Statement to the RA Board Governance Committee

On the Proposed Tetra Property Purchase and Renovation Review

Terry Maynard, Co-Chairman, Reston 20/20 Committee
June 14, 2016

Good evening, I am Terry Maynard, 2217 Wakerobin Ln, Reston. I am the Co-Chairman of the Reston
20/20 Committee and a former member of the Reston Citizens Association Board of Directors. I am here
this evening to discuss briefly the horrible terms of reference drafted for the so-called RA Lake House
Budgets Task Force and recommend an alternative approach.
The proposed RA task force fails in just about every way that it could:
To be independent as called for in the RA Board motion to create the task force. The
proposed task force is dominated by RA Board members. Only one hand-picked member of the
Reston community would be involved. Moreover, these Board members have consistently
voted to support actions involving the purchase, renovation, re-programming, etc. of the Tetra
property.
To be thorough as I expect both RA Board members and the Reston community expect the
investigation of such a horribly botched acquisition and renovation effort should be.
This task force must be carried out by people who have not been part of the process that led us to the
situation RA now finds itself in. That means either (or maybe both) work carried out by knowledgeable
Restonians not affiliated with RA, possibly including leaders of other community entities, or work
conducted by a well-qualified independent accounting firm overseen by someone outside the RA Board,
staff, or committees. Everyone affiliated with RABoard, staff, and committee membersis
potentially culpable in this debacle.
The task force must be expected to review all RA and Board activities since the initial contacts with the
Tetra property owners, which apparently began by 2010 when RA paid for an appraisal of the Tetra
property. Through a review of all appropriate records and interviews with participants, it must:
Describe all RA staff, committee, and Board financial activities, including those in Executive
Session, related to the Tetra property since the first contact with Tetras owners through at least
the May 2016 RA Board meeting.
Describe non-RA contemporaneous commentary and inputs on the proposed Tetra acquisition
and RA staff, committee, and Board consideration of those ideas or concerns.
Describe any non-compliance with RA rules (the deed, by-laws), policies, and procedures and
identify those that acted outside this framework.
Identify weaknesses and shortfalls in RAs rules, policies, and procedures that helped lead to this
situation.
Recommend actions to hold those accountable who did not adhere to the rules, policies, and
procedures or who otherwise made poor decisions.

Recommend improvements in RAs rules, policies, and procedures to help prevent the
recurrence of such a situation.
Recommend a further course of action in handling the Tetra property, including (but not limited
to) pursuing the current course of renovation and RA programming, selling the property, or
demolishing the Tetra building and turning the area into RA open space.
The task force should report on its progress at each monthly RA Board meeting and provide a final
report and briefing not later than the October 2016 RA Board meeting so that its findings and
recommendations may be considered in the 2017 RA budget process.

The community needs a truly independent and thorough review of what has transpired and proposals
how to proceed in a manner that will prevent the recurrence of this massive Tetra failure. We need this
not only to help assure the fiduciary responsibility of the RA Board, staff, and committees, but to help
restore the credibility of RA which has been so horribly undermined in this financial fiasco.