David Leader, the chair of the Templeton Area Advisory Group (TAAG), has officially resigned. Leader’s resignation came less than a week after he was sentenced for harassing his neighbors and just days after an eventful board meeting.
“Chaotic. Disruptive. Not very well handled.”
That’s how TAAG Board Member Murray Powell described the Aug. 20 board meeting before Leader’s resignation. At that meeting, Powell says three of Leader’s neighbors who have temporary restraining orders against him were in attendance.
Powell says one of the neighbors emailed the board ahead of the meeting, letting members know they would be present.
The meeting erupted when Powell suggested Leader leave.
“They have a TRO on Leader to stay at least 100 yards from each other, and so I believed that Mr. Leader had to leave,” Powell said. “He immediately interrupted me. We got in an argument.”
“It was a circus! It was a disaster, a complete disaster,” said Leader. “There’s no rule, there’s no order.”
Leader says that, after speaking with a commander from the sheriff’s office who was also there, he left the meeting and waited until the neighbors finished their public comments.
“She said, ‘You have every right to be here. You violated nothing. You’re not in trouble. But if I was you, I would err on the side of caution and leave until they’ve made their statements, and then you can come back in, because I can’t guarantee how a judge is gonna rule,’” Leader said.
In July, the 71-year-old pleaded guilty to one felony count of vandalism and seven misdemeanor counts of disobeying a court order after repeatedly violating a civil harassment restraining order protecting eight of his neighbors.
At that Aug. 20 meeting, in a 5-to-1 vote, the board passed new bylaws that would have allowed Leader to serve, even though he is a convicted felon. Powell was the only dissenting vote.
But after pressure from the board — one member even emailed Leader asking him to step down — Leader announced his resignation in an email to the board Wednesday.
“That whole thing was bringing a lot of drama! A lot of drama… and it’s like, this is just going to continue,” he said. “I need to get out of here. I need to just step away, so they can focus on the real issues, and the other issue is my attorney said, like the sheriff’s officer recommended, ‘Don’t take any chances, you don’t know what the judge is gonna say. Don’t go back, don’t go, just stop going.’”
Powell says he’s hoping to undo the change that was made to the bylaws, allowing a convicted felon to serve on the board.
