Will this year be a year of change?
What we know will happen.
The exit of the current Business Manager, Laura Frazier, will happen before the end of January or before.
The 2019 Budget is approved and in place.
There will be a Board election in July of 3 or more Trustees.
What we don't know.
Will we have a General Manager?
Will that person be in charge of all operations, including the water operations?
Will there be fines from EPA ? and, how much?
How will we pay fines?
Will a permit be issued for the location of the carbon treatment plant in a wet land?
Will legal fees exceed the budgeted amount?
Will there be criminal charges against individuals and/or the association?
Will government agencies investigate our corporation and what will the results be?
Will the contract with North Beach Water be terminated?
Will the members form together for a change?
Will a majority of the Board step up to their responsibilities?
Discussion:
The current Board of 9 Trustees have failed in their responsibilities. They are and were aware of problems, and failed to take any corrective action. They were aware that the Board President had exceeded and violated our governing documents and spent large sums of money on legal matters without Board approval. Yet, they did nothing. In my opinion, they should all be removed. By their inaction, they are just as accountable as the Board President.
The contract with North Beach should have ended years ago. There has been increasing problems as a result of their mismanagement. This failure has cost the members thousands of dollars and could end up costing millions. Employees health has been compromised and lawsuits are sure to occur. This could all bankrupt the association and end the homeowners association.
Information has deliberately been kept from the members. The members have a right to know the current status of their association and hold those responsible, accountable. That is the biggest fear they have, being held accountable. It appears that local, State and Federal agencies will step in and do the job that the Board and members should have done ourselves. You and I are going to be stuck with the bill and may be paying for many years with nothing to show for it.
2019 looks like it's going to be a year like no other in our over 50 year history.
Can this all be fixed? I don't know, but those presently in charge show no indications that they are willing or have the capability to fix it. It's really a shame. The good people of Surfside deserve better.
21 comments:
You forgot one: cost of lawsuit, or lawsuits by water employees exposed to asbestos. Better settle before more lawyers get invoved.
My hope is the board cut to 5 members, my dream would be 3. To many micro managers with 9. I know, wishful thinking. The general manager better be over the water dept and all of surfside or we do not need one. Will the members get together, I doubt it.Criminal charges, doubt it.Fines of course.Should Williams resign, yes.
I think all fines and emergency expense's should be taken out of the reserve fund. At least that will keep out HOA fees at a more sustainable amount. That is what the reserve fund is for!
To Martin - The Reserve Fund should be used for the infrastructure. It is setup for Capital and Operating purposes. It is woefully inadequate thanks to Board members who for years have refused to incur the wrath of SHOA members by raising the dues to fund it.
I believe that about $150,000 was borrowed from the Reserves to fund the Plant last year, with the obligation to pay back the funds as the State mandates. I'm not sure of the details, but money was budgeted for a payment that probably has not been made.
Rather than assess about $250 per household as initially discussed in letters to owners, the money was borrowed from Reserves, and annual assessments increased about $20 or less. It IS intended for unforeseen or unbudgeted infrastructure expenses.
Management failure regarding the Water Dept. is the primary source of our current woes. No oversight was ever established of operations there, in spite of there being a Water Dept. Comm. intended to do just that. The Water Dept. manager is required to attend all monthly committee meetings, that being Bill Neil of North Beach Water.
Former president, current vice-pres., and Trustee for 12 years now, Jim Flood, great champion of the waterline replacement project for these several years, is also a committee member. He never attends meetings of the committee or as a Trustee at monthly BOT meetings. He lives in California.
The colossal disaster that has grown out of mismanagement of the Water Dept. stems from this lack of clarity of responsibilities and oversight.
I agree that 9 Trustees seems too many, but see only 3 as too few. Five might be good. There also seem to be too many committees, all of which require Board oversight. I'm not sure why it is thought that we can hire one magical person to manage everything, though it sounds nice -and EASY !
What we need is a new office manager who only manages the office and staff. We also will have to establish a new Water Dept. manager, as it makes no sense to continue with Bill Neil. The Water Dept Comm. needs to be clearly tasked with periodic reports of procedural oversight, as it was intended, all put in writing in their charter. The BOT then needs to make certain that the Committee is doing their job.
Williams needs to be jetisoned. He has shown great contempt for independent thinkers on the Board, following State mandated procedures, and disrespect for many Trustees for not marching in his foot prints. He has abused the privileges of his position, pursuing the ridiculous lawsuit against 2 RV owner's shed roofs, at a cost of about $75,000 - a lawsuit so weak it was withdrawn, all expenses coming out of Surfside's operational funds.
As a result, the community was unable to afford to replace the filter material in the Carbon Filter Plant, now months overdue. Under his management, the HOA installed the foundation and filter plant, and dug the holding pond - all without proper permitting resulting in a $15,000 fine (approx.), and a "stop-work order" left our plant apparatus open to the Coastal Winter weather. That's our $400,000 plant - without the building enclosure.
It's essential that the BOT establish tight reigns on legal spending, and insist that the prescribed approval of all legal consultation be followed, specific limits in increments established. We can't have the president pissing away member funds at his whim and leisure, as Williams has done. The BOT has done NOTHING to address this !!
It boils down to lots of people not doing their jobs as prescribed in our documents, and a lack of clarity of duties, responsibilities, and oversight.
It doesn't matter who we hire if duties are not clearly delineated, the BOT does not have solid oversight in place, and the BOT is incapable of monitoring its' own members. Much of the existing structure of our HOA can work well if everyone follows the prescribed process, and duties are clear, I believe.
Steve's comment is mostly accurate. He is correct in his assessment as to why we have problems. The fine from the County for no permit was 10,000 dollars. The L&I fine was 27,000 dollars. The cleanup was thousands. We have yet to see fines from EPA which could be beyond our ability to pay. The worst may be yet to come.
Martin, We have two reserve funds. One is for the day to day operations. It is called the operational fund. The other is the capital reserve fund. It is used for repair and replacement of equipment and facilities. That is why borrowed money must be paid back by law. Both accounts have specific use. Legal fees would come out of the operational account. That does not have to be paid back. This fund continues to decrease and provides a lower cushion if needed in an emergency. It looks like we are going to see that emergency.
You have nothing of substance to say but complain about your own inadequacy to follow what I'm saying. Most of everything I say in blog comments is just factual, and may not be common knowledge. If I'm not sure about a statistic I usually say it's an estimate, or my best recollection. That is what I said about the fine.
It's fine and dandy to say the HOA needs to dissolve, all of the board needs to be dismissed, and on and on - but impractical and not based on reality, something that CAN actually be put into action. I'll continue to write what I think, even if you are too shallow to get it. Got something to offer of any real value ? Let's hear it wise guys.
To Steve and others:
Yes, I removed several comments directed against Steve and will continue to do so when the comment is nothing more than an insulting personal attack. I have done the same in recent remarks against Deb Blagg. A different point of view or opinion is fine, but you can take your hate somewhere else. Thanks Steve for your comments, and having the integrity to use your name.
I'm pretty immune to such comments, but it is discouraging that if you offer your name it is seen as an opportunity to insult and abuse you personally. Why does someone engage at all if they have nothing to contribute to the conversation ?
It just makes you feel discouraged about people's inability to cope with a complicated world, where people have to find compromises, through communication. Thanks George.
This BOT engages in and encourages bullying. That is the reason many of us still post as Anonymous. It has also failed miserably in every facet of their job duties. Personally, it is cost me over a $1000 this last year for water filtration, as I cannot trust the public system, or what they tell me about it.
As stated several times in this forum, I see 2 solutions: either a new Board that will follow the rules, or dissolution.
If the current Board would care to resign en masse, it would the save us a lot of time and trouble. In any other organization, they would have been removed for their job performance.
We can either take our organization back, or dissolve it, with the knowledge that we will have to rebuild major portions of it. That may be what it takes to rid ourselves of this special interest group we refer to as the Board.
I was on the budget committee when the water warehouse was budgeted from the reserve account, so I know it can be done. This spending is out of control and I feel that it should be paid for out of the reserve FUND.
My suggestion for 2019 is to eliminate the Surfside WEAKENDER! What a waste of money and time by office. There isn’t ONE bit of pertinent news in this publication. Do away with it and free time up for office workers! Anyone out there agree with this waste?
I like the Deputy's Report; The line this week was that a woman's car would not run and when the deputy got at the seen a male was jumping her.
Prostitues are moving in. Nice quiet are for the to do there work
The blurb about The New Year Traditions was interesting, especially the part where "America have developed their own version of times square ritual, organising public drops of items ranging from pickles to possums at midnight New Years Eve"
Who would've thought.
Prostitutes? So those our the ladies I've seen lately that look a lot better than our local ladies and smell better too?
Prostitues huh ? Ever notice that computers tell you how to spell ? You may just have something stuck on your glasses 7:43.
Well, the times for the budget vote meeting were published in the weekender yet people showed up late and complained about. This is just one example. There is some useful information there if you care to read it.
The budget and the electronic voting measure were both already decided upon by the BOT, though informally. Budgets require far too many votes to fail, and are always approved.
The measure was trashed by the letter mailed out by "the Board", and no statement or information was offered to support passing of the measure. This was intended to fail and the vote was a false gesture to appear fair to some members.
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