March 22, 2021
Opinion, by Tom Harris Associate Editor
Here is an update that recently came to the Sentinel’s attention. It is in keeping with the general philosophy of the Sentinel – which is to primarily ensure the people responsible for spending SCPOA members’ mandatory annual dues are held accountable for their actions. In addition, the newly elected Board members will surely want to be held to the same standards as they expect of others. This, and future articles in the Sentinel, will remind readers of those standards.
On January 17th, 2021, a public “In Person Meet and Chat” was held at the Dyer Lake Pavilion at the invitation of Karen Pullin, who was then a candidate and not yet elected to the SCPOA Board. A 78-year-old elderly gentleman, also a SCPOA member and pilot, was present. This member wanted to question previous statements made by Ms. Pullin in her candidate statement.
According to at least one witness located approximately 8-10 feet from the incident, and video footage, the following happened: another SCPOA member, years younger and much larger, attempted to stop the elderly member from talking. He did this through intimidation laced with profanity and threats (clearly heard on the audio). When the elderly member would not be silenced, the younger member assaulted *1 the elderly member by purposefully placing himself against or “…inches in front” of the elderly member; thus, violating his personal and social distancing space. The younger member then battered the older member by striking and shoving him to the ground. The witness statement and video footage were both filed with the El Dorado Sheriff.
True to form, Ms. Pullin posted on social media the next day and threw numerous accusations, insinuations and innuendoes at her opposition candidates who were in attendance. Yet, eyewitness accounts indicate that Ms. Pullin did nothing to stop the escalation of the assault incident at the event she organized. Given Ms. Pullin’s past behavior, Ms. Pullin may even have encouraged this attack.
It is my understanding that the SCPOA Board has been made aware of the incident. It will be interesting how the Board will handle this matter. Will Ms. Pullin do the right thing and recuse herself and let the Board handle it? Or will she use her newly acquired power as president and try to bury it? It will be interesting how this will play out. Stay tuned.
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*1Under California law actual physical contact is not required for an assault to occur, an assault occurs simply with the threat of physical contact. See https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displayText.xhtml?chapter=9.&part=1.&lawCode=PEN&title=8.
Community Blog 
In her “Candidate Statement” for the SCPOA board election, Karen Pullin ended her statement with the following: “There is an effort in our community to move beyond the squabbles that have split us over the years to find new and better ways to work together.”
Clearly, this effort is not led by Mrs. Pullin. As one of her first orders of ‘business’, she has now endeavored to create even more division and squabbles by proposing “closing the airport” on two dates for such things as a yard sale and farmer’s market, in complete disregard of the intended use of the airport, interference with access rights of various members, disregarding rational and reasonable alternative sites that have been used many times in the past, such as Dyer Lake or Trout Lake parking lot areas, and with the real purpose of further dividing the community and pitting members against members and subjecting the association to potential legal action. Numerous concerns have already been expressed, such as the those mentioned above, and including the risk of lack of a landing site for emergency life helicopters in the event of an emergency, or in the event of a fire, for which the airport is intended to be used as a staging area for Cal Fire and for emergency evacuation of residents, which would be an obvious logistical nightmare if such an event occurred while the runway is packed with vehicles, tents, tables, etc, for a yard sale or farmer’s market.
Clearly it’s just the start of misusing the airport for purposes other than it’s intended and historically exclusive use. We shall see if the Board heeds the concerns of various members about such a proposal or ignores those concerns and moves forward with such a plan, at our expense.
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