BAY COLONY CLUB - A FINANCIAL MYSTERY

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THIS IS NOT AN OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE BAY COLONY CLUB CONDOMINIUM ASSOCIATION, INC. This blog was created to help Bay Colony Club Condominium (BCC) owners, resident non-owners, and employees know what’s happening in BCC. Any reader can comment on any of the articles by clicking on the “comments” below the article. The blog author is not responsible for any comments made by blog readers and may or may not agree with any or all comments. Please click on “Disclaimer” in the left-hand column before proceeding further.

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Saturday, October 1, 2011

BAY COLONY CLUB - A FINANCIAL MYSTERY

How long has it been since a financial report has been available for our association?

Nine (9) months!

Why?

What has our money been spent on?

Why hasn't our Board of Directors acted?

12 comments:

Bev Houston said...: You're right, Charley! The LAST Treasurer's Report was January 2011 - the OLD Board before the Elections in February! That's NINE months ago. Since then - nada, zip, zilch, zero, nein, non and nunca!

We have the same Treasurer as last year - he "wears the hat" but isn't performing his job.

We have NO idea how many foreclosures we have, NO idea how many rentals we have - OR how much money we have in the collective kitty!

This is NOT right - or kosher! That's OUR money and we should have a proper FULL monthly accounting.

If he can't - or WON'T - do his job, he should be removed as Treasurer.; October 1, 2011 at 3:19 PM
Charles Pukit said...: Does anybody on the Board (including Treasurer Bill Brady) know where we stand financially?

How many potential BCC buyers will buy without checking the association's financials? And, if they will, do we really need a few more dumb owners??!!; October 2, 2011 at 11:19 AM
JimBoy said...: I wish this Board would get serious about something ...... ANYTHING. They have no credibility left. We're told that there would be TWO meetings this week - one to re-schedule the Budget Workshop fiasco from last Thursday (would probably be Monday or Tuesday earlier this week) and then a REGULAR Board Meeting on Thursday (tonight). Well, they're batting ZERO ........ NO meetings at all.
There hasn't been a proper Board Meeting since July 25 (except for that sorry excuse on August 15 - a 15-minute Announcement "Meeting" - to convince us that they did the right thing in firing Sheila ...... were YOU convinced? I WASN'T!)
Looks like we're going right down to the wire on a time-frame for the Budget since we're running a month late from last year's schedule - guess we'll just have to accept Brady's version with no input??? How the hell can they ask for another $43 quarterly when they HAVEN'T DONE A DAMNED THING this year??? (Except spend money - money - money on legal fees!!!)
It sucks.
THEY suck.; October 13, 2011 at 7:31 PM
Bob said...: Right on, Jimboy. Somebody gave me a copy of the budget from that meeting. $43 bucks more!!! They haven't done a blamed thing except for the budgeted items from the previous year (hurricane tree-trimming, canal seawall) - so there's gotta be LOTS of money left that they haven't spent. Why do they want more? AH - the LEGAL fees ... as Shakespeare said (sort of) "Aie-aie-aie - THERE's the rub!" The last time a Board REALLY did something good for the residents was Danielle's Board - that's when we got the new mailboxes, the new laundry machines, all that good stuff. All this talk-talk-talk of transparency. HA.; October 15, 2011 at 12:18 PM
Joyous Burkart said...: Here is an update on the financials. Bev Houston questioned about a CD....there is no CD.
Financials have been on the BCC website April, May, June, July, August. 95% of the residents do not attend the meeting. All those that whine about no financials at the meetings...is a mystery...they are always available in the office. Do they want the financials read at the meetings because they do no understand them and want everything explained to them?
The Treasurer report follows:
Joyous,
__________________________________

It really pisses me off that a bunch of financial know-nothings keep raising questions about the BCC finances and my integrity.

So here's some facts supported by the monthly financial statements that are produced by an independent CPA, audited each year by a different independent CPA and filed with the State of Florida as required by law. To suggest they are not fair and completely accurate or that I (or anyone else) can manipulate them is beyond conspiracy theory territory - it's total lunacy.

Each month's financial statements are available in the office for any homeowner to pick up and review to their heart's content. They don't even have to file a request for information - the statements are simply handed out by the office on request, or can be accessed via the Association's WEBsite. There are also loose-leaf binders of financials going back I don't know how far, which you, or any other homeowner, are free to view.

Each month's statements start off with the Balance Sheet, a recitation of the Assets and Liabilities of the Association. Leading off the assets section is a list of every single cash account maintained by the Association including any CD's or other cash investment instruments.

If I go back to the December 2009 Statements, a date two months before I was elected treasurer (attached) we find 7 Accounts with BB&T plus Petty Cash, for a total of 8 cash entries but no CD. I don't have all the months before that here at home, but if I go back to September 30, 2008 (attached) I find 9 cash entries plus Petty Cash including a "Bank of America - CD" for $325.00. WOW Which is higher $100,000 or $325.00? At December 31, 2007 there is an entry for Bank America CD for $105.00

So between Sept 2008 and December 2009 two Wachovia Bank accounts were closed and the CD cashed in and a money market account opened at BB&T (12/2009 balance $112,068.12). I was not the treasurer and had no part in any of this activity.

There simply was no $100,000 CD at any time in the last 4 years. Period.

As to why the balance in the money market has declined from the $112K, the Association has had losses (i.e. expenses higher than revenues) in the last couple of years and a loss depletes the cash balance, just as a surplus increases it. In 2009 we lost (on a cash basis) $36,792 and in 2010 we lost $149,148 due mostly to the Walker suit. This year we will lose another $20,000 or so. That is why the overall cash balance has declined.

When funds in the operating account run low ,as they sometimes do at the end of the quarter, we transfer money into the account from the Money Market account. Something that Bud and Colleen did in Sept (without telling me they were doing it). A perfectly normal operation, but one that should be initiated by the treasurer.

Finally about access to bank information, all check signers (meaning all the directors), the manager and Donna Seidenberg can call the bank any time and get balance information as well as info on specific transactions.
(continued); October 24, 2011 at 9:17 PM
Joyous Burkart said...: Bill Brady's financial report continued.........

What Colleen is talking about is online access. When I went to set it up, I was told by the bank's online banking support people that it is NOT possible to set up "read only" access and that anyone set up for online access could also initiate transactions, like transfers or online payments. That is simply not acceptable for internal control reasons and NO ONE, not me, not the manager, not Donna has this type of access. The manager of the local branch told Bud, again playing at being treasurer, that you could get "read only" access, and we need to make a joint phone call to the online support group with Bud and Colleen and me and you if you want, to find out which is correct.

All this crap is both stupid and insulting.

Hope this helps.

Bill; October 24, 2011 at 9:18 PM
Anonymous said...: I grew up hearing that old expression "Where there's smoke there's fire". I smell smoke and I see little wisps curling up from our finances. Am I the only one who's feeling suspicious that our Treasurer not only walked out of the Budget Workshop in a huff, but never even turned up at the last Board Meeting to give a Treasurer's Report (which was on the Agenda) and wasn't there to go over the Budget that's now been mailed out to everybody? No excuse was given. He was just ..... ABSENT .....??? Our Budget has NEVER been handled this way before. I'm told there are NO financial papers in the Office because the Treasurer took everything home months ago and has never brought anything back. This is ILLEGAL - you CAN'T take records away from the Office - only copies. I smell a fish or a rat. REALLY stinky.; October 25, 2011 at 10:34 PM
Kevin said...: I'm not too sure just what Joyous Burkart's comment is all about - or whether it's from a "privileged" inter-Board memo, but I find it highly insulting to our president Bud. I assume it's something that Brady has written to his Board members.

He insultingly refers to "Bud, again playing at being treasurer" ..... Well, all I can say is that BUD is at least TRYING to fill the horrendous GAP that our so-called Treasurer has caused in his duty as Treasurer.

Brady hasn't done a thing worthy of being Treasurer this year. No Meeting Financial Reports, No Budget Reports, no NOTHING! And when he doesn't want to be held accountable for his actions - or LACK of same - he is absent from the Meetings without cause or excuse.

I sincerely doubt, unless the Election is rigged this year, that we will have to put up with Brady on the Board or as Treasurer again NEXT year.

I wonder if he will return our Financial papers to the Office before the door slams shut on his butt?; October 26, 2011 at 10:50 PM
Joyous Burkart said...: OK Charley,
You are letting it happen again...........unfounded slurs, the whole gammit that usually one person writes with different names.........
so now we are back to the alias again............
To spice up your Blog..........
back to the same ol' crap ola.............accusing the treasurer of taking home the financials......from the home.......
Hey chicken sh....sing your name.......; October 28, 2011 at 2:30 PM
Bev Houston said...: I'm not rich, and I'm not pretty - but I have something that's worth more than either of those things.

I have integrity. I don't lie.

I am now accused of lying - that there was never a $100,000 CD.

I beg to differ. There are FIVE people that can attest that there WAS in fact a $100,000 CD in mid-2010 (although one of them cannot remember with a certainty the actual amount - only that it was "LARGE").

IF there ever is a forensic financial audit as a result of the Financial Investigatory Committee that President Bud Lauer has called for, I'm sure that those five people will be subpoenaed and their testimony will figure strongly in the final findings.

I never write, publish or speak "authoritatively" on anything until I have researched it to the best of my ability.

I don't lie.; October 28, 2011 at 5:32 PM
Charles Pukit said...: If folks sign their name, that's not an ANONYMOUS personal attack. As long as somebody is willing to put their name on it and it's not obscene,it will get published.

It's the ANONYMOUS nasty stuff that will not get POSTED.; October 28, 2011 at 8:04 PM
Chicken Sh-- said...: Dear Joyous - I prefer the phrase "Poultry Poop" rather than "Chicken Sh--". We weren't allowed to use that nasty word when we were growing up.

Actually, chicken sh-- (or poultry poop) is a very useful item. We lived with my Uncle Bob for a couple of years as kids. He used to get 500 day-old White Leghorn chicks in each spring, raise them up and market them in the fall, so we had LOADS of the stuff. It was our job as kids to scrape the roosts once a week and muck out the hen houses.

Properly composted, it made the garden grow MONSTROUS veggies, and the berry bushes grew more than enough for jam, pies and canning for a year. It's the best stuff to grow mushrooms too - Uncle Bob converted one of the brooder houses to a mushroom barn and we had more than enough fresh mushrooms to make even the requisite every-two-weeks liver dinners palatable.

I know this has nothing to do with BCC politics, but I just wanted to set the record straight about chicken sh-- ... er ... poultry poop.

However, I can't think of a blamed use for dog poop ...; October 29, 2011 at 1:21 AM