Removal of The DIRT

Earlier I had created a space on this BLOG for the angry and accusatory emails that have been traded in the community. In a disclaimer page that preceded those postings I included the following thoughts:

"I have hesitated to include them for the following reasons:

• there are a number of personal attacks 
• there are pervasively negative tones
• there are obviously slanted presentation of events 
• there are claims of "fact" that are either lacking in verification, or just seem questionable

In spite of my hesitations, I have decided to publish the emails that have been made publicly available through mass emailings, paper mailings, and/or paper distribution at BOD meetings, so that TAJ owners can get some idea of the high level of discord that exists between individual BODs, between various members of the community, between individual BODs and various members of the community, and between almost everyone and the property management."

I tried to make it as safe as possible by taking several steps to make it difficult to stumble across, and by including a heavy disclaimer that had the implication that much of what was included was not factual. Even after these measures, I am still unable to feel comfortable was such vehement accusations, without solid factual basis, being available to the general public in such a way that it might damage people's reputations.

For that reason I have decided to remove The DIRT from this BLOG. I am still going to post whatever is openly distributed at BOD meetings and mailings throughout the community. And I am still willing to post opinion letters upon request. But for now, The DIRT is gone.

I gave it a try. I have learned something about myself.

A Unit Owner's Open Letter Response to an Open Letter Challenge

The following from unit owner Michael McNicol is a response to Mark Morgenstern's open letter challenge to the community.

Open Response: 

I’ll keep this simple, and based on fact. 

Concerned unit owner, Mike McNicol, 

demonstrating that he has a sense of humor.

I also protest the current email, blind copy campaign. We put new leaders in place to gain transparency, and have nothing to show for it, and feel less and less information will be shared with the community. 

The board has previously budgeted for an audit for several years, which is not only required by state statute, but is also a minimum standard for all business who are fiscally sound. 

This annually required audit hasn’t taken place in at least 4 years, by your own admission, on the record, at a board meeting. 

The “funds” from the previously budgeted audits, that never happened (by your own admission) should more than  support a forensic audit which at this point, the majority of the community feels is NECESSARY. 

Please explain where these funds went, and if they are still available. 

You asked us to put our money where are mouth is, were asking you to use your mouth and tell us where our money goes. 

May I remind you of your fiduciary duty to the owners of this association, who feel, see, and live the lack thereof.   

Sincerely, 

Michael McNichol

One Unit Owner's Open Letter Challenge to Other Unit Owners

A LETTER TO ALL TAJ RESIDENTS

from Mark Morgenstern

    Good day, I am writing this open letter not as a BOD member, but as a Home Owner living at TAJ. I pay my monthly charges just like everyone else. I do not want to pay for items not needed. We have all been bombarded by E-MAILS, NOT SIGNED, (there must be a reason, for not signing them?) The owner of this Blog reads before releasing, and will only send out correctly signed letters, or e-mails!

Unsigned emails leads to no responsibility! You can e-mail half-truths, made-up stories ( The National Enquirer has been doing this for years, If you believe in Flying Sources, OKAY), false information, or just plan LIES.  You can keep sending as often as you want, print anything you can think of -- with so much muck who would know the difference between a half-truth, and a half-lie. People love to hear and listen colorful stories, and people that tell them lies that they want to hear. But an old saying is "Be careful what you wish for! It may turn out to be some- thing else, and then it is too late!!"

There has been a lot of talk and roar about a FORENSIC AUDIT!  E-mails flying “Some members of this BOD are afraid of an Forensic audit.” “The old Board stole money” “They are guilty of crimes & must pay” “They are afraid of an audit!” “They are blocking us for making this happen” Hang them at once”!  All great hype! Let us set the record straight!  NO ONE ON THE BOD HAS STOPPED ANY AUDIT; FORENSIC OR OTHERWISE. ANYONE SAYING OR PRINTING THE FACT IS A LIAR..ONE MORE TIME, A LIAR.

Anyone who attended the last BOD meeting saw that one board member brought this project to the floor. Having a FORENSIC AUDIT done at TAJ. He was asked many questions, for which, at that time he had no answers. The questions were: Does the accounting company have a license to do this type of FORENSICE AUDIT? Please remember TAJ is not the usual type of community. What years do we want audited? What would be the total dollars evolved? How would payments be made? What is this company’s background, & others? To be answered at a later BOD meeting. THIS PROJECT WAS NOT DENIED! WAS NOT TURNED DOWN! WAS NOT DISMISSED!  That is the truth, and ANYTHING ELSE IS A LIE. 

Now, I have a great idea. This project may cost $10,000--$20,000 -- maybe even close to $100,000 -- who knows. If there are so many Homeowners at TAJ that want to assess us all, then let them stand up and say so and put their MONEY ON THE LINE! Let these Homeowners sign a legal contract to the effect that if the end result of a FORENSIC AUDIT proves NOTHING WENT AMISS, and NO CRIME WAS COMMITTED, then they will pay the cost of the audit and those unit owners that did NOT sign on will not incur the cost of it. 

I think that the unit owners that are anonymously complaining about the past BOD should PUT THEIR MONEY WHERE THEIR MOUTH IS.

Letter to TAJ Residents from a TAJ Resident

Letter to all of our TAJ residents……from Margery Morgenstern

Now that our last BOD elections have taken place, with four new Board Members being elected; it is time to look back at where we are as a community. I have been a renter, and home owner for over 23 years; these past elections tactics would rival even the worst that Chicago or New York had ever seen. Did anyone ever question the WHO & WHY of the candidates, or just take them at their word??

One candidate has a good job as a manager, excellent. One is a young comer who is told what to do by another, I get it, he’s her pup.

The third person is a prior board member who quit and never completed that term! But was on the Board when the worst Bank Loan was signed!!  That person’s “claims to fame”; was making the same speech throwing out: This Board is “stealing money’, hiding money; favoritism; using account tricks; mortgage manipulation; etc.  Did he ever show one solid proof of any evidence? NO NEVER! Did he ever answer a direct question with a simple Yes or No, he answered it with another question….A cheap trick!! He keeps yelling to bring in a Forensic Accountant to look at all our Books. Bring them in, bring in two; make sure we all know the cost of upfront! For they will find nothing wrong; all the accounting is up front; with nothing to hide.

The fourth person earns that living as a Real-Estate Broker; buying and selling real-estate; town-houses; homes; at the lowest cost possible and selling/flipping them at a profit!! And now you put this person where critical home information is available; at TAJ! Where are they going to spend the 28 to 40 hours per week to the BOD business? Do you know that there is an ongoing liable suite taken out by the Association against this member?  Find out why; ask questions at the next BOD meeting. Find out why this person had fines levied by the association. There is a possible Federal Mail Fraud charge being sought against this person! Ask questions. Don’t be led astray with by Quote:::: BIG MOUTHS YELLING AT BOARD MEETINGS. Roberts Rules of Order was put in place for a reason. Learn what they are! The rules are there for your protection; don’t let a group “Rail-Road” this community.

Yes our TAJ DOC’S have to be brought up to date, they are quite old. Do not be fooled if the new Board will want to take credit for coming up with this idea; it has been in the works for some time. Many times there is a more important matter in front that must be taken care of first.

But people need to understand they were tricked to vote for someone to get on the board to stop her own lawsuit. That is a conflict of Interest in so many ways. She wants to hire a management company for this community. Our History knows – every management company has stolen from TAJ.. Is this what she wants??

Regards,

Margery Morgenstern

Open Letter to TAJ Unit Owners from BOD Member Mark Morgenstern

The following is a letter that came to be by email from Mark Morgenstern, a member of the TAJ Board of Directors, who asked that I post it online. I am happy to publish this letter, unedited, as it does not appear to contain any direct attacks on named individuals, and the author clearly takes ownership of his remarks.

Let me also state the obvious, just in case anyone might get confused: just because I post someone's letter on this blog does not mean that I necessarily agree with the opinions, factual claims, interpretation of events, or philosophy of the author of the letter.

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An open letter to all at TAJ from Mark Morgenstern          3/5/15

Good day, I will like to state a few facts. Within the past few months there have been many snide-remarks, rumors, false-hood, just plain lies, plus our-right Mail Fraud perpetrated, spread by mailing, e-mails throughout our community; no proof shown anywhere, just plain speculation!!!

Because of these issues, TAJ & its BOD has been put under a microscope and deeply examined by The Town of Plantation; The Building Dept of Plantation; Code-enforcement; The State of Florida; Dept of Professional Regulation; The Broward Ombudsman! The results turned out to be;… one needed letter to extend our Audit to the Community! Plus when we took the board, the audit was four- to-five years beyond; now it is two and before the year closed out; up to date. Did anyone do their research to see why we were so behind??? Because of all these issues & falsehoods more of your & mine Legal Dollars have spend; hours wasted that could have been spent to move forward. If you were at the last BOD meeting;  you heard one member bitterly complain about not being able to see old minutes they wanted and had to go to the Lawyers Office and was charged for getting these minutes. Number one; they were not charged; the building was charged. What the home owner wanted was the BOD minutes from 2005- to 2014, nine years! What she paid for was the printing; as normal. Number two; any results from reading all the minutes? I think not, or we would have heard from them! Every decision that was made at our BOD meetings was with one idea; what was the best for TAJ. Not for the Board, not for certain Buildings, as was done is in the Past;  But Do What Is The Best for TAJ!!!! ONLY!!!!

Now, a question is asked, why didn't the office print out Nine Years of minutes for them?  Many answers. One, there had been verbal threats made in the office by Home owners, there was major problems with Home owners going past the normal routine of Office Visits. Maybe the Office was responding to the many “Office Requests Forms” being PILED into the office, one on top of each other, each line, completely filled up. Never happened before; put now, something was going on. The office was being PUSHED.  There have been more than 7 full page requests from one home-owner with 9 to 10 line of information each;, from hand tool inventory to, complete roster of residents, wanted. Other homeowners followed suit. The Office was being buried under paper work……..Something was not right. May of these owners were new to our community; within the last 1-4 years!

The so called tried & failed Re-call of our new Budget……….many of these new owners did not understand or want to understand the simple rules we all live under. 

AT this upcoming election the DBPR was asked to oversee the procedure? All these new home-owners have never seen our election process. It is normal, with Lawyers present, very secure, & has never had a problem before. So why ask the DBPR to oversee? WHY, they don’t trust themselves. By the way, there were double signatures, (not-allowed), names just printed in, and a few extra wrinkles added. But they will be here! And they are welcomed; there is nothing to hide. O, I forgot something, who is going to PAY to have them here………We all are, what is an extra thousand $ of our money being spent!!!!! Didn’t we all want that!!!!

Many of us have seen the entire extra letter being sent to them. Not one but a whole slew of them!!! Only sent to certain people. Many sent with the return address as the” Townhouses At JACARANDA”.  WRONG!!!!.....They were never mailed by our Office staff or the BOD……Federal Mail Fraud? This is an open case still in process……………….Other issues, too many to go into…………WHY!!

Take a step back and look at all the facts………….All are true!......Within the upcoming election 9 candidates running, 3 are newcomers 1-4 years; One is an old board member, did not complete his time in office. Why would you remove the treasurer; (never been any legal, or money issues!), why you remove the people with the most knowledge within the two large Suits against the Contractors who caused these building problems?

We as a Board are very proud of our accomplishments; from the many disasters we were faced with on day one, & I will not beat up the past again, to what we will leave behind. Daily accounting, up to day, bills paid on time. Construction being done; permits being pulled and closed out! Working closely with the City and Dept of Building, in Plantation. There are still many problems over TAJ, and the City must see community that can work together, not be torn apart!!!!!!

Stop and think before X your ballot; it is your money, your community, do not give it away!!

THANK YOU…………Mark Morgenstern

A Response to Letter Mailed by TAJ BOD

The following letter is being posted here at the request of unit owners that received it via email on 5 Aug, and with the permission of the author Bryan Sklar. It is in response to a correspondence that was apparently mailed by the TAJ BOD.

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Mr. Lovell - I would appreciate if you are going to share my letter with the community that you do so in full, and without edits or changes. I don't like being plagiarized or misquoted.  While I am happy that you found some of the information in here useful, you changed the tone of the message to one that supports your activities.

Let me be clear - I think you should resign. I think you are immoral, that you behave in an unethical manner, that you are self-serving.

The Board acted - in my opinion - in an unethical and immoral manner when they allowed Wendi to remain on the board after she transferred title of her property. Basically John, you decided it was better to keep Wendi on the Board by giving her half of one of your units, then for the 6 remaining board members to step up and take responsibility.

You hired Wendi as the Property Manager, creating a potential conflict by having a unit owner and Board Member receiving compensation. The Board had a resolution many years ago that prohibited unit owners from working in the office - I believe you voted on this as well (it was when E [unit owner] worked in the office and was sharing information about JN [the property manager at the time] ).

Perception becomes reality - and the community perceives what you all did as underhanded, manipulative and deceitful.

John, you made a comment recently that you were concerned about why people were trying so hard to get on the board and their motivations - after 10 years on the Board that could be said about you as well. Isn't it time you resign, take care of your health, and let others be on the board? How many times has Building 1 been repaired in the past 12 years when you were on the Board?

If you cannot fix your own building right, where you owned 5 units at one time, how can the Association expect you to work in their best interests to fix their buildings? It's obvious from looking at Building 1 how bad a job you have done selecting contractors and fixing the problem.

Correspondence From TAJ BOD

This letter came in the mail on Saturday.  I was asked to post it on this blog. I did not write this letter.  I believe it to be factually accurate.  There is some additional information from the Property Manager that I will also be posting in the next day or two, when I get the time. 

Letter From A Concerned Resident

The letter below was sent to the blog administrator after having been sent to the BOD. The author says that he has not received a response to his inquiry.

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With all due respect to the Board and finance committee who volunteered their time, why are we still having issues with the budget?

"Fully funded reserves" DOES NOT mean collecting all the funds in one year: it means determining the remaining useful life of the assets, how much is already in the bank, and how much is still left to collect. In 2009, the total amount to fully fund reserves was $25.33 per unit per month for the outstanding balance of $1.5 million, of which $103,000 was scheduled to be collected in 2009 to fully fund them that year. Based on the budget we received a few weeks back in the mail, the finance committee is using the same spreadsheets that were created several years ago and have in them the calculations for funding the association reserves.

I am unable to figure out how someone came up with $325 per unit per month, or $1.32 million, for 2011 ....we're not supposed to collect all of the funds in one year. And if an asset is already fully funded we don't have to fund it any further. State law I believe also requires the Board to re-evaluate the reserves every couple of years to correct the amounts and useful life - has this been done?

Your accountants - who may already be subject to disciplinary actions  for not transferring 2010 and prior common area and building reserve funds each month to a separate reserve account as required by law and which you were previously notified about  - should have corrected or advised you on this.

Please see the attached sheets from the proposed 2009 budget - specifically the Common Area Reserves worksheet that had the calculations from 2009.

I am not that smart, but I am smart enough to know that something is wrong when it took me less than 5 minute to review the old files, and your current spreadsheets you sent to us the other month, to see the mistakes. Our budget could have remained the same as last year and fully funded the reserves at about $23 per month per unit, or about $16 per month more than the  first budget notice and $302 per month less than the budget you just sent us.

Who will be addressing this at the meeting on Thursday night? Who will answer the questions about insurance deductibles and were they passed back to all the units in the Association or did just the units in the buildings affected pay the deductible on their insurance claims, such as Building 2 and 31 (by law each building is responsible for their own expenses, including insurance premiums and deductibles)? When will the reserve funds that the Associaton colllected  be transferred to the Reserve Accounts per Florida Statutes since Moody never transferred them (board votes don't override the law)?

Thank you.

718.111 (14) - note: we don't have investment funds, and Moody never transferred our reserve funds to our reserve accounts!COMMINGLING.—All funds collected by an association shall be maintained separately in the association’s name. For investment purposes only, reserve funds may be commingled with operating funds of the association. Commingled operating and reserve funds shall be accounted for separately, and a commingled account shall not, at any time, be less than the amount identified as reserve funds. This subsection does not prohibit a multicondominium association from commingling the operating funds of separate condominiums or the reserve funds of separate condominiums. Furthermore, for investment purposes only, a multicondominium association may commingle the operating funds of separate condominiums with the reserve funds of separate condominiums. A manager or business entity required to be licensed or registered under s. 468.432, or an agent, employee, officer, or director of an association, shall not commingle any association funds with his or her funds or with the funds of any other condominium association or the funds of a community association as defined in s. 468.431.

718.111(3)(f) - note: description of how to compute association reserve funds
Annual budget.—

2.In addition to annual operating expenses, the budget shall include reserve accounts for capital expenditures and deferred maintenance. These accounts shall include, but are not limited to, roof replacement, building painting, and pavement resurfacing, regardless of the amount of deferred maintenance expense or replacement cost, and for any other item for which the deferred maintenance expense or replacement cost exceeds $10,000. The amount to be reserved shall be computed by means of a formula which is based upon estimated remaining useful life and estimated replacement cost or deferred maintenance expense of each reserve item. The association may adjust replacement reserve assessments annually to take into account any changes in estimates or extension of the useful life of a reserve item caused by deferred maintenance. This subsection does not apply to an adopted budget in which the members of an association have determined, by a majority vote at a duly called meeting of the association, to provide no reserves or less reserves than required by this subsection. However, prior to turnover of control of an association by a developer to unit owners other than a developer pursuant to s. 718.301, the developer may vote to waive the reserves or reduce the funding of reserves for the first 2 fiscal years of the association’s operation, beginning with the fiscal year in which the initial declaration is recorded, after which time reserves may be waived or reduced only upon the vote of a majority of all nondeveloper voting interests voting in person or by limited proxy at a duly called meeting of the association. If a meeting of the unit owners has been called to determine whether to waive or reduce the funding of reserves, and no such result is achieved or a quorum is not attained, the reserves as included in the budget shall go into effect. After the turnover, the developer may vote its voting interest to waive or reduce the funding of reserves.

A Letter From Another Unhappy TAJ Neighbor

Editor's note: A concerned TAJ neighbor submitted the following letter and pictures to me. The neighbor's identity is being withheld in order to protect him from possible retaliation. His words were also edited slightly for clarity and also to help to withhold his identity. As the blog administrator I can not guarantee that the claims made by the author of this letter are accurate. I DO guarantee that his words and photos are being displayed accurately here.

"Whoever wrote the letter (posted on Friday, 13 June 2008) is totally and absolutely correct. I'm sending to you some pictures of kids destroying the playground's fence and door. One of the kids opened the door with a knife... The other one cut the fence one day after TAJ maintenance fixed it. Parents of those kids should be paying for it."

Signed,
Another Angry Neighbor (Identity withheld by request)

Letter Submitted by Unit Owner

Una traducción española está disponible en Web site: www.TAJWatchSpanish.blogspot.com

My Theory is redo the Budget! and start from Scratch, If someone in the community provides a service get an initial bid from them and work on that as a base line! for the buildings in arrears contact the Florida State Regulations board and get some Funding which will bring all current no matter the number! the Economy is dropping, just like the jaws of the unit owners when we now have to pay for the many years of neglect the Development has endured. Push the State to grant us an allowance to restructure our board and reface our property wth landscaping, and delay the amenities till the exterior looks well enough to attract peopel to purchase in our development and to help keep current owners here, Last I looked we had 18 units up for sale varying from 166,000 to 305,000 thats afar strecth in numbers when they should be witihn 30,000 this place has been pethetic in the last decade.! I heard that using services from a unit owner would be conflict of interest, (HOW?) don't you think that a current unit owner would have the best interest of all of us in mind rather than an outsider whom only looks at dollar signs. On this Property alone we have attorneys, accountants, Security, a cuople of CAMS, Legal secretaries, and other professions that this development could benefit from if we all put our heads together and think!

All of the previous BOD members had points and the new ones do...lets step back and be a democracy for once rather than a illcontrolled dictatorship. furthermore revamp the BY-Laws they are outdated!!!! and non rational... Remember when you were kids playing in the streets and having Fun!!!! I though we were a family oriented Development!!! IF my kids ( when they get older) wanna play outside they have to be supervised and be in designated areas, I understand Supervised but a designated area!!! ludacris

I personally believe that the era of time will drive us all to the psych ward!!

A complete restructure is in order!!

New Accountants, Attorney's ( Sorry Beth ), Security personnel, contractors, etc.... we have over 300 owners Here! excluding the empty Units.... USE OUR OWN!!! Geesh the place is getting to moderized with the Industry, Thinking its always cheaper outside the BOX!! ( all the Fortune 500 companies moving there tech, and call centers to India and to other abroad places, no wonder why we are in a recession........ No jobs, No stable income, unless you head one of those companies...... I rememeber when we I was young wishing I could be a doctor, lawyer, president, and have all I wanted, but looking at the days as they go by the average doctor is in debt over 100,000.00 just in bills, not mortgage....the average joe working middle class citizen is in no debt, making 45,000 a year with a college degree and wait facing foreclosure because his 45,000 a YEAR just covers his bills and mortgage, and he living week to week, and gets slapped with assessments after assessments....

My fellow Unit Owners I just had to ramble on and On.... I tried to post it on the Blog but oh well.

Oh one more thing!!!! STOP SPray Painting the Sprinkler pipes!!!!! it looks Nassty stop trying to rebuild the tot lot and stuff bring the buildings, pools and landscaping to a presentable point than think about a tot lot, plus the cameras at the pool areas move them to the entrances and the four corners of the property so we can see the hoodlums burglarizing our cars and homes rather than the office staff or other individuals watching those in the pool area, yes have one at the pools, not 3 or what ever we have.. but if we have the corners covered we can see the punks coming and leaving and what direction!!! to give a better detail to the investigators...THINK people....

Concerned Unit Owner

MCE (Michael, Bldg 47 unit 04)