and former Henderson Assistant City Attorney and Henderson Judge Pro Tem) allow her name to be placed on that political attack letter if not to try to defame and seriously damage the reputation of Rana Goodman with the Henderson City Council–her former employer?  Imagine Ann Small trying to claim in front of a judge that she never thought of that aspect of the letter?