By Marshall Smith
Assistant Editor
and J.P. Crumrine
Editor

The Idyllwild Chamber of Commerce board of directors continues to try to reach some settlement with David Roy, according to President Chris Titus. After announcing they were considering dismantling and auctioning the monument, which the chamber had commissioned from Roy, Roy has made two separate settlement offers to the chamber, he said.

In the first, he was willing to release the chamber from any further lawsuits if the they “promise … to preserve the monument and to do no harm.”

He also offered to drop his claim for work preparing the sculpture for the dedication in July 2012.

However, he wanted a specific contract of equal value ($1,500) to do some current repairs, for example “to replace the red-tail hawk, the hiking stick and finsh the fingers.”

“I needed to find a way to end the feud,” he said. “I wanted to sign but they weren’t. I felt I was bending but they weren’t.”

The chamber’s attorney is attempting to reach Roy to discuss resolution of the issues involved. Should no resolution be reached before Thursday, chamber directors would again have to pay court filing fees in response to Roy’s latest lawsuit.

Roy has not heard from the other side and considers the offer dismissed.

“It’s [the monument] what I wanted for Idyllwild,” Roy explained. “I’m not asking for any money.”

Roy has circulated “David Roy and the Monument, My Side of the Story,” which the Town Crier has posted in its entirety here:MySide.

Roy claims he can provide evidence of the truth of all claims in his written statement — that the monument fund accounting, as claimed by the chamber board, does not add up and could be off by as much as $5,000, that the chamber misappropriated or embezzled monument funds and that Director David Jerome explicitly agreed, on behalf of the chamber board, to pay Roy to apply a sealant to the monument.

The chamber also claims they can provide full records and proof of their central claims — that the monument maintenance financial records account for all monies dispersed from the time of former director Ken Carlson’s presidency until the present and that the chamber did not contract with Roy to apply a sealant prior to the monument’s July 2012 dedication.

Nevertheless, Titus said the board offered to both Roy and Carlson to meet to discuss paying for the work Roy performed.

As part of Roy’s circulated statement, he acknowledges that Carlson is his lawyer, “helping me informally, since being a witness, he cannot be my formal lawyer in court.” Roy also notes conditions, were he to drop the suit, that require that the chamber “promise not to destroy the Monument and not to interfere with Gorilla Glue’s national advertising of it. Chamber would restore the missing Monument funds and make me the trustee over the monument and the fund.”

The Chamber board said it was considering the auction because of the burden of legal fees for two lawsuits Roy has filed against them, lawsuits the board maintains cannot be factually substantiated and are maliciously motivated.

Roy feels his 3-dimensiional carving attracts people to town and projects a good image.

Recently, he gave another work, a condor, to the San Diego Zoo and feels his reputation will grow overtime.

3 COMMENTS

  1. Tell you what … Roy never owned that monument, not from the first day he started work on it, and when made a deal with Gorilla Glue he opened himself to a bigger lawsuit than he can imagine. And Ken too as he probably worked out that contract. I would call Gorilla Glue and have them come watch it get chopped up. They are also party to fraud since Roy had no right to offer and then sell any benefit to something he did not own. Be done with his insanity.