An Inconvenient Truth - Unlicensed Bay Alarm Company - Message from the CAA President

[Nick Lawrence <nlaw@xxxxxxx>]

Group:
Here is a message from Jon Sargent, CAA President, along with my reply.
Got whitewash anyone?


Jon Sargent
CAA President

10-17-2006

This is not "going away".

The CAA has rules; Bay Alarm Company violated them. Bay Alarm Company
caused this problem, now they can't take the heat.

You (you personally, Jon) promised that you would take action if you got
more proof. I gave it to you; it re-affirms and proves each allegation,
namely that Bay Alarm Company was unlicensed. Its your turn to deliver
on your promise, and help show that the CAA can police its own and not
be just a "good old boys club".

You offered these additional thoughts (followed by my comments):

 >Below I have listed some of the thoughts expressed during the meeting.

 >The CAA Board is comprised of volunteers. It would be a monumental
task >for volunteers to thoroughly research the license status of every
 >current and future member. We rely on the state licensing entities to
 >insure that companies are properly licensed. According to BSIS records
 >Bay Alarm was properly licensed when Matt Westphal was elected as CAA
 >Northern Vice President.

Interesting, but the CAA Bylaws mandates this responsibility to the
Board, to ensure all members meet the minimum requirements for
membership. And, in this case, and with the grievances filed in July
2005, it has been proved that Bay Alarm Company was unlicensed from 2000
until 2006, so all the Board volunteers need to do its take action. The
fact that the Grievance Committee did not "thoroughly research" Bay
Alarm Company's unlicensed status and ignored the inconvenient truth of
the allegations does not make the allegations untrue or go away.

 >There is no proof that Bay Alarm willfully circumvented the licensing
 >process. Actually the proof is to the contrary. Chief Johnson admitted
 >that the BSIS very well might have given Bay Alarm erroneous
 >information regarding their license status.

Again, interesting, but Bay Alarm Company's motive is not the issue. The
issue is that the CAA is open only to licensed alarm companies, Bay
Alarm Company was unlicensed, and they (including their George Matthew)
lied about it. Thus, Bay Alarm Company, from 2000 until 2006 was
ineligible for membership.

 >Your current grievance is too similar to a previous grievance that had
 >already been resolved by the grievance committee.

Actually, if you read them you will see that they are substantially all
new grievances, based upon newly discovered facts and documents. The
fact that the Grievance Committee whitewashed the initial fact finding
in 2005, thereby "resolving" nothing except their own bias, makes it all
the more important that they open their eyes and do a truthful job this
time.

 >Even if the board so chose to take action the current By-laws only
 >allow the general membership to remove an officer from office. By the
 >time that were to occur, Matt Westphal would have already completed
his >current term.

There are other options, namely a finding can be made by the Board: that
(i) the grievances are/were factually correct, that (ii) Bay Alarm
Company was unlicensed from 2000 to 2006, that (iii) they subsequently
got licensed. Then we can all go home. The longer the Board ignores (and
thereby condones) Bay Alarm Company's wrongful acts, the longer the CAA
will continue to be the laughingstock of the industry.

This is not going away. And Bay Alarm Company operations are still not
properly licensed (more on that later as the documents arrive...)

And there are other regular members unlicensed during this same period.

Regards,
Nick Lawrence
911 Inc.


Sargent, Jon wrote (on 10-16-06):

 > Hi Nick,
 >
 > Although the grievance committee decided no further action was to be
taken, the full CAA Board of Directors was then provided with your
complete set of grievances prior to our Board meeting. After detailed
discussion the Board of Directors determined and voted that no further
action should be taken.
 >
 > Sincerely,
 > Jon Sargent, President
 > California Alarm Association