Fellow Investigators:

The CALI Annual Business Meeting (ABM) was conducted yesterday in Burlingame. Change was at the forefront of the challenge for a number of the officer positions. There was a record turnout for the ABM of 111 members. The membership in attendance voted the following:

President: Jim Zimmer 60% and Scott Stys 40% VP of Investigative Services: Justin Hodges 68% and Roy Howat 32% VP of Admin. Services: Jan Tucker 57% and Mark Adams 43% Voting by Mail: Passed

I congratulate the winners and candidates for their efforts and success.

These numbers reveal that the "old CALI guard" is still active and was activated to vote. From my perspective, there is no doubt that if voting by mail had been allowed this year there would have been a different outcome for President and VP of Admin. Services. To my personal disappointment, many eligible voting members have decided to leave CALI over the SB202 fiasco rather than take off a day and vote for change. The voting percentages reveal that even with the calling of the "old CALI guard" that a great number of members wanted and still want change. We hope the newly elected officers and board of director members will pay attention to what the membership is saying and will work to heal CALI's wounds. This means reaching out and doing more than is presently and has been done.

We hope the new board will take notice of what PICA members have said about SB202 in reaching their "OPPOSED" position. CALI has fallen short of giving their members a voice of opposition and this has caused unnecessary division and a loss of good membership, like Bud Houston from the Redding District where I'm informed that approximately 30% of their district is leaving CALI over SB202. I would like to point out that CALI District Director Sean Ditty has consistently voted against SB202 at CALI board meetings. Good going Sean!

There is no doubt that CALI's handling of SB202 has damaged the association. Every candidate statement and speech referenced and acknowledged the voice of the Opposition to SB202, Mandatory Continuing Education for Private Investigators. We hope the new board will convene and begin discussing the need to acknowledge the membership's needs and positions and begin to again serve the CALI membership first and their national association affiliations a distant second. And we hope that the new board will speak up if and when there is a conflict of interest between their competing affiliations and membership spending. CALI members must come first for CALI to thrive and be better.

SB202 is still coming down the legislative pike. The economy isn't improving. Our businesses are not thriving as they were a few years ago. We are not as a profession causing or creating any measurable consumer damage. We are not untrained or under-educated to maintain our professional licenses. WE are not Anthony Pelicano or the non-California investigators involved in the scandals referenced to support Mandatory Continuing Education. We are according to Connie Trujillo "9,991" licensed professionals doing our work and maintaining our integrity while the unlicensed prey upon our reputation and income sources.

SB202 is poorly written and will cause more damage than the photo identification cards have. SB202 can and should be pulled and everyone can still save face and move forward in these troubling times together. It's really time, isn't it?

As CALI, we can and should be doing better for the membership and the majority of our membership who either support or oppose to SB202.

Sincerely,

Rick von Geldern

Addendum:

You can and should also go to: http://www.statesurge.com/bills/490984-sb202-california and post your thoughts about SB202 on the State site. Lawmakers do look at it and posters for the most part make very intelligent and reasoned posts about the shortcomings of SB202.

On this site you can also view Frank Huntington, III's, my CALI District Director's attempted anonymous, yet disparaging post calling me a "liar" and everyone in opposition to SB202 a "moron" while eluding to an investigation of me by the Sacramento County District Attorney's Office. Since my lawsuit against the DA's office and the individual prosecutor was resolved, by agreement, I can only say that I am happy with the resolution. :-) But I can direct you to one cover story that makes for interesting reading about the prosecutor and how the lawsuit and investigation came about since Frank didn't, yet he is fully aware. By the way, the prosecutor no longer works for the DA's office or practices law.

http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/content?oid=9333

Frank, if you have anything on me - anything - please reveal it to the entire industry - front and center, okay? I encourage you to do more than call us morons and liars. Can ya?

Otherwise, quit yapping like someone's road-tired-pissed-off lap dog. But please, use your name with all the IIIs, CPI, and stuff that make you who you are when you call the people you were elected to represent "liars" and "morons". Can ya?

I am also formally registering a complaint for Frank's post to the CALI Board of Directors and Ethics Committee and think any other of us "morons" should do the same. Chris Reynolds, are you listening? And in doing so, I am publicly asking for Frank's resignation as a director of CALI, an apology to everyone and in the alternative, for the board to remove him from service for conduct unbecoming to the membership. Now, that would be leadership and a good sign that CALI treats everyone equally.

Thanks,