BUT WHAT WE SHOULD EXPECT IS A DEMOCRACY
The majority ACSA Board’s Scams, i.e. the Renovated Brassie Grille, and the Now Soon to Be Renovated Lakeside Pool, have plagued the community for several years now. Have the Residents been lulled into an Autocracy existence rather than a participatory community where all the Residents can have a dialogue and say in the direction of their neighborhoods, rather than be dictated to on what will occur and what will be spent?
We all know how the majority ACSA Board decided, on its own, without Resident vote, to spend well over $1M on, which had been a workable sports bar, as it had been intended to be. This amount of expenditure and debt had been foisted on the back of the Residents without discussion, like the Pool Matter, the majority ACSA dictates to the Residents what it will be doing and spending, with no community discussion with debate or reason. More on The Brassie Grille later and below.
First, let’s look at the Pool Matter. The following words from the ACSA President, during a LSP Committee Meeting, say it all on how the Pool Residents were to be handled.
- “A Reserve Study was never intended for the Lakeside Pool because it was going to be replaced.” That was a slip and shocker.
- “You’ll really like the renovated Pool Area; it’s going to be very nice.”
Do you hear these types of statements from a group working together on a project, or do you hear these words from a group that tells you what will be done without discussion?
As a review, almost two years ago, the following sequence of events occurred that changed the Lakeside Pool for all its Pool Residents.
- The ACSA majority fabricated a misrepresented story and presentation through its selected and enlisted Pool Resident shills and henchmen, at an ad hoc Pool Neighborhood Meeting. The intention of this meeting was to establish the past and original LSP Committee was negligent in the care and maintenance of the Pool Area, which it had overseen with success for over 30 years.
- The accused original LSP Committee regrouped to address these overblown and misrepresented conditions of the Pool Area Bathhouse. A building inspection was ordered for the Bathhouse by this Blog writer, which the majority ACSA cancelled, and scheduled its own engineering report of the Bathhouse. This report revealed items that needed repair, and some speculation on some other items that proved to be non-issues. This Blog writer asked a building contractor to review the engineering report, and to visit the bathhouse to propose a remediation, which the building contractor said was viable. A return visit to the Pool Area to gather measurements to craft a proposal was denied by the ACSA President. The majority ACSA Board had their own plan for the Pool Area, and would not hear of any other approach for the remediation.
- What followed was that this Blog writer, on the original LSP Committee, and who was responsible for ordering the building inspection and who enlisted the building contractor, was summarily removed from the LSP Committee for interfering with the ACSA. This action was obviously intended to “kneecap” the Committee, which resulted in some other members resigning.
- As a result of this bogus accusation of negligence and interference, the ACSA majority further strengthened its push to take over the Pool Area, by using Aquarina By-Laws to justify taking over maintenance from the Pool Neighborhoods for them being negligent and not performing their maintenance of their amenity, i.e. the Pool Area. The ACSA removed the LSP Committee from its 30 plus year oversight of the Pool Area, and appointed its own selected group of agreeable Pool Residents, including the shills and henchmen, with whom it felt could appear to be a representative supportive group from the Pool Neighborhoods. Those other Pool Residents, who saw through this whole scheme of made-up untruths, and who placed themselves to be chosen for this new LSP Committee, including this Blog writer, were readily dismissed as candidates to be chosen by the ACSA majority. Those candidates that presented themselves as ACSA advocates, and the shills and henchmen, were readily endorsed and placed on the new committee.
- The shills and henchmen took control of the new LSP Committee, and decided that the whole Pool Area should be demolished. Remember, the ACSA President stating that the Pool Area would not have a reserve study because it was going to be replaced. The shills and henchmen were non-professional and unlicensed laymen, and were not licensed pool and building contractors, but they were effective shills and henchmen to drive the Pool Area takeover by the majority ACSA.
- LSP Committee Meetings followed where the Committee was TOLD what would happen at the Pool Area. Bids were requested for the ACSA determined remediation of the Pool Area. Bids were not shared with the Pool Residents. Interestingly, expected bids did not occur. I was called to find out about the building contractor that I enlisted in the beginning of this process. He told me me that he could not work out a bid with the ACSA Board. Not surprising, since he was the contractor that could have done a repair and restore, at a fraction of the now $300,000 cost, which the majority ACSA Board wants to pursue, e.g the Bathhouse will be about half the size of the current one that will be demolished. The demolishing tripled in cost from a year ago, and if you take $150,000 of the $300,000 cost for the Bathhouse, it comes out to about $500 per square foot, more than a square foot cost for a single family house in Aquarina. It’s a bathroom!
- We were told that a builder was chosen among two bids, and the difference between the two bids was $10K. You are told this when the chosen bid is $10K more than the competing bid. Surprise – the chosen bid was a contractor, who is a long-time friend of an ACSA Director. Wonderful, so an ACSA Director provides a “favor” to a friend at the Pool Residents’ cost and expense.
- More disturbing is that the shills and henchmen enlisted by the majority ACSA Board to sabotage the original LSP Committee, now have their units for sale and are leaving Aquarina, except one of them, who, as a leaving Resident, is spear heading the Pool Area remediation debacle. Does a “hit and run” attack sound familiar here.
Again, a quick recap.
- An ACSA decision is made to take control of the Pool Area from the Pool Residents.
- Shills and henchmen are selected from the Pool Residents to discredit the long standing LSP Committee (30 years of successful oversight).
- An overstated, misrepresented, and alarmist presentation to the Pool Residents on the condition of the Bathhouse was conveyed at a Pool Resident Meeting.
- The ACSA ‘kneecapped” the LSP Committee with demands and removal of its members, and accused the Committee of negligence with maintaining the Pool Area, thereby creating a false situation to cause a takeover from the Pool Residents of maintaining the Pool Area.
- The disbanded LSP Committee had simultaneously ordered a Bathhouse professional and licensed inspection, and had a licensed building contractor read the engineering report on the Bathhouse, and tour the Bathhouse to determine a remediation. The ACSA cancelled the inspection and would not allow the building contractor to return to the Bathhouse to gather data to craft a bid for its remediation.
- What the building contractor was able to determined was that the Bathhouse could be remediated within two weeks for safe use, and the roof be professionally tarped until the scheduled roof replacement occurred. The Pool itself was functioning for use. The cost for the remediation was a small fraction what the majority ACSA has now decided to spend on the Pool Matter.
- The previous and unfounded concerns with a sinking pool, mis-sloped pavers, and the off level pool gutter, were Pool characteristics for decades without incident. In addition, Pool applications for resurfacing the Pool shell, and lifting all the pavers to investigate the bottom of the Pool, are all indulgences that are not needed, as confirmed by Pool contractors.
- The reality is that the Pool’s minor Matters and the Bathhouse repair and restore could have occurred last fall within a two week period. Instead the majority ACSA Board decided against the cost effective fix, and kept the Pool Area closed for now 18 months. During this time the shills and henchmen of the new ACSA LSP Committee did minimum maintenance, and the Pool Area never looked as bad as it has during these past 18 months. Fortunately, some of the newly ACSA appointed LSP Members have made efforts to restore the Pool Area.
- Further, the Pool Residents voted to discuss and consider the repair and restore for the Pool Area matters that the building contractor said could be completed within two weeks, back last October. A majority of the Pool units responded (70%) to an email vote; and all voted “yes” for this alternative path for the Pool Area. The majority ACSA Board ignored this voted request, and blithely said “we don’t support this approach” with no explanation. This cost effective and efficient approach was apparently not the majority ACSA Board’s agenda, regardless of what the majority of the Pool Residents wanted, who are the ones paying and maintaining. AUTOCRACY IS AT WORK, NOT DEMOCRACY.
- Probably the final blow to the Pool Residents has been the choosing of a contractor to address the majority ACSA Board’s decisions on the Pool Matter. It apparently occurred that contractor bids became surprisingly difficult to solicit, and finally two bids were offered. We were told there was a $10K difference between the two bids. When that is said you can count on the higher by $10K bid to be chosen. Oh yes, it appears that the contractor selected has been a long-time friend of one of the Board Directors. About $30K for the Bathhouse demolition, which tripled in cost over one year, and $300K for the Bathhouse and Pool total renovation, all not required or needed. At $150,000, one half of the $300K, comes out to under $500 per square foot for a bathroom. A new Aquarina single family home can be built for that cost, and the new Bathhouse will be nearly half the size of the current one.
The Brassie Grille scam has similarities to the Pool Matter, e.g. when loan money became difficult to secure from banks for construction costs and added overruns. The majority ACSA Board decided to secure funds by seeking loans from the Residents. Surely the Residents behind the Brassie Grille expansion could be convinced to finance overruns if the Residents would payback these loans at an attractive interest rate. Imagine, the cabal secures their expanded restaurant by lending to the Residents for the Residents to pay for the cabal restaurant, and the cabal enjoys a payback with their loan AND INTEREST. Have the Residents seen a lease with the current restaurant Tenant at the renovated and past Brassie Grille? I’m sure the Residents did not come to Aquarina to be in the restaurant business and the construction business.
An Autocracy demands from its constituents, and the constituents obey, as exemplified by increasing maintenance fees and costs for indulgences, to be paid without discussion, as it is here in Aquarina. However, there are communities where discussions occur and votes are taken, a democracy. An HOA is meant to serve its Residents and maintain the community as it exists, to be secure and functional. It is not meant to be a self-serving body to promote its selfish agenda by spending the Residents’ funds with recklessness and abandon.
BTW – Florida provides an avenue to address a rogue majority Board of Directors. See the forms above.