Our Village

Owner Camaraderie

Once again our Village has weathered divisive endeavors that likened to the 2008 fiasco that transformed Village amity into an environment of enmity. Let us never forget that Reta Priest and Leroy Mulch sued six of our Village directors that year, shutting down Board functions while costing our Membership thousands.

It seems Reta Priest and crony Catherine Demalade were clearly influential in this year’s election stoppage and even laid the claim to represent those who might cause a lawsuit. Our Board allowed these two beauties to be on a new Election Confirmation Committee after demanding the need to investigate the very election they tried to sabotage. Is there a beneficial reasoning behind all this? Boy, you just can’t make this stuff up.

In 2008, owners had no choice but to pay their share for the Priest/Mulch lawsuit and soon found their monthly assessments were covering the insurance increases caused by one too many lawsuits. It seems apparent that Village owners have decided enough is enough. I have never seen such camaraderie between owners in their quest to obtain the needed number of quorum registries. Going forward the new Board’s road map seems simple, pay for any expenses if you are going to contest such things as an election and want a recount.

To my understanding the Election Confirmation Committee provided on Monday a satisfied and correct ballot count. The onus is now on these two lovelies and their clique.

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A Tidbit

A recent comment said “Seriously Joey…..there is never a report on the pool expenses.” My apologies, after a close look at the Aramark reports, in 2009 $76,212.84 was spent on the pools and $69,160.79 was budgeted for 2010. Interesting to note  this year's pool expenses appear to have gone over budget by $21,163.49, closing out at a cost of $89,324.28 and I don’t remember a word said about it. Have you?

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Synopsis of the 2010 Aramark Annual Report

The Swing Bridge for the second year in a row has cost the owners nearly a half a million dollars. The $123,000 increase from 2008 is due to the high risk insurance from one too many lawsuits.
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Total labor costs for 2010 were near 2006 levels at $792,869.
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Security expenditures were $209,673 in 2010, an increase of 3%.
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The Laundry was a $3,655 loser for 2010. This amenity has had an averaged loss of $4,732 ever since the ex-GM Larry Demalade convinced the Board into contracting with an outside source in 2007.
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The Golf Course lost a humungous $62,812 in 2010. This follows losing almost $100,000 in 2009.
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The Village Grill posted a $27,381 improvement over 2009, but take away the amount spent in 2009 to remodel 75% of the restaurant and both were enormous losers at $49,307.
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The Rental Office lost a whopping $35,611 in 2010, $119,624 in five years when one subtracts the $38,712 gift from the insurance company. What are never figured in is increase costs from renter’s above average use of Village water, sewage, and trash. This renter deficit tally grows even larger when one figures in the rarely mentioned common ground damages and lawsuits. “ROB” may be a fitting abbreviated name for the Renter Office Business our Village has contrived, a system that uses assessments from the owners who don’t rent in order to financially benefit owners who do.
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Board Meeting March 23, 2011

President Montalvo spoke on Village insurance deductibles which are now $50,000 per lawsuit and indicated our Village has spent $150,000 in lawsuit deductibles so far this year. This has already exceeded what was budgeted for 2011. He expressed the Board’s need to work smarter than the previous one in solving problems before they get out of hand and become a litigation issue.
President Montalvo tried to put to rest the cost concerns many owners fear from initiating this new Election Confirmation Committee having everyone’s favorites Reta Priest and Catherine Demalade as members. President Montalvo did say anyone who wishes to contest future elections must put their money where their mouth is with providing the Village a retainer to cover any cost.
Rick Horner (GM) said there were 88 work orders and 5 building permits. The late condo fees amounted to $25,124, a $37.091 improvement from the previous month. He’s still trying to resolve the ADP power surge that toasted three lift station pumps.
The Board approved Organizational Minutes and the treasurer’s report seemed to be the usual.
The Last Call band played last Saturday at the Rec. Hall and the 2011 pool wristbands will be available April 15th. President Montalvo asked when owners see any pool violations to please contact Security instead of trying to police it themselves and Vice President McBride asked for all owners to attend his Safety Meeting this Wednesday at 9am.
Treasurer Steffensen said her March 16th Cowan Lawsuit mediation resulted in the needing of additional discovery of pre-1985 sea cottage deeds.
Only one bid ($8,000) was able to be obtained to do three lift station relief valves and that was approved by the Board.
Dredging decisions were put on hold due to the recent dredging lawsuit, but the Board is getting the ball rolling at renewing their dredging permit.
A person disrupted the proceedings saying he had filed a lawsuit against the Board and about thirty other defendants. His additional comments were drowned out by the Board President’s calls of him being out of order. After that brief interruption the Board approved to keep the schedule the same as the previous year. There was an interesting comment expressed during the discussion of the schedule in that it was not necessary for owners to become involved with changing the Bylaws on director absenteeism or to add new policy to the Bylaws for director term limits.
After the Board approved Selba Campbell and Richard Lothe to the Bridge Board, Mr. Freeland’s son was also approved to take the place Mr. Freeland who was said to have a permanent Bridge Board position.
Election contesters Reta Priest and Catherine Demalade said no when asked to bear whatever costs this new Election Confirmation Committee might generate. Demalade said it is not just us who are questioning this election, but a lot of people and added she just wanted to represent those who might cause a lawsuit. Demalade finally said if she asked the Village attorney a question which caused a cost, she would pay for it, but then said she did not see a need for a lawyer to be present at Monday’s committee meeting. Reta Priest said if she had a legal question to asked, the answer won’t come from Ramona (the Village attorney).
In a nutshell, these two have a list of demands and our new Board seems to be going out of their way to accommodate them. We’ll see what this March 28th get together does to improve our Village.
There was a long discussion about the old building committee’s updates that spurred a new Building Committee to be approved along with another committee that would consistently update the Village website.
Pat Burke’s old protocol that said only the President may make contact the Village attorney has been changed. The new procedure is that all Board members may contact the attorney, but must let the President know of the contact, and owners may contact the Village atotorney upon Board approval.
Recreation Hall roof repair bids were Owen Roofing $59,640, TSMC $72,480+, and South Texas Roofing for $76,950 and will now be reviewed by the Board.
There was Executive Meeting called pertaining to this person who interrupted the meeting.
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Quorum Satisfied !!!!

It took a one hour recess to get the nine final registrations to satisfy the quorum for our Annual Meeting.
Richard Deitrick and Larry Demalade were nominated from the floor. Ironically Demalade's nominator*

was not eligible because that person, like the COOL gang group, had not registered. Poor Larry must wait another day.

Elected
Ed McBride
David Chapa
Patti Ann Sandberg
Richard Deitrick.

The 2011 Board of Directors will look like this
President-Eddie Montalvo
Vice-President-Ed McBride
Asst. V.P.-Bill Gagan
Secretary-Annita White
Asst.-Secretary-Richard Deitrick
Treasurer-Mary Steffensen
Asst. Treasurer-Patti Ann Sandberg
Director-Joe Guerra
Director-David Chapa

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* Correction made
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No Quorum

Annual Meeting continues Saturday 12th

Annual Meeting opened with Gerry Schmidt nominated as chairman and announced they were about one hundred and forty registered voters short of having a quorum. I believe the credit must be given to the COOL GANG crowd. Through February they’ve contacted owners telling them their unfounded reasons on why not to vote. It may be their right to lobby against our Village from achieving a quorum, but costing our Village thousands in the process is not. There again when looking back on what they did to our Village in 2008, it seemed costing our Village money was never a concern. It is just hard to get your arms around their thinking for doing this. What do they gain? Practice maybe?

During the meeting’s one hour recess, a Mrs. Tate from the LMWD spoke on voting for the Bond Issue that had recently failed by just 72 votes. It’s being brought up again and if passed the bottom line is our tax rate stays the same and the Association avoids a 40% increase in water costs. An owner asked where a person could obtain an absentee ballot and Mrs. Tate said the answer will be forthwith on channel 18.

The Village auditor and GM gave their reports and the meeting resumed with no change in the registered numbers. Ramona Kantack Alcantara said the procedure would work like this; there will be a motion to adjourn until next Sat. at 10 am and no business can be conducted by members of the Board until a quorum is satisfied. Director Montalvo wanted it to be clear that we continue these meetings with Board members doing no business until we get a quorum and the election is satisfied. Once confirmed he asked if fellow Directors Pelletier and Gagan understood this.

An Owner was recognized by Chairman Schmidt asked if Vice President Pelletier is going to continue to ask owners not to vote. Chairman Schmidt ruled her out of order and Treasurer Steffensen immediately made the motion to adjourn the meeting until Saturday. Meeting was adjourned with quite a few disgruntled owners feeling a valid question was not answered. Ramona did answer a few more questions pertaining to next Saturday’s meeting.

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Regular Meeting 2/23/2011

(To Paraphrase)
Pres. Halbach quickly addressed the Pat Burke rumor of being hired as a “corporate representative”. He also threatened to take legal action against the Board member who leaked executive session info. An owner from the audience said he had firsthand knowledge of that leak saying you (President Halbach) announced Pat Burke was going to represent the Village during last week’s workshop.
President Halbach said Pat Burke’s two year involvement with the Cowen case gives her most knowledge and rapport. He pointed out that Ms. Burke has every right to be on the take since September. He posed, do you want Pat Burke who can best serve the interest of LIV or someone who knows little or nothing.
Owners expressed concern that this sets precedence for past and future Board members being used in such a manner can now ask for $50 an hour compensation. President Halbach said no and gave me the impression that Pat Burke had demanded the money while others have never asked. Dir. White asked Pres. Halbach why weren’t we made aware of these previous payouts to Pat Burke and was told you didn’t need to know since the attorney requested her involvement and the insurance company was paying for it.

Manager’s report had nothing unusual except fifty water leaks due to the big freeze.

Treasurer Report had nothing unusual. There was no P&L report.

Committee Reports had D&E announced their remaining activities, Golf announced all the cart paths should be completed soon, and Pool is going to buy some new pool furniture, install a new gazebo roof, and introduce the new colored wrist bands soon.

After the motion allowing Pat Burke be a Cowen lawsuit “expert witness”, discussions took place. Secretary Montalvo felt this was a mistake because in the past Pat Burke has cost our Village thousands and used the Smith lawsuit as one $15,000 example.
Secretary Steffensen said because the Cowen mediation starts next month it will be difficult to properly review the discovery data due to its volume. She then tried to compare Pat Burke’s $50 dollar an hour services to jury duty.
Dir. Guerra confessed that he along with his fellow Board members have failed to perform their duties at being involved in these lawsuits and said Our Village is paying for it now. Secretary Montalvo agreed and said this should never be allowed to happen again.
Pat Burke struted up to the podium and declared everything she did was in direct correlation to what the attorney had said and if you, referring to Secretary Montalvo would have been listening you would have heard that. She said the Board is setting the parameters with Mary (Steffensen) being the voice of the Board and I the person who has the information. She added she got involved in these lawsuits because nobody else did and implied she didn’t care one way or the other. Secretary Montalvo took issue with her statement and his following questions were shut down by President Halbach. After being told once again that all monies paid to Ms. Burke will be reimbursed by the insurance company, the Board passed their “expert witness” motion. Directors White and Montalvo voted against it.

The dredging survey is about two weeks from completion said Dir. Gagan, and may now include the boat dock/swing bridge area at no cost. Canal H was briefly discussed.

Dir. Pelletier made two motions, passage of $9,320 for Rubio Brothers patchwork of Village roads and Building code revisions. Both motions were approved.

After Treasurer Steffensen discussed the adjustments of the Major Improvement money, she said the Operating budget showed a positive bottom line of $12,329. She made motions to approve her 2011 Operating Budget and her Major Improvement budget. Both motions were passed.
Dir. Pelletier prepped the owners of a probable future assessment with saying that the Rec. Hall roof, Sundial road repair, and the Rec. Center/ Welcome Center Parking lot repavings are not part of the 2011 budget.

Treasurer Steffensen said last week there was a lot of discussion about the election packet forms and reminded everyone that in 2008 our Village attorney corrected what she found wrong in the election process.
I do recall the Village attorney having to be involved along with some outside entities that year due to the lawsuit Reta Priest and Leroy Mulch lawsuit filed against six members of our Board that resulted in costing our Village tens of thousands of dollars.
Treasurer Steffensen said subtle changes have been made towards the election process and forms since and made the motion to go back to the 2009 election process and forms, adding that any future changes are to be subject to Board approval.
When asked, Treasurer Steffensen could not recall what our attorney found wrong with the 2008 process and forms or even what may be actually wrong with what she called these current subtle changes. All Treas. Steffensen could say for sure was the proxy form was an issue in 2008.
It was revealed that the Board has never before been involved with election materials which brought some concerned towards Board members seeking their second term having additional control over the election process.
The Board did say the Village attorney will review every Board electoral revision done although that verbiage was not put in this motion that passed.

Director White said that certain owners were trying to kill the Annual Meeting quorum and asked for responsible owners to please register. She also announced there were problems with the lift stations and bids to correct them will be needed. Our GM said he’s on it.

President Halbach asked and received Board approval on giving a LMWD representative some talking points time for the bond issue at our Annual Meeting.
President Halbach also told owners the amendment file in 2005 to our Long Island Owners Association’s Declaration said if any part of Long Island is annexed, the LIOA would dissolved and the responsibility for the swing bridge would go to that entity who annexed. This amendment was nicknamed the poison pill and now that Port Isabel has sent our Village a letter wanting us to rescind it or face another lawsuit. Village attorney Garcia has said our Park has no leg to stand on but may be able to negotiate certain things.

Selba Campbell said there were two openings for the Bridge Board.

Secretary Montalvo announced that that he heard one of our sitting Board members has been asking owners not to vote in order to stop our Village from having a quorum. Secretary Montalve wanted to remind him and the audience that could lead to substantial costs for the Village.

Secretary Montalvo said that since being appointed Secretary, copies of the corporate books, all records, and papers except those kept by the Treasurer, were required for me to have. He said I’ve been given nothing on the pending lawsuits to review. He said in the past that Pat Burke had a directive that all litigation emails were to stay with her and Board members would have to make arrangements to come to her residence to read them. Acting surprised Treasurer Steffensen said to her knowledge a copy of every email goes to the office and was always available. President Halbach said he will make sure this information will be made available.

Security answered some fire extinguisher questions.

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