Always in a hushed tone, with a glance checking to confirm privacy, the rumors surrounding the canals are repeated. They are:
*The Water Amenities Committee has sought quotes to dredge.
*The monies from canal lot owners will have to be voluntary.
*Canal lot owners who wish to participate may have to assist in paying for those canal lot owners who won't participate.
*The dredging will begin in November of 2017
WHAT DO WE KNOW FROM THE BOARD TABLE?
Nothing! If you attend board meetings, you know there hasn't been anything from the Water Amenities Committee regarding dredging. Check the official sanitized WPA minutes under Water Amenities Report, for the last year. Nothing.
About six months ago, during the resident comment section of the meeting, a resident asked about the maintenance dredge. She said that the permit that allows a maintenance dredging is about to run out. Legal Chair Garrison piped up and said that there was no interest expressed by the canal lot owners. The resident replied that no one had asked the canal lot owners. Twice later at varying times, it has been stated from the board table that a letter would go out. In the meantime, our very prejudice Legal Chair Garrison, has blatantly stated that the canal lot owners can be assured that there will be a by-law amendment presented for a vote at the 2016 annual meeting that basically says "no WPA funds may be spent on dredging."
Before we move to questions that not only canal lot owners should be thinking about, we have to have a little quick history for new people. The canals have been dredged twice in over a 30 year history. Each time, this association was ripped apart. Lawsuits were brought each time, and SETTLED - NO COURT RULING.
Last time whether you were for, or against dredging, the board laid it all out on the table. The permit was paid for, and all the associated lawsuits, and legal tangle that went on forever, by collections from, and within, the canal lot owner population. It amounted to over $160,000. Go back to the 2009 minutes, which at the time were not sanitized, every word spoken was included in the minutes, and verify what I am about to say for yourself. Briefly, residents were told in open monthly board meetings, and some special open information meetings:
*when the permit was acquired.
*that a loan would be sought
*that canal lot owners would be assessed an individual assessment of $5,000, plus an additional $175/yr for 5 years. All other lot owners would be assessed an additional $175/yr for 5 years.
*Request for bids for engineering, dredging, and oversight were sought, opened, and approved, and voted on at regular meetings.
*Volunteers were sought for non canal lot owners to sit on the canal committee, and dredging funding committee. 1-2 applied, and were accepted.
The point is, that it was all out in the open, and yet we had lawsuits, protest parades, media persons (hidden) in our meetings, and meetings so out of hand, and some times violent, that we had to have paid security officers on site. WHY AFTER ALL OF THAT, WOULD THE BOARD PLAY THIS GAME OF HIDE AND SEEK? That's another article.
For purposes of this article, we won't expand in some obvious areas. It is not time yet. We've identified RUMORS, gave a brief history that I've asked you to verify for yourself through unsanitized minutes at the WPA website - year 2009. If the rumors are true, and I believe most of them are, there are some questions that canal lot owners better begin to ask via letters to the board, during resident comments at meetings, etc. More important, it is time to question this board about HOW THEY ARE OPERATING IN GENERAL. Before we begin questions on dredging, I go from this premise. It is time for every resident to be concerned about what we each have in our back yard, and the general condition of Wedgefield. All of the marketable assets of Wedgefield are hanging in the balance TODAY. The golf course is closed, and going to weeds. The canals are silting in, and your board is not disclosing what is going on in the WPA committees. Except for flowers at the front gate (lipstick on a pig?), our board is letting common grounds go because of their own poor vendor selection. Think it doesn't matter? Take a real estate add for any home for sale in Wedgefield, and rewrite it without deep canals, and golf course views, and see what you are left with. Then drive through Wedgefield past overgrown lots, the farmers tractor, numerous boats, trailers, and debris piled in yards, etc., and look at what prospective buyers are seeing. For now, we'll move on to questions about the current RUMORS, and dredging.
QUESTIONS: - Answers to follow in another article.
1)Why is the board and committee being so secretive under any circumstance, let alone this litigious issue?
2)If canal lot owner participation is voluntary, who will invoice and collect the funds?
a) Who would hold those funds, and see that proper accounting, oversight, and payment to contract standards are upheld?
b)What mechanisms would be in place to collect from those who committed, and didn't pay?
3) Who would see that there was proper engineering, and oversight of the technical aspects of the dredging?
4) What rights would lot owners who participated have to records review - financial, and contractual?
5) What entity would be responsible for development of requests for proposal, contract development, and oversight?
6) What reporting mechanisms would we have?
7) What grievance process would be in place, and who would answer, if there was individual complaint, and concern?
These are just a few of the questions. How could we ever trust this kind of project to a non legal entity, when the players - board members, have been silent, failed to uphold our governing documents, etc., for the WPA? I don't like rumors, but that is what our board has left us with. You might ask why I would rely on rumors. I believe most of it is true. I myself, heard a sitting board member from the canal committee, tell a resident that the committee was getting bids. Why didn't he answer from the board table when the resident noted above, asked about the maintenance dredge, at the end of the meeting? Why didn't he speak up when Legal Chair Garrison said that there was no interest on the part of the canal lot owners? Why did Legal Chair Garrison say that when I'm told that he sits on the Water Amenities Committee?
More to follow. The overall actions of this board turns my stomach. Wedge field, my home, and my community is being spoiled by the disgusting, intestinal like twists, and turns of this board.
QUESTIONS: - Answers to follow in another article.
1)Why is the board and committee being so secretive under any circumstance, let alone this litigious issue?
2)If canal lot owner participation is voluntary, who will invoice and collect the funds?
a) Who would hold those funds, and see that proper accounting, oversight, and payment to contract standards are upheld?
b)What mechanisms would be in place to collect from those who committed, and didn't pay?
3) Who would see that there was proper engineering, and oversight of the technical aspects of the dredging?
4) What rights would lot owners who participated have to records review - financial, and contractual?
5) What entity would be responsible for development of requests for proposal, contract development, and oversight?
6) What reporting mechanisms would we have?
7) What grievance process would be in place, and who would answer, if there was individual complaint, and concern?
These are just a few of the questions. How could we ever trust this kind of project to a non legal entity, when the players - board members, have been silent, failed to uphold our governing documents, etc., for the WPA? I don't like rumors, but that is what our board has left us with. You might ask why I would rely on rumors. I believe most of it is true. I myself, heard a sitting board member from the canal committee, tell a resident that the committee was getting bids. Why didn't he answer from the board table when the resident noted above, asked about the maintenance dredge, at the end of the meeting? Why didn't he speak up when Legal Chair Garrison said that there was no interest on the part of the canal lot owners? Why did Legal Chair Garrison say that when I'm told that he sits on the Water Amenities Committee?
More to follow. The overall actions of this board turns my stomach. Wedge field, my home, and my community is being spoiled by the disgusting, intestinal like twists, and turns of this board.
