Editorial...

November 2006

2007 Budget and Special Assessment

The proposed 2007 Budget and the proposed Special Assessment is now public. If you live behind the pearly gates your new basic assessment is $289.99 plus the gate costs of $59.20 for a quarterly assessment of $358.09. This is an increase of $39.84 per quarter or approximately 13% over last years assessment. A little over the real rate of inflation.

Fasten your seat belts, we will now show you the proposed Special Assessment for 2007. It is $764.64 per property owner to raise a total of $419,020.00. As I have told you, we were going to run a deficit of of between anywhere between $85,000 and $120,000. Well guess what, it is actually $183,020.00. Now add that to the proposed "improvements" of $236,000.00 for a total of $419,020.00.

I am not saying this is all good or all bad either, but I am only one property owner. That is for us all collectively to decide. Oh, I forgot, the Board of Directors does not need your vote as they have the power to decide these things for you. If you are in favor or not, please seek out your neighborhood representatives to voice your opinion and attend the meetings as it is your money.

So if you live behind the gates, the total damages will be quarterly assessment of $358.09 for a yearly assessment of $1,432.26 + $764.64 for a total of $2,197.00.

The spreadsheets have been posted in the 2007 Budget area for you to download.

The Night Free Speech Was Killed

WOW! What an Evening at the September 19, 2006 Board of Directors Meeting. First there was an argument between Don Cioffi and Gregg Ney. It ended when Don Cioffi was escorted out of the meeting by an off-duty police officer. You could tell there was tension in the air as President (who artfully engineered to get the 5 other votes) first voted to fire the Editor of the Newsletter, Colette Gonzalez, and then engineered a vote to have the Treasurer, John Gonzalez, dismissed. Why? Because we took her advice and posted her comments and edits on this website. (see the newsletter). It is quite apparent that the Board will not tolorate any dissension. What was aired is that the Board, as far as the newsletter is concerned, wants to publish a "Happygram." No bad news just happy, happy, happy. The Treasurer made the cardinal sin of publishing the dissension. So much for free speech!

CENSORSHIP - of the latest Association Newsletter
I do not know how many of you have heard that the President with many Board members agreeing have censored the latest Association Newsletter. In the Newsletter page, the details of the censorship will be clearer.

In essence, the President, with several Board members agreeing, has said that this is the Association's Newsletter and she will not approve the publishing of the Newsletter without drastic changes to its content. What, in essence, the Board really wants published is a "Happygram." The Editor, Colette Gonzalez, decided to let the property owners know what the Board has been up to. She has been attacked for her position. You can find out all the details on the Newsletter Page.

The Upcoming 2007 Budget
As many of you are aware, the Association will be running a deficit by the end of the year. What this means is, simply, that we spent more money then we have taken in. When given the opportunity to chose a new management company after the old one cancelled the Association, the Board of Directors decided to chose a new management company that was far more expensive than the old one, even though lesser cost alternatives were available, and chose to add a separate company for bookkeeping. Whether or not the Board had decided to split the accounting function in two is neither here nor there as if the Board had decided to give all the functions to the new management company the result would actually been a higher cost to the Association than splitting the functions.

Additionally, several projects which were not budgeted were proposed and approved by the Board. Namely: new street signs, pressure washing the roads, fixing the storm drains, and approving an new irrigation system for the berms around the entire perimiter starting at Country Club Pointe and exempting the property on St. Lucie West Boulevard.

Now, the above spending is the direct result of the several hurricanes that ravaged the Treasure Coast and caused severe damage to the entire Association as a whole except for the new irrigation system. I am sure that all of us remember them well.

The question is how to pay for the deficit and improve the infrastructure of the entire community.

Many on the Board want to pass the buck, so to speak, and take the money out of the Road or Emergency Reserve. An easy solution, but in essence we are doing is robbing Peter to pay Paul. I even heard of "borrowing" the money from the Reserve accounts and placing an IOU there. Others, want to take the deficit out of the "Equity" the Association has built up over the years, while others want to tack on the defict to next years assessment for 2007. Believe it or not there are a few Directors who want to borrow the money from a bank. Only one or two Directors out of the eleven what to have a "Special Assessment."

If you are wondering why not just have a meeting of the Membership and explain what the financial needs are and have the Membership vote on it? I am also amazed that there is not much support on the Board at this time for this solution.

I think when you scratch the surface, most of the Directors, who by the way have a fiduciary duty to the membership, are just playing politics. Some feel that if the Membership gets wind of the Special Assessment, then they may not be around after this years Board elections.

On the other hand, I think that the Board has too much power to spend your money, as well as, amend the basic documents (Bluebook) that the Association is ruled by. Believe it or not, the way the Documents are written, the Board has almost absolute power. Yes, six votes for a resolution is all it takes. To amend the Documents, while a little more difficult, it takes a vote of 75% of the Directors who represent the membership plurality.

Contact Your Neighborhood Delegate
We strongly urge you to contact your neigborhood delegate and urge them to vote for a a Membership meeting to get a chance to ask the Board the hard questions and then vote on a proposed solution to end our deficit financial position.