Month: June 2020

At this juncture, in this Blog’s continuous commentary on our Aquarina community, we all know that there are basically two descriptive groups of Residents, they are the social cabal of golfers and their following, and the rest of us, who are not part of this fraternity. Normally, in a community like Aquarina, where varied activities are offered, e.g. golf, tennis, beach, river, etc., it would be expected that social groups emerge from each of these recreational offerings.  However, in Aquarina, the golf group has selfishly taken over the control of the community through the Board of Directors and its cabal following, who in turn have used, in large part, the finances for their own purposes, and have decided what Aquarina will become.

An active community like Aquarina, with all its amenities, requires prudence with both its maintenance for these amenities and an accumulation of reserves to eventually repair and possibly replace these amenities. This is not happening in Aquarina as it should. Why? There are several reasons. They are:

• AGI (Aquarina Golf, Inc.), an entity that the Residents fund, soaks up $100’s of thousands of dollars annually for the golf course operation, the Brassie Grille, the tennis operation, and countless social events. There is no transparency of accounting for these AGI expenses that show specifically how these expenses are derived. Having a Board of Directors controlling these expenses with no transparency certainly opens up the possibility of collusion and begs the question – what are you hiding? It’s our money!
• State Statutes spell out that Residents of an HOA are owed and have the right to access and see how every penny of their funds are spent. We are told by the Board, and specifically, the recent past Board President, that there is no obligation to show the Residents the spending of their funds with AGI – What?! A Resident has filed a lawsuit to gain access to the specific spending. This recent past Board President is fighting against this request. The attorney(s) costs to defend this refusal of transparency is being paid by the Residents’ funds.  Again, What?!
• An HOA Board has the fiduciary responsibility to be far-sighted with the Residents’ funds. It seems reasonable that a prioritized schedule of community items would be addressed, e.g. first, pay all financial obligations, and second, provide funds to keep up maintenance, repair, and replacement matters for infrastructure, buildings, and amenities, etc.  Have you noticed how OUR golf course has been embellished rather than maintained?  $100’s of thousands of Residents’ dollars have been spent on these embellishments on a money losing golf course operation.  This discretionary spending has eaten up our reserve funds that are meant to be used for more dire needs, e.g. the Aquarina entrance and for beach club maintenance, where the whole community benefits.
• The Kahama beach property settlement was to provide funding for a community pool.  Can we trust the current Board to use those funds for a community pool based on the Board’s reckless use of the Residents’ funds on embellishments for the golf course, e.g. new white sand bunkers, a new golf equipment wash station, a renovated maintenance yard, an irrigation well, and rebuilt tee boxes? What say did the community have in these new golf amenities?  

The hopeful community pool should be a project where the whole Aquarina community has input. Sure, there should be a committee to come with pool designs and costs.  However, these findings should also be presented to the community to decide on what kind of pool should be built. Costs and renderings of the choices need to be presented to the Residents for comments for a voted decision. After all, we’re looking at a $350,000 to $400,000 expense; money that should already be in the Aquarina bank account to spend.

Email communication on the pool process should be provided to all the Residents with full transparency for full participation in making a pool choice. Will it happen? Not based on previous spending decisions, but community participation should start now.

• Folks, the Board needs to oversee and practice its fiduciary responsibility with our funds, and not develop the community to its selfish desires. Development or changes to Aquarina are a full community decision, and not a Board cabal decision. The Board should interview professionals to run The Brassie Grille, the tennis facility, and certainly the golf course. There are self-serving and collusion temptations, which allegedly may have already occurred, with these AGI businesses. I am sure there are professional companies and/or individuals that run tennis facilities, golf courses, and restaurants, who would pay a fee to and/or rent from our HOA, for the use of these AGI business amenities. Have the professionals run the risk of loss or not from operating these AGI businesses, not the Residents. The Aquarina HOA can then collect rent and fees, rather than struggle and lose money with these businesses, which has been continually happening, at the Residents’ expense.

However, there is a choice for the current Board, either to release its hands from the Residents’ funds and AGI, forego the choice to selfishly spend these funds, and rather provide engagement to the Residents, where funds could be spent democratically for the whole community, OR continue what we have now, a selfish cabal with its own agenda, and not a community agenda, where the community, as a whole, is neglected.  Will there be a Board morality to decide serving all, or will there be a selfish continuation of deciding to serve the cabal leadership as Board henchmen?

As we know, the Aquarina Board of Directors along with the ex-Board President’s behind the curtain puppeteering, continue their laid out agenda of embellishing the golf course and golf’s accompanying social events as a Board priority along with the private use of AGI as a means to this agenda. Let’s look at some questions about some recent past occurrences that show how the Board’s lack of transparency to the Residents is growing and not diminishing.

• Did you see the 10^th Hole sign last week stating that golf cart staff are not available due to the Corona Virus?  That’s all there is to say! Wouldn’t you think that sign opens up a huge venue of questions and answers to the community. But no further explanation or follow up.
• The golf course’s back nine has been closed for three months. The explanation is basically “tuning”.  This is the Residents’ golf course. Shouldn’t we be apprised as to specifics of the tuning and the cost? BTW – how did the front entrance get bypassed for a tuning?  The front entrance has been waiting 35 years for an uplift, which serves the whole community.  There is always the Board excuse that reserves need to be built toward addressing the entrance; however, reserves always seem to be available for golf matters.
• We received an email the other day that Brassie will be closed for unforeseen circumstances. Period.  Gee, our community restaurant, that we subsidize, is closed for unexplained reason(s). Yet another venue of questions and answers for the community to only guess about. People eat there!
• A sign on the door has closed the golf course for this week.  Why?
• The entrance gate has been open for the past week.  There has been no explanation what needs to be done to repair it; there has been no explanation on how long it will take to correct. Will it be back in operation today? With our current national crisis, an operational gate may offer some deterrence, instead of continually being open as an invitation to all for entry.

Aquarina is in desperate need of professional management, rather than depending on a group of individuals with a selfish agenda for themselves, and who see Aquarina’s immediate needs as an afterthought to address.  What may be seen is a selfish cabal poaching the Residents’ fees at their will for what this cabal perceives as business as usual, since an alternative community voice to their actions continues mute.

You would think that there is an opportunity with a Board of Directors’ election process that maybe a change could occur in the direction a community was going.  Well, with Aquarina’s past Board of Directors’ elections, the cabal of golfers and their accompanying partying socialites made sure the results of these elections would keep the direction of the community on their track. The social pressure here is such that anyone with an alternative view of how Aquarina should be managed, would be ignored, discouraged, and silenced.  Just look at the last two annual elections, the number of candidates was the exact number to fill the vacancies.  The cabal, and its leader (the most recent last Board President, i.e. ex-president), made sure that the right candidates would be selected, counseled, and then encouraged them to run. To cement control, the ex-president told this processed group of new directors to create a new position, an Officer of the Board, who would be a past Board President. Hmm. Have you noticed how this new Officer (the past Board President) sits at the Board table and directs the meeting, like a puppeteer with marionettes?

I have engaged in a dialogue with one of the Board Directors, and explained concerns, as this Blog has been doing for the past two years. There was a cordial response; however, direct questions were ignored and any explanations were not applicable to any of my queries or positions. You see folks, the ex-president’s cabal, of acolytes, disciples, and now marionettes, have become so emboldened by doing want they want without recourse, that Aquarina is now theirs to fashion with their wants and pleasures.

What cannot be denied is what has occurred in Aquarina these past few years at the hands of a Board that is obviously still in control of our community and our quarterly dues, of nearly $1.5M per year. This amount of yearly money is meant, by law, to be overseen in a fiduciary fashion and to serve the WHOLE community. It is not intended to primarily fund AGI (Aquarina Golf, Inc.), its subsidiaries, and social events, for a selfish cabal of golfers and partyers. Let’s look at what has been spent from the Residents’ quarterly dues without a community discussion or vote.  Some of the notable expenditures were:

• Our gym was moved to a new, yet inferior, location.
• The gym’s new location had to be constructed.  Construction occurred without initial permits.  Now there is talk of moving it back to its original location.
• The Community Clubhouse was changed from a comfortable lounge area to a meeting hall to accommodate cabal rallies and parties.
• A washing station was purchased to clean golf equipment.
• A well and irrigation system was contracted to be dug and constructed to irrigate the golf course. Oh BTW – the Residents were snowed on how irrigation costs would be saved with a well, but it was never mentioned that Aquarina Utilities, Inc. would request a significant increase in rates for potable water to make up for the lost golf irrigation revenue.
• The golf maintenance yard was renovated to an upscale level.
• Sand Bunkers were reconstructed and embellished with “white” sand.

Keep in mind, the golf course is a money losing operation, sure it needs to be maintained as a community asset, but not embellished with a well system, new and indulgent equipment, a redone maintenance yard, and fancy bunkers, especially when there are other areas of the community that are crying out for attention, repair and maintenance.  They are:

• This Blog has pounded the need for our Aquarina entrance to be uplifted from its disrepair and despair. It’s the entrance to our community for all to see and a tone to be set for entering Residents and visitors.  This impacts everyone.  It’s 35 years worn.

• The Beach Club is use by more residents and has the most consistency of use than all our amenities, yet it shows wear because of its use and because of its beach location.  The deck and all stairs need wood treatment to prevent premature splintering and cracking, which already is showing in many places. The stairs should have end caps to prevent splintering and provide surer footing.  The sea grapes are way over grown, which impacts the views for which folks go to enjoy from the deck.  Showers should be installed at the bottom of each stairway crossover by the parking area.  Daily maintenance should be done to clean up the beach crossover areas, to wash down Beach Clubhouse windows and deck furniture, and to sweep sand off the steps by the beach for better stair footing. An Internet camera should be installed for the Residents to check on their beach conditions.  

• Our Reserves need to be implemented as Reserves are intended, i.e. accumulate funds for repair and replacement, and not indulgent betterments, like we have seen with golf course amenity acquisitions.  BTW – funds are only now being addressed for roadways with a five year window to reach a funding level that can be applied.  Again, the community entrance is not being seen as a priority as it languishes.

Resident funds are spent to the levels of $200,000 to $300,000 and more yearly to subsidize AGI. These are funds that can be used for Reserves to address community needs. Yet Residents are refused by the Board to see financials of how these funds are spent.  Have you ever seen a budget for the golf course operation and Brassies? These businesses should be run by hired professionals and be self-funded, and not run by amateur Resident wannabes where collusion may run rampant with the cushion of our subsidies.  

The Board ex-president has been heard to say that Aquarina is the cheapest place to enjoy the golfing lifestyle in Florida.  I wonder why?