Author: 9278surf

Congratulations to all for their efforts to bring to an end what can be considered a boondoggle over these past years of contention with this sale. It may have been considered bungled from its outset. However, there is an upside for the Aquarina Community. Coupled with the sale agreement was a commitment from the Board at that time of the sale that the funding arising from the sale would be used to build a community pool. The probable location would be on the vacant land by the parking lot for the Club House and the tennis courts.

A Community Pool commensurate in size to accommodate all of Aquarina would provide a tremendous boost to the value of our community. The huge caveat though is the past and current behavior of a Board that has a history of recklessly spending the Residents’ funds on its own agenda of wants and desires without a consensus of the community. The Board’s agenda of projects should contribute to the WHOLE community and not a segment of the community, e.g. golf.

May the $350,000 payment to the Residents for a pool be subject to Board meddling for its own purposes? May this $350,000 be spoken for by the current Board before a new Board will be voted in a few months from now? Hmm.

A lawsuit has been filed against the ACSA, by a long time Aquarina Resident, because of the Board President’s and his majority of Board Members’ refusal to provide specific financial records from the AGI.  Per Florida Statute, Chapter 720, ALL financial records from an HOA, when Residents’ funds are spent, must be available for disclosure to the Residents.  The Board President has refused to comply with this very apparent legal request. Mediation, rather than a lawsuit, was offered, and this too was apparently refused.  Wow!

What do we have here? The elected Board was given the fiduciary responsibility, the stewardship, and the entrustment of the Residents’ funds.  The Board President, rather following the letter of the law (Florida Statute, Chapter 720), says he has an attorney opinion that he can by-pass the statute to hide AGI specific spending.  Why would an HOA President or his majority Board want to hide expenses of the Residents’ funds?  Of course, having something to hide is the first reaction.

The irony of it all is that by the Board creating a lawsuit situation, for its own end, a huge attorney expense for the Residents will now follow to fund the President’s and his majority Board’s defense.  The Residents are literally being poked twice, i.e. once by non-disclosure spending, and again by paying for attorneys to defend this spending. Will Aquarina’s Silent Majority still remain silent?

Actually, there is a third poke, which this proactive Resident has caused with the lawsuit.  The third poke is not the taking of Residents’ funds, but a wake up poke to the Residents.

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More news coming on the beach property ongoing sale to Kahama VII LLC and the ongoing promised community pool.

An Aquarina Voice will be coming back soon with new community revelations. May reason prevail and a new beginning be on the horizon for Aquarina.

Long time resident Donna Capps is offering a beginners quilting class right here in Aquarina. See below for details.

The Board majority has spent nearly $200,000 of the Residents’ funds on basically newly installed sand bunkers throughout the golf course, and now Hole 14 is being considered for a new tee box to the tune of nearly $150,000.  Have you seen or heard of these expenses from the Board majority in the posted Board Meetings, where Resident spending should be aired and discussed?  Note, for example, that tennis court roof repairs, river dock repairs, and water fountain installation are broached at a Board Meeting, all minor expenses relative to the unspoken golf expenses.

BTW – sand bunkers are certainly near the bottom of the list of items to maintain on a golf course similar to the course we have at Aquarina.  The money spent were the Residents’ reserve funds which are mostly meant to maintain the existing community common elements, e.g. roads, curbing, irrigation, drainage, buildings, beach stairways and decking, the river dock facility, and landscaping, etc.  These common elements are crying out for better attention with their appearance and function, but are left wallowing in their abandonment for golf extravagances.

The presentation and the functioning of our common elements should be the priority of the Board majority, e.g. wood decking and stairs at the beach club area and at the river walkway area need yearly maintenance (e.g. an application treatment) to preserve their integrity and appearance.  Neglect will result in replacement before their normal lifespan.  Further, a suitable handrail at the south beach deck crossover stairway is way overdue as are suitable showers on these decks rather than a hand hose.  Showers commensurate for a resort community like ours and proper handrails will service more folks in the community than rebuilt sand bunkers and a tee box.

The Board majority selfishly spends the Residents’ Reserve Funds, meant for maintenance and repair, on toys for, in their mind – “our” golf course, leaving needed common elements to be ignored which lead to resultant failure.  But, oh, no problem, we’ll just levy an assessment on the backs of the Residents if the neglect of our common elements causes a preventable failure.

The current Board majority that is at the root of the reckless spending will have their terms terminate at the new Board of Directors voting this coming winter, 2020.  Trust me, the current Board majority will be cultivating new minions, acolytes, and disciples, to run in 2020 to continue the cabal hijacking of our community.  

However, Democracy will provide a means to vote in the next Board of Directors election, where new faces can emerge, who will see the servicing of Aquarina for the whole community and not just a small segment. Hopefully, a new group of community minded Directors will be voted in to save and restore Aquarina from its fall into a certain coming abyss of despair.

As our community continues to wallow in disrepair, and Board efforts and our funds are spent on questionable expenses, e.g. the golf irrigation well among other golf expenses, would it be appropriate that a vigilant Onsite Property Manager, who is allegedly well paid (BTW – do we know how much, which we have a right to know) have a weekly meeting with the other paid service folks in Aquarina, to discuss needed matters that should be addressed with regard to the presentation and workings of our community?

The discussions of what issues need to be corrected at these weekly meeting should be communicated to the Residents via email, as all the social events are announced.  This would be an excellent way for the Residents to keep apprised on the ongoing attention that should be exercised in maintaining Aquarina as a vibrant and well -presented community.

This Blog has called out the many concerns that continue without correction, e.g. the failure of properly maintaining the beach crossovers.  With the amount of yearly Residents fees (about $1.5M) that are available to keep our community sustained, certainly there is no excuse to have ongoing problems, not identified, not repaired, and not communicated to the Residents in a timely manner to let the Residents know that concerns exist and these concerns are known by our Board.

Which continues to be ignored is that the Board exists to serve the WHOLE community, with the priority of overseeing its presentation and mechanisms. The social aspect, though good, comes in second, and not first. 

Transparency, a popular euphemism now, does not exist at Aquarina, because it will expose the Board’s agenda and not a representative community agenda, where a rightly exposed Board agenda would most likely cause community outrage and rejection.  

For the past several days, there has been at least 1-3 inches of sand covering the bottom two thirds of the south beach crossover. This can certainly result in someone losing their balance walking down or up the stairs because of the instability that loose sand creates on the steps. Not having an additional and required second and correctly installed handrail, that was finally and recently installed at the north beach crossover, increases the change for someone to fall on these now unstable stairs. There already has been a serious fall at the north beach crossover.

The sand was deposited there by a turtle throwing sand when digging a hole for its eggs. The hole (crater) is along side the stairway, well up the dune. It is a natural occurrence. If the Board of Directors and the onsite Property Manager were doing their jobs of daily oversight within the community, then these piles of sand on the steps would have been shoveled and swept away. It’s interesting that we hardly ever see our self anointed President/Monarch and his onsite Property Manager minion tour the community to check on its condition to ensure the welfare and safety of its Residents or engage Residents for feedback. They stay sequestered in their place of residence or work carrying out the selfish Cabal goals; and not the goals for the whole community of Aquarina.

Hopefully, the steps were cleared of its present and clear danger to the Residents for the Fourth of July event yesterday.

As has been stated over and over again in this Blog, we are in a active resort community, where daily maintenance is required, like cleaning off the beach crossover steps and deck area, where daily use occurs. The same can be said of the river facility, where folks make daily use of the launch and walkway areas. All these facilities need daily inspections. After all, our Board of Directors have annual Resident fees in the amount of nearly $1.5M to spend on our behalf. There should be an effort to provide daily inspections to maintain the community and its amenities in a safe condition for the welfare of all of us.