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?