SIDE STREETS: The bigger the HOA, the bigger the fight?

In the past year, five officers resigned from the board of the Woodmoor Improvement Association. Some cited disgust with the petty politics they endured. Others described frustration over constant bickering, personality conflicts and ugly personal attacks.

A war between two camps ripped apart the board and threatens the day-to-day operations of the WIA, one of the largest homeowners associations in the state with its 3,000 homes - many custom in the $500,000 range - in the wooded hills around a golf course east of Monument.

Much is at stake in the conflict because the board oversees an annual budget of about $1.2 million, supervises a full-time staff of three plus a private security force of seven that maintain the WIA's 2,000 acres, its common spaces, fishing ponds and hiking trails.

Speaking out is a group of former WIA board presidents and long-time Woodmoor residents including John Ottino, Steve Malfatti and Beth Courrau, and former officers including Amy Smith, Terry Holmes and others. (Courrau is an information technology employee at The Gazette.)

They are upset with a group led by current president George McFadden, who moved into Woodmoor in 2005. He did not return repeated calls for comment.

The ex-officers say McFadden and his allies bully other board members and staff, creating turmoil over things like reducing dues, already among the lowest in the region at $209 a year.

"I wanted to make Woodmoor better," Malfatti said of his resignation as president a few months ago. "I got disgusted with the whole mess. Things were just getting worse. They are going to destroy the board."

Ditto, said Holmes.

"That faction wants to micromanage every detail instead of letting the professional staff handle things as they have for years and quite admirably," he said.

Smith quit after board meetings became "very aggressive and contentious."

"Meetings became hyper-focused on rules and regs, arguing over words, interpreting bylaws to death," she said. "It was not about giving benefits to the community and neighbors."

Ottino said the McFadden group indulges in personality attacks and is intent on firing the professional staff, especially Camilla Mottl, hired in 2000 as executive director of WIA.

For more than a year, Woodmoor resident Hilary Brendemuhl has tried to oust Mottl, accusing her of lying, résumé fraud and manipulating HOA elections. Mottl's résumé said she was a certified professional community manager when her certification had lapsed.

"The board knew it when she was hired," Ottino said. "She fully disclosed it. It was a nonissue."

Now, Mottl is supervised by William Brendemuhl, husband of her nemesis, Ottino said, and her days are numbered.

"They've said horrible things about her," Ottino said. "It's a shame."

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