Violation of contract...
In my opinion, North Beach Water District has failed to provide the contracted services to manage and supervise system services. Neal will prepare and manage a schedule for operation and maintenance of system in accordance with accepted public health practices and the systems approved Water System Plan.
Not only have public health practices been violated, but also the RCW's concerning handling and disposal of asbestos water pipe. The fines for these violations from L&I so far are 27,000.00 There is also a fine of 10.000.00 for failure to obtain permits for construction of the new charcoal filtration plant. The construction in a wet lands area may incur additional violations and fines.
By contract, Bill Neal, is also responsible for management of capital improvement projects concerning the water system. This includes planning, overseeing an inspection of work.
The present and future fines including Surfside legal fees, should be the responsibility of North Beach and Bill Neal. Surfside in consultation with legal council, should take whatever action is needed to insure North Beach and Bill Neal, as the responsible parties, are 100% responsible for these fines and legal fees. Any compromise or agreement to do otherwise, would be a failure of the Board to perform their duties as representatives of the association members.
Of course the above is my opinion only, but it seems common sense to me. Our member funds are being spent with nothing to show for it. The result will be higher dues and assessments and/or neglect of other projects and services. The members meet their obligations by paying their dues and assessments. The elected Board needs to do theirs. The title of "Trustee" needs to be earned. Can we trust that they will do the right things? We shall see.
7 comments:
Pipe replacement should be halted, and water staff paired down accordingly, never understood increase of staff, considering so little time spent on replacement.
Doj't forget, there was a $13,000 fee for removal of the asbestos waste.
Forgot to mention the $75,000 in legal fees ($50k was budgeted for this year and the next year has been bumped up to $75k) that paid for a losing lawsuit. The BOT then spent more to move the case to an upper court, and then did the smart thing and decided to drop the case, but but before spending tens of thousands of your money on this folly. The President of the BOT states that it will "only" cost us $10,00o and the rest is covered by insurance. I spoke to a lawyer who represents a large insurance company and he stated that if the plaintiff drops the case before trial, the insurance will not pay for any legal fees that have been accrued. Go figure, why would an insurance company pay for actions that will provide no results and there for no recourse for them to recoup their funds. Get out and tell your neighbors!
We can try and unscramble this in the abstract, but it's all in the hands of the EPA, State regulators and the Courts. Overall I agree with you George, and the contract w/N. Beach certainly seems to put all of the responsibility on Bill Neal.
I think that is a very simplistic view of this position, considering Mr. Neal is an employee of two large entities, the HOA and N. Beach Water. He came into this job with limited experience, so it is not realistic to think that either of these large entities has any excuse for not monitoring procedures used in the Water Dept.
The HOA has a Water committee, meant to do what ? I suspect that aspects of the contract will be picked apart in the effort to determine who had oversight responsibility, and that Surfside HOA cannot be seen as without fault in the improper handling of asbestos, and the lack of proper training of Water Dept. employees.
Apparently Mr. Haskins who preceded Neal as Dept. head, had crews leaving the old pipe in the trench as prescribed by the State, and Neal began to remove the old pipe and haul it to the backlot of the Waterworks. Were practices used at that time entirely safe and proper ?
All of this has been going on in Surfside in plain sight of anyone on the HOA Board or Water Comm. for a period of years, Mr. Neal often in attendance at monthly Board Meetings. How can Surfside not be to some degree complicit in allowing employees to be put in harms way and allowing illegal handling of asbestos to go on without oversight or intervention ?
We can only guess how this will all play out, and whether or not our HOA may catch a break for the sake of preventing this from bankrupting the membership who are faultless overall. We trusted the leadership, and that was a big mistake.
I don’t think many trusted the leadership. But because of lack of transparency n apathetic membership, was disaster waiting to happen. Those of us who paid attention n cared, pay the price for the rest. Property values are going to tank, including J placers. Hope you enjoy those views far out to sea. Most wont be able to sell if they wanted too, once this gets out. Sad state of local papers that it hasn’t been reported yet.
10:12 Meant to say ....but NOT before spending....
It does seem inevitable that sale of properties will stall for a while. An unfortunate consequence is that this is so complicated it is likely to take months before we have much of a picture of how this will all shake out, and years to resolve.
A sideline is that the current HOA Board and Business Office are not likely to make any effort to inform the entire membership of the colossal mess we are in, and will be obligated to resolve at great expense to all members. It is essential that major changes in our management take place.
Allowing the president a free pass to seek legal consultation at will has lead to the spending of at least $75,000 on the Johansen lawsuit which was withdrawn. This was a complete waste of member funds, and was not properly approved by the entire Board. The president has taken many liberties in this regard and clearly has no perspective of who he serves, or how to conduct business transparently as required by the State.
Twelve year veteran Trustee Jim Flood never attends Board meetings in person, and has failed miserably as the primary proponent of the Waterline replacement project, and long time member of the Water Committee. He apparently lives in California, and is far from the Water Dept. he should have been monitoring.
The Board needs to demonstrate a sense of responsibility to address its' poor leadership and lack of any semblance of oversight. Whatever is finally interpreted from the contracts with Bill Neal and North Beach from a legal standpoint, Surfside HOA has failed to work as a responsible partner to Mr. Neal and the dept. staff, as well as N. Beach. There is no denying a systemic failure to manage our largest community asset, and it will cost us dearly.
As more information comes to light from the criminal, State, and EPA investigations, the Board needs to call a Special Meeting of the membership, where all of the details of this business is brought to light, and community discussion had as to what will be done about it. Pretending that anything will change in management without changes in personnel and procedures is to live in a world of make-believe.
If the BOT and community do not demonstrate a sense of purpose in setting up corrective measures, the Courts or State may mandate specific changes.
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