Aquarina Alert! Apparently More Financial Abuse of the Residents’ Funds Continues

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.

Some Suggestions for Our Onsite Property Manager

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.  

Yet More Irresponsibility in Aquarina

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.

The Golf Irrigation Well Boondoggle

The Board President continues the spin and spend policies that have been foisted on Aquarina and its Residents ever since his self-aggrandizing coronation, which he believed.  However, he and his acolyte and discipled Board (BTW – not every Board member is an acolyte and discipled, but the majority are) have financially scorched our community with selfish, unethical, and irresponsible spending actions. 

Now let’s talk about this well.

When the well is discussed, the first matter that should be addressed is Aquarina Utilities, Inc. (AUI). Have we heard anything about AUI from the Board when the well is attempted to be justified?  With this well, the argument will be from the Board that the AUI irrigation cost, which had doubled, will be gone. Really?

Remember that the Florida Public Service Commission oversees utilities, like AUI.  The commission does not want utilities to fail as businesses.  A utility may seek rate increases it charges customers to maintain its financial viability because of equipment replacement, water treatment costs, AND lost revenue, e.g. golf irrigation revenue.

The golf irrigation revenue was nearly, if not, half of the revenue AUI received from Aquarina.  The irrigation well will eliminate that revenue.  Do you think that AUI will apply to the Florida Public Service Commission for a potable rate increase to make up the loss from the irrigation revenue that will be gone?  The whole community of Aquarina will be paying for the AUI’s lost revenue from golf irrigation. 

AGI, which includes Aquarina Golf, or even just Aquarina Golf alone, should pay for the lost golf course irrigation revenue that AUI will now charge all the Residents, after all, it’s a golf business expense, and not a community expense.

BTW – rather than negotiating the irrigation cost with AUI, and maybe gradually changing to grass that is tolerant to dry conditions, the Board creates another common element (the irrigation well and pump equipment that will require added maintenance and funded reserves). Further expenses for the Residents.

It is so obvious that a small group of active golf inclined Residents have taken over the community’s funds (about $1,500,000 per year in paid fees), and they have shamelessly created expenses to service the golf business over everything else in Aquarina that needs attention and maintenance.

We really need more voices to champion the whole Aquarina community over the golf cabal.  There needs to be a challenge and interface with the golf cabal to explain the unfairness and imbalance of the Board’s spending and priorities.  This Blog has introduced a point of view, which I hope is supported by the silent majority that we all know exists in our community.  We need to talk up in the neighborhood about what is being neglected and what is being unnecessarily thrust upon us.

The $100,000 Plus Rip-off of the Residents’ Funds


There is a reliable report that our Board of Directors have decided to heed the recommendation of the new Golf Superintendent.  The recommendation is to renovate, upgrade, and restore the sand bunkers on the Aquarina Golf Course at a cost way north of $100,000. What!  Bunkers are a penalty box, and are probably the least of the priority items to maintain on a golf course.

I’m on the golf course, and I have never seen any maintenance and grooming of any of the sand bunkers, e.g. raking, fluffing, cleaning, edging, etc.  Let’s start with ongoing daily maintenance rather than wasting thousands of dollars redoing each and every sand bunker, which this proposal will cost.

Explain how this expenditure is a priority expense and helps all our Residents.  Our entrance, the front door to our community, is over 35 years old.  It is tired and pleads for upgrading and maintenance, e.g. resetting sunken pavers, pressure washing the curbing, re-coating and re-striping the asphalt roadway, and tuning the accent lighting. Remember all the entrance and highway lawn areas that were neglected and left to burn and die because of no irrigation.

Addressing our community entrance will absolutely raise the values of the Residents’ homes in the eyes of Buyers.  Renovating and replacing sand bunkers will not.

What is the source of the well over $100,000 of the Residents’ funds?  Our Reserves are the answer. Remember the purpose of the Reserves?  Reserves exist to maintain the condition and workings of our common elements, replacement of them is the last resort.  Unfortunately, the Board sees our Reserves as a lump of dollars to spend on selfish and whimsical desires, which happens to be dominated by golf.

Let’s look back a bit on some current Board disasters.  Have you been to a Board Meeting at the Community Club House lately?  All the living room nook furniture is gone, and what is left is a large empty room.  The reason for this situation was to house and accompany the hordes of folks expected to be at all the meetings and ongoing parties.  The living room nook area was a wonderful place for Residents to use for small gatherings to watch sporting events, just be social, or a relaxing place to use the Internet. Certainly this low key use occurred many more times than the number of parties or meetings.  Further, the previous gym facility, which was centrally located, had ample parking, and was open and bright – is now gone too.  Instead the gym is in a claustrophobic and cave-like setting.  Ironically, 100’s of thousands of the Residents’ funds were spent to accommodate these disasters.

It is so obvious that the current Board of Directors and its President have blinders to the needs of the whole community, and they just have a selfish, irresponsible, and unethical focus on their golf cabal needs and wants.

One more thing.  The mom and pop Aquarina Utilities facility that services our water and sewer needs has been reported to have neglected a timely maintenance of its components even though a raise of rates was granted to Aquarina Utilities by the Florida Public Service Commission. Hmm.

Yet another matter, which is late breaking, and will be discussed soon at this site – the Golf Irrigation Well has risen, with a spin justification that makes no sense.