Response to Cindy Potts letter 9.8.15
Harold, David and I agree with you that any bickering at meetings needs to stop. We have suggested that you run the meetings, not Wendi, as is your responsibility or Harold’s according to our docs. We have asked you to sit in the middle so we can hear you or use a microphone. Positioning yourself differently may produce a different result. You sit by Wendi and have private conversations while other members are speaking on issues. You need to maintain order and control of the process, not by getting up and walking out and not by adjourning because you do not like the way things are going. If you cannot be heard or maintain order, try working with your VP and let Harold run the meeting. If you continue to do everything by yourself you are not fostering a spirit of cooperation and teamwork, you will alienate the people you are supposed to be working with and even leading. Cindy you may have been interviewing property management companies for 4 months but none of the rest of us have been included or privy to any information pertaining to that. David, Harold and I have been shut out of all information and decisions that are going on behind closed doors. We have not been invited to participate in doing anything to help this community. We have invited you to discussions and asked to meet with you. You are willing to meet with the entire community but not your fellow board members? We have asked to participate, be updated, and informed but have been told by you that you would not give us the day to day details of the operations of TAJ. You told us you have not seen anything useful from us to put on the agenda. We are 3 willing able volunteers who have been looking forward to fulfilling our duties and the community’s expectations of working to make a better community but have been denied access to the office, the records, and information or even unable to put owners concerns on the agenda. Wendi and Jennifer even called you and the police when I stopped by to ask for 3 documents after requesting them by email and phone and I had not received them. And I’m on the board. One of the docs is a valid set of condo docs which I paid for but my copy is missing the bottom 1/3 of many pages. I have a copy of the police report and a video the event.
The Grass issue: Annette Katzman reached out to ask for grass. This was an internal communication request from me to the BOD to assist her. It is the BODs responsibility to maintain the community including grass. I realize this is an extremely irrelevant issue to most everyone but If she or any owner does not feel they can come to any board member and ask for something even something so simple as please fix the grass without being minimized is it any wonder the owners are disgusted with the management? If we cannot be entrusted with small things how can we be entrusted with larger things? You admit in your letter that the sprinklers failed, no water, grass died, bottom line Cindy, can and will BOD fix it or not?
All the community has ever asked is for things to make sense and to be able to have free access to the records. Wendi and Jennifer make up the construction assessments though they have NO construction experience or knowledge to do so. There must be a minimum of 3 bids and there have not been. There is no competition for the work in here to keep the prices competitive. What have you done differently than whats been happening in here for the last 8 years? Anyone can look around the community and see that we are not in good financial shape. That’s obvious to everyone. You said Wendi’s record keeping was a disaster. Now you say all is in order. You did not discuss with the board and address Wendi having her cousin working here. The East pool issues reported 1 ½ year ago still aren’t fixed.
Do not attribute to me or to Harold what any management company may or may not have said to you. I was not privy to any conversation that you had with Alliance property management. And have no knowledge of this conversation taking place. You requested names of companies from the board and we gave you several. That is all. And you say no other company is willing or able to work in here? It’s not because we are too big. We have several long term educated volunteer residents willing to relay TAJ history to prospective management companies which will facilitate the process and overcome the obstacles. This could be done even before the initial interview with the board to economize time. It does sound to me based on your letter like the owner of Alliance did not agree with you that the community is in as good financial shape as you claim if he was suggesting receivership. Sounds like he felt we were in dire shape and in crisis. And how can we know who to believe? If even board members are prevented from getting to the office, we should have access to all office records. You are preventing that. If we are in such good financial shape why there was discussion at the Aug 2015 board meeting about putting another assessment in the 2016 budget for pool pump equipment? That a contradiction. Wendi said someone was going to get electrocuted however it wasn’t necessary to shut the pool down to prevent access, we just needed to assess for it so we could get it fixed. Why didn’t you just tell us the cost and let us vote on it? If you cannot in good conscience make a decision based on conjecture and speculation then don’t tell the community I wrote something that I didn’t sign. If I write it and I sign it then you can attribute it to me. Otherwise you are doing what you are accusing others of. There are many letters that owners have contributed but they did not want to be targeted by Wendi and the association lawyer so they did not sign. I never even read the article about channel 10. My Apology to the person who sent it in. Regarding you making allegations with no concrete proof: I reported uncollected bulk trash on my street at a board meeting and the board accused me of doing it. Wendi never sent a violation notice as is the proper procedure by the office manager. 8 months later you signed a violation notice charging me $1435.00 with zero evidence or proof of wrongdoing on my part even after the violations committee reviewed my case, and never even voted. That was illegal. I was also accused of mailing letters with the board address which someone else admitted in writing to doing. I checked with him and he was never even contacted to verify. You say all I want to do is sell make a profit and get out of this community. 1st I have not listed my units for sale. My daughter lives in one with my 2 grandbabies. 2nd probably ½ the community read that comment and laughed hysterically and said who wouldn’t leave if they could only sell and make a profit and get out of this place. 3rd you telling people what I want to do sounds more like that’s what you want me to do and has nothing to do with whets in my mind. Would I be on the board if I planned on leaving?
Apologies in advance …This portion is related to my personal experience: Wendi repeatedly states we are saving so much money by using Nova, but my entire building paid $27K per unit and then we were assessed another $37K . That’s $64K assessment per unit. Wendi authorized $47K of that on just 2 balconies ( and a small section of stucco wall )and she and Jennifer won’t tell anyone in my building how they justified that. Cindy you stated at a meeting that your pair of balconies cost only $19K. Mine took 6 months to build, had no structural beams replaced, it’s not pitched, its pending water, molding, has code violations, some wrong materials were used to build it, it’s not secured to the house properly according to a private engineer I hired at my own expense to assess the situation, it cost a disproportionate amount of money and no one in the office has been willing to discuss this with me. I have pictures of the employees sleeping on my balcony, sitting around doing absolutely nothing for hours, playing on cell phones, my dryer vent tube and hose holder were damaged. My electric was used to build my neighbors balcony. My water was used to pressure clean the entire building. When I brought these issues to Wendi’s attention her response was to sue me for bothering the contractor and being a nuisance. In this community the construction company is protected not the unit owner. That’s just wrong. Wendi accuses me of disparaging Nova. I reported what I saw and experienced. It is Wendi’s job as construction manager, for which she gets paid separately (in addition to her $85K office manager salary and bonuses) to investigate and fix the problems. Instead she routinely instructs Simon how to do his job and requires that he follow her instructions even when it has been incorrect to do so according to what he has stated. If Simon were allowed to do his job without Wendi constantly emasculating him and micromanaging everything he does who knows what he could accomplish?
Residents have been reporting seeing John Lovell still at the office almost daily between 10 am and 2 pm and still involved with managing the construction company. John was seen last week ripping into Simon too. One week Wendi is praising Simon as the savior of TAJ and the only contractor she trusts and the next we are being told at the BOD meetings that he is being terminated because he was going to talk to the community and to Harold Scott our new VP, about how the money from the assessments is being spent after he saw the spread sheet and saw how much the unit owners were being charged. Then after some private meetings with Wendi , Jennifer and Cindy, Simon was given a raise and wouldn’t talk to anyone, and Harold got a letter from the association attorney threatening him that he could not act on behalf of the board and talk to vendors or contractors and specifically Simon. And you want to tell the community that I have an agenda? Well, It is my intention to make sure that what happened to me doesn’t happen to anyone else in here. It is my agenda to see that the unit owners concerns are heard and addressed. It is my goal to see that residents, be they owners or tenants ( TAJ investors renters and source of income) are treated with courtesy and respect. Not bullied or spoken down to. It is my goal to ensure that there is no selective enforcement or targeting, Etc.
Yearly audits are required to be done and were not.
Concerning the 40 year recertifcation remarks: The 40 yr inspection is an issue that all communities will have to face eventually. Saying large management companies cant handle it makes no sense. What is the truth here? All the buildings were inspected at Wendis request. This was a board decision but the boards authority was circumvented. This did create hardship for some owners who were trying to sell and of course it effects all going forward who may consider selling as they did not need to be inspected yet. My building, 28, is 35 years old. Not 40. If we in my building could get information and answers from the property manager/ office we wouldn’t have had to go to the city to get answers. We did request information to educate ourselves and we were shown on paper by the building department that only building 2 was supposed to be started in 2015. No other buildings. However, while unit owners in my building did want to delay the premature assessment especially when one owner was trying to sell, your other comments regarding my trying to overturn the 40 yr recertification on my bldg are patently false. I went to the Plantation city council meeting to ask for an inspector to inspect my unit balcony because of the balcony issues as outlined. There was no notice of commencement, no engineer inspection to finalize and no closed permit. July meeting is recorded on camera, so u can see I was not asked to leave. I was told they could not address the issue because it was a civil matter as Jeff Sabouri told them my unit was in litigation. It was the last item of the night the meeting was over after I made my request. Essentially, you are preventing my unit from being properly completed, inspected and closed up in the garage.
Regarding insurance: Cindy if you were so concerned about our insurance being canceled why did you have our insurance agent come to the board meeting and tell her about the condition of the buildings and how much the assessments were? That galactic blunder that almost blew up in all our faces. She was alarmed and implied that we needed to lie to her so she could tell insurance company to keep us insured now that she knew the condition which would disqualify us. Cindy you haven’t actually shown anyone anything to substantiate claims that all is in order in the office. We, the elected board members have requested to contact vendors to question the high prices we pay and to ensure all transactions have been appropriate and above board. You have blockaded us from doing all duties. You have been allowing and condoning voting by email which is illegal. Harold, David and I have strenuously objected and have refused to participate in email voting which must take place at meetings. Scare tactics: you make it sound like Jennifer is the only competent person on the planet capable of collecting money from banks but you are not disclosing all the facts here. At the appropriate time that subject will be addressed. Jennifer is the CAM licensed manager who proportedly often works from home because she is a nursing student so is often not on site during operating hours when duties which require her presence are perfomed by Wendi, who functions as the property manager and doesn’t have the training or license of a CAM manager. This could potentially be problematic for all of us
Cindy, uou need to work with the rest of us so we can get all the various tasks done. You and Wendi are making all of the decisions for the community unilaterally. If this is too difficult for you and you cant accomplish anything at the meetings as you state, then lets reorganize the board, you take another position that you can effectively handle and let someone else take the lead. Mark Morgenstern has been unwilling or unable to do the secretary job which entails taking minutes to where he felt it necessary to have a non board member assistant. David and I are underutilized. By your own admission I take copious notes. Better for one to be a good follower than a bad leader Saving TAJ will be a team and community effort. But we have to have people on the board who can work together in a democratic way. There are many letters and personal accounts of why others want to terminate Wendis employment and board position here. The reasons are documented in letters that are still coming in and being posted to TAJ Community Voice. Sufficient petitions have been signed to start that process and will be turned in the at BOD meeting 9.8.15. There will be a special meeting and an election to replace Wendi Hill. Only the valid votes of those who show up that night will count. My conviction is that I strongly feel that replacing Wendi Hill with Mr. Jesus Valdez on the board will be the most significant step in catapulting this community towards recovery. He has been in leadership, construction and code enforcement over 20 years and is our best chance as he has the knowledge, credentials and the connections.
Tracy Thomas director
