BAY COLONY CLUB MAR 24 BOD MEETING - SYNOPSIS

Board Members Attending: Paul Barros, Bill Brady (by phone), Wilbur Bullock, Betty Francis (by phone), Danielle Harrell, Bud Lauer, Malachy Smith,.

Board Members Absent:

Miscellaneous Other Attendees: Coleen, BCC Manager

BCC Owners Attendees: 41 (est.)

Elimination of Open Forum: President Bullock announced that there would no longer be an “Open Forum” at BOD meetings because “it violates Florida Sunshine laws.”  (Not an agenda item.  An open forum is only a violation if it is done outside the official meeting.  It could legally be restricted to 15 minutes maximum and included as an agenda item.  Nice going Wilbur, another maneuver to muzzle the owners and listen to no voice other than your own!)

Approval of 3/24 Agenda:: Approved unanimously (Not an agenda item)

Introduction of Committees: Ticket – Harriet Gustafson, Landscaping –Joyous Burkart, Planning/Capital Improvements – Gordon Houston, Rules & Regs – Danielle Harrell, Screening – Russ Parrot, Dock Master – Jim Gordon

Board Meeting (2/21) Minutes: Unanimously approved as read.  (Mystery motion on “Communication Between Board Members” which had passed unanimously disappeared from minutes for this meeting.)

Reports:  

Screening:  5 leases, 7 sales

Planning/Improvements:  Patio Fascia, canal seawall, roofs, balcony railings, pool modifications, B dock road curbs.  (STILL no plans for roof edge refastening or balcony railings.)

Landscape:  Improvements ($3,358) unanimously approved

Ticket:  Future meetings every other odd month

Manager’s:  Familiarization meetings

Unfinished Business: 

Cara Beth Walker:  UCM accepted offered settlement amount of $18,828.55.

Rules & Regs Format:   Format for update to be limited to 3 styles already submitted.   Passed.   Yes - Barros, Francis, Lauer, Smith   No – Brady, Harrell

Setting Agenda:  Method to set agendas.  Tabled.  For – Barros, Brady, Harrell, Lauer, Smith   Against – Francis

Board Communication/Operation:  Operation to be under latest Robert’s Rules of Order.  Communication not discussed.  (“Communication” discussed and voted on at last meeting, but vanished from minutes.  Following Robert’s Rules?  When will this happen?  See Notes below.)

New Business

Rental Deposits:  Stop collecting rental deposits.  Failed.  For -  Francis, Harrell, Lauer   Against – Barros, Brady, Bullock, Smith

Lease Addendum:  Wording stating BCC a “commercial” condo deleted.  Passed unanimously.

Security Guard for Parties: Motion to eliminate by Harrell.  Failed.  No second.  (Not an agenda item.)

Meeting adjourned at 8:55.  Corrections and comments would be appreciated.

NOTES:  In your blogger’s opinion, this meeting (in addition to many prior ones) left a lot to be desired: 

•  Microphone and PA system (STILL) frequently not used and Board comments and conversations often unintelligible.
• Speaker phone output from Brady (STILL) completely unintelligible
• Discussion of non-agenda items a violation of Robert’s Rules!
• R & R format and agenda setting rules discussed at far too great a length (thanks Francis!), while our dicey roof fasteners continue to quietly rust away.

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BAY COLONY CLUB – BLOG COMMENT POLICY 3/16/11

This Bay Colony Club blog was created to provide information about our community to owners, residents and employees.  We hope that the blog also provides a platform for folks to voice their concerns, complaints and compliments about our community.  We encourage comments that challenge or offer constructive criticism.  However, we reserve the right to edit or remove any post, for any reason.  Comments will be deleted or edited if they are: 

• Abusive personal attacks
• Off-topic
• Obscene

We appreciate our readers and thank you for adding to the discussion. We hope the above will help you add value to Bay Colony Club’s blog, find value in the comments of others, and continue enjoying the site.  If you make a comment that does not appear or has been deleted, you may contact us for an explanation.

BAY COLONY CLUB REALTY REPORT AS OF 2/28/11

Total # 2 BR for sale:  16

High        $249,900

Low         $189,000

Median    $217,000

Sold 2 BR YTD:  4      LP/SP         Days on Market

High        $215,000         104%              33

Low         $135,000          75%               12

Median    $146,198         89%                30

Total # 1 BR for sale:  2

High       $ 90,000

Low        $ 89,000

Median   $ 89,500

Sold 1 BR YTD:  0       LP/SP         Days on Market

                                   

Information provided by Marge Matinale, Lic. Associate Broker, Better Homes & Gardens Real Estate, 954-298-2527, fax: 954-771-7367, email: margesells4u@yahoo.com

BAY COLONY CLUB CONDO - OUR ILLEGAL ELECTION

Another Stolen Election?

A post-election inspection of election materials and other sources have proven our recent election illegal in some respects and very poorly organized and conducted in others:

1. Betty Francis, re-elected to the Board, was an illegal candidate.  She should not have been on the ballot and should not now be on the Board.  (For details, click on "Betty Francis Illegal BOD Candidate" under "LINKS" in the column to the left.) 
    
2. Included in the vote count were 23 ballots with incorrect or incomplete information on the return envelopes.  All these ballots should have been discarded. 
    
3. Return envelopes were not screened to discard those from owners with any delinquent payment to BCC.  (BCC Declaration, June 1980 Amendment (j):  "Any owner delinquent in any payment shall not be entitled to vote.  Official Records 9037, page 3")   All these ballots should have been discarded. 
    
4. Random, non-sequential numbers were not printed on the return envelopes.  This was done last year to prevent proven prior years' ballot box stuffing.  We are to believe that the villains have all gone straight?

HOW MUCH LONGER WILL BCC OWNERS ALLOW THEMSELVES TO BE DECEIVED AND ABUSED?  TUNISIA AND EGYPT DID IT.  WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU FOLKS?! 

BAY COLONY CLUB FEB 21 BOD MEETING - SYNOPSIS

Board Members Attending: Paul Barros, Bill Brady (by phone), Wilbur Bullock, Betty Francis, Danielle Harrell, Bud Lauer, Malachy Smith,.

Board Members Absent:

Miscellaneous Other Attendees:

BCC Owners Attendees: 58 (est.)

Board Meeting Minutes: Reports:  None given.

Screening Report: 11 leases, 3 sales, 2- 2^nd occupant

New Business

Flood Insurance Same company as last year.  $70 million coverage (100% 0f appraised value), total cost $126,354.  Passed unanimously.

Manager’s Contract Offer a one year contract to Coleen (?) $60,000 per year plus benefits.  Passed unanimously.

Communications Between Board Members  No emails regarding BOD business to be forwarded or copied to non-BOD members or to the BCC office.  (Considerable confusion regarding this among BOD members and the audience.  See NOTES below.)  Passed unanimously - whatever motion was.)

Attorney Communications Between Board Members  Only BOD President to contact BCC attorney.  All communication between President and attorney to be copied to all BOD members.  Passed.  Brady, Francis, Lauer: NO.    Barros, Bullock, Harrell, Smith: YES,   See NOTES below.

Cara Beth Walker Legal Fees  Association to offer a $18,828.55 settlement for management company’s legal fees.  Passed unanimously.

Retainer for Becker & Poliakoff  Becker & Poliakoff to be retained as BCC attorney of record for another year.  Passed unanimously.

Write Off of Bad Debt  Write off the amount of $31,371 as noncollectable on foreclosed units 6223-4, 6261-2 and 6455-1.  Passed unanimously.

Meeting adjourned at 8:55.  Corrections and comments would be appreciated.

NOTES:  In your blogger’s opinion, this meeting (in addition to many prior ones) left a lot to be desired:

• Microphone and PA system frequently not used and Board comments and conversations often unintelligible.
• Speaker phone output from Brady completely unintelligible.
• Most of the Board had no idea what was meant by the two agenda items regarding communications.  Adequate pre-meeting preparations would save a lot of time in avoiding explanations to clueless BOD members and haggling over minutia and wording at the meetings.

BAY COLONY CLUB’S NEW BOARD – HELLO?

Perhaps our new Board of Directors might consider a couple of suggestions*:

BCC Manager

Sheila Meadows could be promoted to Manager and given a part-time (no fringe benefits) assistant/receptionist/clerk to assume the office clerical duties.  Sheila has been working at BCC long enough to know all the actors (both good and bad) and BCC’s policies and procedures.  Surely this is just as, good as, if not more valuable than claimed managerial experience in unknown condos or HOA’s? 

Sheila has been doing the manager’s job for (at least) two months and in that time has handled everything well.  Anyone who has lived here for any time knows of a whole gaggle of “experienced” managers who have been total disasters. 

We know Sheila and Sheila knows us.  Is bringing in unknown new manager (regardless of eye color) at much greater expense preferable  ?

Roofs

Hurricane Wilma in 2005 damaged roofs on the south side of BCC buildings 1 – 8.  Every Board of Directors since then has known that the damage was a result of the failure of steel edge fasteners and that future damage could be prevented by replacing the existing fasteners with stainless steel ones.  This is maintenance that still, 5 ½ years later, has not been done.

When the next hurricane rips our roofs off and massive damage to our apartments results, will the insurance companies (both our individual homeowners’ and the Association’s) pay off?  Or, will they claim that damages were the result of failure to maintain the property?

Why have successive boards failed to address this issue?

(See the May 11, 2010 BCC blog article “Bay Colony Club’s Next Hurricane” and Gordon Houston’s Capital Improvement Reports.

*Highly unlikely unless this BOD is radically different than our prior boards

BAY COLONY CLUB BOARD ELECTION RESULTS - 2011

After initial confusion and delay, the Bay Colony Club Feb 14 membership meeting  got underway.

Here is our new Board of Directors with the number of votes they received along with the unsuccessful hopefuls and their votes:

The new board

Malachi Smith         209

Betty Francis           207

Bud Lauer                194

Paul Barros              182

Bill Brady                  144

Danielle Harrell        140

Wilbur Bullock         133

Other Candidates

Joyous Burkart       131

Bill Delaney              131

Rocco Viola              126

George Lauth          124

Sam Slota                   92  

Total number of ballots: 327
Rejected ballots: 17
Percent of BCC units for which a vote was cast (327/640): 51% (!)

New Board Officers

Wilbur Bullock  President       

Bud Lauer         Vice-President                

Malachi Smith   Secretary      

Bill Brady           Treasurer 

Comments and corrections would be appreciated.

                

BAY COLONY CLUB REALTY REPORT AS OF 1/31/11

Total # 2 BR for sale:  20

High        $249,900
Low         $163,777
Median    $213,750

Sold 2 BR YTD:  2       LP/SP         Days on Market

High        $215,000         104%             27
Low         $150,395          90%               12
Median    $182,698           97%              20

Total # 1 BR for sale:  2

High       $ 92,500
Low        $ 90,000
Median   $ 91,250

Sold 1 BR YTD:  0      

Information provided by Marge Matinale, Lic. Associate Broker, Better Homes & Gardens Real Estate, Realty, 954-298-2527, fax: 954-771-7367, email: margesells4u@yahoo.com

BAY COLONY CLUB CANDILEAKS (OR MEET SOME OF THE REAL CANDIDATES)

Just another BCC BOD Meeting

SAM SLOTA

Among many other actions taken against the interests of BCC owners:

1. The Florida department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR) has since 2002 repeatedly declared Slota in violation of Florida law.
2. In 2002, Slota, then president of the Board, imposed a $384,000 special assessment on BCC owners.  In 2003, after a lengthy and expensive trial, the assessment was declared illegal in Broward County Court and BCC owners paid enormous legal fees.
3. From 2002 to 2003 it is alleged by the then BCC manager and a then member of the BCC Board that Slota was soliciting kickbacks from vendors, abusing BCC's petty cash, stealing BCC property and embezzling.
4. In 2008 a $120,000+ contract was signed by Slota for  "consultation" on our $2 million plus cable TV contract.  There was no Board discussion and no bids for this "consulting" work.  The remaining Board members said they were unaware of the contract and didn't know the details or the actual dollar amount.  Two Board members wisely resigned at that point.
5. In 2009, Slota, then Board president, failed to produce 2008 year-end BCC financials.  A violation of Florida law and of a 2005 Consent Order which had imposed a $5,000 fine for the same (earlier) offense.
6. During 2009 Slota has continuously harassed our Manager and office staff in an effort to get them to resign so more "pliable" replacements could be found.
7. At the January 5, 2010 Board meeting Slota physically assaulted fellow Board member Wilbur Bullock.
8. On February 4, 2010 Slota, along with Zubko, Lauth Shelton and Gustafson, signed their approval for the illegal $15,000 purchase of three pricey ice machines.  The same type of hidden expenditure used to hire a "TV consultant" in 2008. 

Lauth in Action

GEORGE LAUTH

Among other actions taken against the interests of BCC owners:

1. Lauth has supported and voted for every action taken by  Zubko/Slota/Shelton.  Aside from this knee jerk support,  Lauth seems to be dozing through BOD meetings, with only one past unique contribution;
2. Some time in the past, Lauth decided that a bicycle on a BCC porch was so unsightly it required stiff fines. Isn't it odd that BCC security has never been able to stop the almost immediate theft of any high-end bike left in one of our bike racks?

* Are these the kind of people we want for our BOD?
* What do you think?
* Anything to add?
* Post a comment.
* Keep in mind that a comment with your real name has more impact.

BAY COLONY CLUB JANUARY 26 "MEET THE CANDIDATES"

MORE TASTY BCC POLITICS

Note:  Your blogger did not attend this meeting but received a report from a usually reliable source.  Please let us know of any factual errors.  Blogger's opinions, where irresistibly warranted, in red italics.

.

Candidates Attending: Paul Barros, Bill Brady (by phone), Joyous Burkart, Danielle Harrell, Betty Francis, Bud Lauer, George Lauth, Sam Slota

BCC Owners Attending: 80

Miscellaneous:

It was announced that there had been a closed Board meeting at the office at 6 PM, attended by Wilbur Bullock, Bill Brady (by phone), Betty Francis, Sean Holland  (by phone), Directors  voted to unanimously hire Sheila Meadows as acting manager and she was given an (unspecified) bonus.

Bunny Schmitt resigned permanently from the Election Committee and her position as Election Supervisor “due to health issues”.  Harriett Gustafson volunteered to be Election Supervisor and was accepted.  

   

Candidate Presentations

Paul Barros: Explained that there was no resume sent out because of miscommunication with the office.   He and his wife have lived in BCC 3½ years and are full-time residents.  He was a sheriff’s deputy for 13 years and now in the yacht repair business.

Bill Brady:  Expressed some irritation with Bill Delaney and Rocco Viola.  Stated he will attend all BOD meetings after April 1.  Said he spent 6 weeks re-writing BCC’s Rules and Regulations (R&R).  (Brady neglected to mention that two other BOD members also completely re-wrote the R&R’s and that NONE of these three re-writes were adopted.  Nor did Brady mention that revisions were presented as additions, changes and deletions to the existing R&R’s and were unanimously approved at the November 15 BOD meeting.  This action made possible thanks to a temporary removal of Wilbur Bullock as BOD president.)

Wilbur Bullock:  Expressed some irritation with Bill Delaney and Rocco Viola.  Stated he would not resign from the BOD “no matter who I have to work with.”  (Bullock seemed to ramble on for at least twice the allotted time.  No surprise.  He was not asked any embarrassing questions.)

Joyous Burkart:  Stated she lived here 17 years and served on BOD and many committees.  Biggest concerns are legal expenses, selective enforcement of R&R’s and lack of proper landscaping.

Betty Francis:   Stated she would never write another email.  (Thank you Lord!  In a 12 day period your blogger received 100 emails from Ms. Francis.  That’s an average of 8.33 emails per day with a high of 20 on 11/10/10.  Click on "Betty Francis Sampler" in the column to left for a tour through the labyrinth.)  She plans to take classes on how to be a BOD member.   Apologized for all her past mistakes and poor judgment.  (No specifics, but then not nearly enough time to go there.)  Promised to work with any new members of the BOD even if she didn’t like them.  (But then, with Betty, who knows what tomorrow will bring!)

Danielle Harrell:   Reminded the audience that she was BOD President  for two years and that she  started a Board procedural manual.  (Does not seem it was long-lived, we have never heard of it.)

Bud Lauer:  Said BCC needs professional leadership, a more conservative budget, less legal fees, competitive bidding.  Believes BOD must have a Code of Ethics, security reform, revised Rules & Regs, more committee activity

George Lauth:  Said “There is a lot of misinformation flying around.”  (!)

Sam Slota:   Pointed out his 25 years in BCC, 10 years on the BOD. “I let the buck stop at me.” (Some confusion in the audience at this point about the definition of “buck”; buck as in passing along a dilemma to a higher authority or buck as $?  Works either way.)  Promises to save money on maintenance and will grant no employee raises until economy improves.  (No embarrassing questions asked about top secret CCG/Cable TV contract or illegal ice machine purchase.) 

Adjourned at 8:37 PM

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