Aquarina Townhall Blog

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? 

Amongst all the partying, volunteering, playing, and socializing, there is also the brick and mortar of the community, i.e. its infrastructure, its landscaping, its homes, and its entrance, and what is expected when this entrance to our community is seen for the first time.  It is a reflection of how the community and its HOA oversees itself. After all, the folks are paying to be in a community with an expected maintained and attractive entrance, with all its amenities, other than a community without these perks.

There are several other HOA communities that have a “statement” entrance, and all of them show pride in their appearance, i.e. they display an ongoing maintenance policy, e.g. well irrigated green grass and shrubbery, and pressure washed monuments and roadways.  BTW – the fees of these communities are much less than in Aquarina, even when factoring in amenities, which they do not have to the extent as Aquarina. But unfortunately, in spite of its stature and higher costs, Aquarina falters and lags behind these other HOA communities in its “statement” entrance. Just glance at these other entrances when driving down Hwy A1A to your Aquarina home.

The Aquarina entrance has not been changed since its inception in the mid 1980’s, and it shows its age not only in style but in its tired condition.  The photos below attest to this perception. As you know, the golf course appearance, and the golf infrastructure and its support mechanisms have been improved from our funds.  Why is our entrance, which impacts the whole community ignored? As this Blog has continually expounded, our community and its Board have been hijacked by a selfish and self-serving cabal of folks whose agenda is for a golf oriented social community. This cabal has blind eyes to Aquarina’s total amenities and needs, where a measured application of effort and funds should be allocated, e.g. Aquarina’s dying entrance, which is the curb appeal for our whole community. The entrance can add to our community’s value or it can detract from our community’s value. At this time, our community’s value has been diminished because of neglect and being ignored by a Board which has the fiduciary responsibility to maintain it.

Some of the immediate items for remediation are:

• The irrigation system needs to be totally checked for repair and replacement.
• New sod is needed where existing grass areas are dead.
• The Entrance monument area needs new colorful planting and precision cutting. Maybe a water feature can be installed in the future seen by passing motorists and the general public.
• The monument lettering needs repainting or replacement as does the signage at the entrance to the golf club.
• The roadway pavers need pressure washing, resetting, and in some areas, replacement, e.g. spilled tar and paint cover them. In addition to the presentation, aren’t you tired by the bump, bump, bump, as you drive through the entrance? It’s annoying and cries out for fixing.
• The electric lighting should be totally checked for repair and replacement.
• Roadways need to be black top coated and gutters pressure washed.
• Re-striping of the roadways is needed.

These remediation efforts will serve the whole community by adding value not only to the community at large, but to the community’s home values too.  BTW – the cabal Board voted to put off roadway work for future years.  What happened to providing and funding yearly reserves for the remediation items listed above? Our nearly $1.5M of paid yearly fees for the Board’s Budget is spent, not on building our reserve funds, for what is desperately needed, but on splash for the golf course, and subsidizing the golf business, the restaurant, parties, and events.

Coming soon with media evidence of disrepair. Board negligence of their fiduciary and serving responsibility to the community continues other than their pandering of political correctness.

Communities, with HOA’s like ours, craft By-Laws by which a community is guided, in a fair and democratic manner, for it to operate for the betterment of its Residents, similar to our country’s Constitution. A Board of Directors is voted in by the community’s Residents to have a fiduciary relationship with these Residents and serve its needs, per Florida Statute Chapter 720. Do we have this expected and legal arrangement in Aquarina.  Let’s see.

Aquarina’s By-Laws include Article 5; Section 1, which speaks about the Board of Directors. It was amended, years back, to increase its original number of three Directors to seven Directors, when the Developer, at the time, left.  It was also determined that no more than two Directors could be from the same sub-association or neighborhood. This By-Law states that the maximum number of Directors was to be nine, and any change up to nine requires an amendment.  BTW – when an amendment to change, add to, or delete a current By-Law is determined to be needed, a quorum of the Residents is called and a majority vote is then required for the amendment to be added to the By-Laws. 

Aquarina recently had a change (or maybe not as you read on) to its Board with the default election of four candidates to fill four vacant Director Positions because of term limits. Only four Candidates applied, and filled the vacancies. How did that work out?

The Residents were notified by mail that four positions were to be filled to complete a Board of seven Directors (three still had terms left), as how it always had been. But when we look at the Aquarina Website and sign in, what appears, among other features, are the names of eleven Board “Members”, and not Directors. Hmm. There is a Board of seven Directors per our By-Laws, but they are now sub-noted as such on the Website. There never existed Board “Members” before. The seven duly elected Directors are now joined by four additional non-elected and listed “Members”, for a total number of eleven individuals on the Board, but not per our By-Laws, which states seven, by voted amendment.

Who are these four added “Members”, i.e. non-elected, and you could call, de facto Directors? One is the past President, one is the past Treasurer, one is an attorney, and the other is a developer. Yikes. This recent past President led his cabal for a personal agenda in our community, as this Blog has long explained. The past Treasurer supported this effort. This attorney, selected by the past President, will he expect to be paid (our funds)?* A recent past Director, an attorney and Resident for decades, and who provided pro-bono advice, was by-passed for the attorney position. Why? The developer, who owns significant parcels of property in Aquarina on which to build, would seem to have more of an interest in his personal agenda for development in Aquarina (which is understandable), than as a Board Member with an interest to have a fiduciary and serving relationship with the Residents. Something is brewing.

What can we surmise?

• Our By-Laws state seven Board of Directors, but By-Laws be damned, and the cabal decided on eleven, which is presently in place. Keep in mind, these four additions to the Board were NOT elected by the Residents, but placed, certainly by the past Board President, who can be seen now as the de facto President, unless the named President, a recent new Resident, behaves otherwise to a position he accepted.
• We have one Director and two de facto Directors from the same neighborhood (Ocean Dunes), and one de facto Director from three neighborhoods he owns (through Mad Associates LLC and Kahama VII LLC).  Remember, two Directors, i.e. now “Members”, from one neighborhood is the limit.
• These acts of change were without a call to the Residents for an amendment vote, to approve these acts of change, or not. They were just boldly done. This cabal is emboldened to do what it wants since it knows that Resident recourse is nonexistent.

Remember what was said about an HOA Board of Directors, directly from the Florida HOA Statute Chapter 720, “The Board of Directors is to have a fiduciary relationship with its Residents, and exists to serve them.”

On the surface we have, what appears to be a happy, giving, and friendly community, which is fine, but what lurks below this surface of contentment is a cabal practicing a selfish agenda for its group, ignoring the needs of the whole community.  These needs, which have been explained in this Blog, still exist and continue to be neglected.

Oh yes, and then there is the non-transparency with AGI finances, yet another arrogant hit to the Residents.

* It is interesting that the Board needs an attorney as a sitting “Member”, and a non-Resident “Member” at that. A Board participant, “Member” is required to attend Meetings and read emails, documentation, etc. Will there be an attorney fee now for such actions?  Hmm. Article 5; Section 14 of our By-Laws states that a Board Director, now also “Member”, cannot accept any pay for provided services.  Aquarina never in decades had a sitting attorney on the Board. Why now?  BTW – this is the attorney who the past Board President (now Board “Member”) had the Residents pay for to defend his refusal to provide a Resident’s request for financial data on AGI.  The lawsuit is ongoing with the attorney clock running.  Guess who is paying the attorney? We, the Residents are paying. There is liability insurance, sure, but certainly there is a deductible, and a higher premium payment coming upon renewal. It’s crazy, we are paying to defend a Board “Member” for refusing to be transparent with our funds.

A discussion of this question shall be Posted very soon. BTW – Resident visits to AnAquarinaVoice.com is nearing 50,000 visits in the last 18 months to date.

Brevard County has directed that there shall be no socializing on its beaches, other than walking, swimming, paddle boarding, surfing, fishing, etc., i.e. individual activities, which do not encourage a gathering, and no use of chairs to encourage a gathering.

Yesterday, a beautiful beach day at our Beach Club, appeared, right below the south stairway to the beach, a group of 10 or more young folks, their chairs in a snug circle, with a tent nearby for more folks to congregate. These young folks, more than likely guests or children of our Residents, were actually and selfishly putting the Residents at risk by not practicing a quarantine procedure, i.e. social distancing, especially since their selfish behavior was right at the beach landing of the stairway access where the beach goers enter the beach.

Have these young folks not heard of social distancing to avoid the spread of possible infection from the ubiquitous Virus?  Are they aware of the Virus?  And if they are aware, then do they realize their act of insouciance behavior is not only selfish, but disrespectful.  Where are the parents and hosts for these youngsters?  Aquarina Beach is private for its Residents, and we deserve to control our environment for the well-being of ourselves, especially from non-residents, who have not been schooled to proper community and now a humanity protocol.

We all know the Board, with its tunnel vision for golf, considers the Beach Club a secondary, at best, amenity. Its appearance of neglect and its lack of oversight, has long been detailed in this Blog. The irony is, that among our amenities, it is used by more of the Residents than any of our amenities. How about the Board posting a notice at each of the beach accesses that no chairs and no socializing are permitted on the beach during the quarantine? Haven’t all the chairs been removed from the deck area?

Coming soon – why we need to remove the Board from its direct involvement in AGI, i.e. golf, the restaurant, and tennis, which results in a fertile ground for Board collusion with these entities, and where some Board Members have apparently hoped to gain back their “Glory Days” or to try again for “Glory Days” which they never were able to attain, with their bullying and selfish control of the AGI operation at the Residents’ expense.

The disservice to the Aquarina Residents continues with the non-elected and “appointed” candidates to the Board of Directors. Anyone, that espouses and participates with the current and now known future Board, submits themselves into the devil’s den, where “transparency” with the AGI financials continues to be Board ignored. The current Board President’s use of the alleged attorney opinion of not requiring transparency with AGI funds, is used as justification for this non-transparency.  As has been discussed on this Blog many times, and which now has become a Resident’s lawsuit against the Board to force AGI financial disclosure, the Board refuses to provide the detailed financials of AGI.  By Florida HOA Statute, All Residents’ funds spent are subject to disclosure to the Residents, i.e. from a penny to thousands of dollars, especially upon request,which has been denied.

The irony here is that the Residents fund AGI with 100’s of thousands of dollars every year.  Anyone who serves on the Board, and who remains silent on this financial abuse or agrees with this alleged attorney opinion, has taken the side of the current Board cabal, and its selfish and undisclosed use of the Residents’ funds. Whatever a candidate says or does is muddied by this Board’s transgression of non-transparency to the Residents, which makes each silent Board member complicit.  

Remember, a Board for a Community, has a fiduciary responsibility to all the Residents with the Residents’ funds. Why would a Board seek an attorney opinion to avoid and circumvent this fiduciary responsibility?  It is so blatantly obvious that there is spending occurring that is known to be disputably wrong, and untoward means have been created to hide this arguable transgression. BTW – the alleged attorney opinion to not disclose has never been revealed, even when there is a request for its existence.

A last word, the current Board and soon the new, yet in essence, same Board, has been emboldened to do what it wants, i.e. carry out their own selfish agenda with the Residents’ funds, regardless of the fact that this agenda serves a few and not the whole of the Aquarina Community, and, unfortunately, the Board’s self-serving behavior is encouraged by Community complacency and maybe denial. The Board knows this, and will continue with its unhindered and selfish policies, smiling among themselves in self-satisfaction and smugness.  

It’s obvious, from the candidates for the Board of Directors, that all were, as their submitted self-summaries attest, advocates of the previous Board’s policies and behaviors, i.e. where Board “Developer” actions take precedence over Board “whole Community” actions.  Vacancies for the four Directors will be filled with the four only candidates, who obviously were selected and groomed by the previous Board majority.  No election is required. The agenda of “Developer” projects the new Board will tout for the Residents will not be for the whole Community, but for the Board and its disciples and acolytes. Maintenance, repair, and reserves, which serves the whole Community, and is the Board’s fiduciary duty, has been continually neglected for, instead, Board “Developer” projects, i.e. golf, and AGI subsidies for parties and events.

The once and previous Community Pool, was taken away by a previous Developer for selfish reasons. Will this occur again?  Not one candidate mentioned the Community Pool, which is the biggest project Aquarina would have for the WHOLE community in decades.  A signed agreement is in place for the deposited funds, about $350,000, for the pool to be done. This is an exciting event for the whole Community.  All Residents would benefit from the pool, even if some did not use it, since it would become a whole Community attraction.  Certainly the pool would be the most popular amenity other than maybe the Beach Club House area. Yet not one word from the four candidates about them looking forward to it, supporting it, and making it a priority to have it completed as soon as possible.  Not one word.

Instead, these candidates proclaimed how great the current Board has been, and how they hoped to continue its agenda, i.e. the agenda that recklessly spent our funds on selfish and “Developer” focused projects. Trust me, they’re salivating on that $350,000 sitting in our bank account. Other than the pool, the focus of our Board of Directors should be, foremost, maintaining the existing community it serves, and building reserves to repair and replace our amenities and infra-structure. We have a wonderful opportunity with the pool and its ready funding, but not one word of its existence from the candidates. Why? It could be because of a Board “Developer” agenda for self-serving spending rather for whole Community spending, and the taking of our $350,000.

If this signed for and promised Community Pool is Board ignored, it will be the hardest slap in the Residents’ faces yet.  This Pool can be a great way to bond the whole Community.  Weekly or bi-weekly announcements on the Pool’s progress would create a Community commonality of anticipation for this new pool amenity, though once taken away, it will now be returning. A rendering of the coming Pool and its Pool area could be displayed at the Community Club House, and this rendering emailed to the Residents. The Pool will uplift the whole Community, and it would be the best action for the whole Community the Board ever accomplished.

Next Post – the failure of the four current Board majority’s groomed and selected Board of Director candidates.