The Expense Review Put His Signature Beside His Missing Page

Thursday's board meeting took place in the Clay House's rented classroom because the garden shed had no heat. I charged the usual $25 room fee and asked June to put it on the agenda, where everyone could see it.

I had no wish to win a fight about hidden costs by hiding one.

Seven board members sat around our long table. I moved the drying bats to a shelf and covered the clay traps with a clean board. Blaine took the chair nearest the door.

Rhea began with the money.

"The six bills total $1,846.20," she said. "We verified the copies against the payment receipts Mr. Treadwell supplied. He did pay them. No association funds have been paid toward this request."

That mattered. I wrote it down as carefully as I had written the rest.

A board member asked whether we were accusing him of taking money from the treasury.

"No," Rhea said. "We are deciding whether to pay a request. Please don't put a larger claim in these minutes."

I looked at Blaine then. He had spent days making the largest claim he could. Rhea had just narrowed hers to what she could prove, and everyone had listened.

"The question is whether these were approved association expenses," she continued.

Blaine spread his hands.

"The fountain stands on association land. Everyone enjoys it."

"The gift terms assigned its water costs to you until a later vote."

"That was an early understanding."

June set the two-page agreement before each board member.

"We found no vote transferring the expense," she said. "We did find last spring's request."

She placed that motion beside it.

Denied, five votes to two. Blaine had received written notice three days later.

"I signed for a pile of papers," he said.

"You replied to this one by email," Rhea answered.

She read his reply without changing her voice: he disagreed with the vote, but would continue operating the fountain under the existing terms while seeking a new sponsor.

The room became very quiet.

I had brought my witness cone in my apron pocket. Under the table, I turned it between my fingers. It had no use at this meeting. I was simply glad it was there.

"Then the workshop increased the cost," Blaine said.

June laid down the utility report.

"That claim was investigated and closed."

"A technician spent an hour looking."

"She checked the current service and the retained installation record," I said. "You had the result before you requested reimbursement."

He faced me.

"You seem very pleased with yourself."

"I missed a market. My students wondered whether their sink was legal. No, I wasn't pleased."

One board member asked me why I had the installation report.

I passed over Esther's transfer sheet and the inventory I had made when I accepted the boxes. The association had recorded my storage offer in its minutes. The meter packet was item 38.

"He thought I was the young woman who wiped glaze off tables," I said. "I was also the person holding the neighborhood's original utility records. Those jobs fit in the same room."

Blaine tapped the table.

"Could we stop the performance?"

Nobody smiled.

Rhea asked him directly why the second page of the gift agreement had been left out of his request.

"I sent the page describing the public benefit."

"The other page described who agreed to pay."

He looked toward the window.

The board voted to deny the reimbursement request, six to one. June recorded the reasons, the dollar amount, and the documents reviewed. They invited Blaine to submit any later transfer agreement if one existed. He said there was none that he could produce.

Then they turned to my complaint about his conduct at the market.

I asked for three things: a correction from the association, a rule requiring evidence before a sponsor could seek a vendor's removal, and an end to his control over vendor complaints while the board reviewed his role.

"Do you want his job?" the lone dissenting member asked.

"I already have a job. It has enough dust."

Even Rhea laughed at that.

Blaine said he needed time to answer the conduct complaint. June checked the bylaws. As an appointed chair, he could be removed by the board after written notice and a chance to respond. They set a second meeting for the following Thursday.

Until then, another member would handle market matters. Blaine was told not to contact vendors on the association's behalf.

He left before the chairs were stacked.

After everyone had gone, I rinsed the teacups and watched brown clay settle in the bottom of the sink trap. My phone buzzed on the dry counter.

June had sent the formal notice and next week's agenda.

The last item read, "Vote On Removal Of Beautification Chairman Blaine Treadwell."