CascadeLakesResidents.com

Official CascadeLakesResidents.com

Election Report 2023

Welcome to the only official CascadeLakesResidents.com Election Report for 2023!  There might be copycats out there, but there’s only one Real McCoy!  So without further ado, here’s the CascadeLakesResidents.com Official Election Report you’ve been waiting for!

Thank you to all the residents who requested guidance in choosing the next Board. I offer my opinion and thoughts after careful review of the candidates’ records, their behavior, their ethics or lack thereof, and their vision for Cascade Lakes moving forward. 

We’re not just a community and we’re not just neighbors.  We’re actually business partners.  Now under normal circumstances, I would never allow most of these current Board members to be my business partners and certainly not my overlords, because I’m a smart businesswoman, not a fool. 

But in this situation, ownership of my home in Lester Pod requires buying into this organizational structure and all that goes with it.

So here I am, along with many others, essentially forced into a partnership with mediocrity at best and foolish, vindictive personality types at worst, and we’re supposed to navigate this sorry state of affairs in abject silence according to some of these people.  Well, that’s a bridge too far for me, as silence was never one of my special skills.

Therefore, since these buzzards play fast and loose with the truth and the rules, and since they continue to abuse their privileges of power, I will continue to call them out, so at the very least there is a written record of the malfeasance I witness here along with the stupidity, arrogance, and malice of those engaging in it.

Perhaps with this election the tide will finally turn as everyone now has a clear choice to fix this deplorable mess.  There are three open seats.  You get three votes. 

Here are the eight candidates, from which you get to choose three:  Tony D’Agrosa, Alice Silver, George Klein, Jeff D. Green, Harvey Ginsberg, Bob Dingee, Shelly Andreas, and Jay Bleiman.

So we officially have a horserace!  Bang!  And they’re off!  Giddy-up!

First, I will review three outstanding new candidates (Tony, Alice, and George), and then I will review the rest of the pack, none of whom deserve your vote.

The choices here are very, very clear.  You either want corruption (current state of affairs with the incumbents) or you want to clean up the corruption.  For the majority of you reading this, I have awesome news:

Your Dream Team is finally here!

Good vs. Bad; Honesty and Integrity vs. Corruption

There is only one slate of candidates that wants to clean up the corruption here at our beautiful Cascade Lakes and have the neighborhood live up to its true and exciting potential: 

Tony D’Agrosa

Alice Silver

George Klein

Here are the bullet points:

1.  They bring integrity to the Board and understand that they represent you, not themselves, they understand that their fiduciary duties run to you, and they understand that their agendas should be for your benefit, and not for their own self interests.

2.  They understand that almost all Board business is most decidedly not confidential with very few exceptions. 

3.  They understand that they must conduct board business in front of you, must take all votes in front of you, and must give you the opportunity to voice your concerns to them. 

4.  They understand that all agenda items must be noticed to the community so as to allow meaningful resident input.  The incumbents against whom they are running do not believe this and this has been proven by their conduct at past Board meetings.

5.  They want vendor contracts negotiated and they want competitive bidding for the large contracts.  The other candidates have neither negotiated with vendors nor, upon information and belief, even suggested competitive bidding.

6.  They believe in the great potential of Cascade Lakes as a welcoming neighborhood for all.

7.  They will not attend Board meetings in person with the sniffles.

8.  They offer a once-in-a-blue-moon opportunity to set this ship straight.  It’s been listing to the side for way too long.  Now is your chance to right the ship, a golden opportunity for our wonderful neighborhood!

9.  This slate of candidates has pledged to end the corruption, end the secrecy, end the wasteful spending of your money, and to lead with honesty and integrity. 

If you care about the direction of this community and your pocketbooks, the choice is clear. 

Here are your thoroughbred candidates and why they deserve your vote in addition to the above:

1.  Tony D’Agrosa: 

Tony and his wonderful wife, a retired Registered Nurse, have lived in Cascade Lakes since early 2013.  He has stellar credentials. 

He has a B.S. in Business Administration from St. John’s University.  He owned and ran a high-volume direct mail and magazine printing, binding, and mailing business.

He was a former Board member at a local condo association, former Treasurer for that local condo association, and former successful business owner overseeing 350 employees. 

While on the Board at the prior association here in Palm Beach County, he was also the site manager there before they had a property management company, and he was involved in all facets of running the association and the common areas. 

That association has 650 voting units with 6 pools and 6 clubhouses, all of which had to be maintained.

This man’s reputation is impeccable.  This is a man with the highest level of integrity who wants Cascade Lakes to thrive and has a vision for Cascade Lakes that includes transparency, fairness, openness, and respect for all.  He is an independent thinker. 

He is professional, courteous, and a hard worker.

Tony says, “I’ve been in business for a long time.  It takes common sense.  Let the numbers drive your decisions with compassion and keep the politics out of it.” 

This is an awesome mindset, and along with his impeccable integrity and experience, he wants to create a community that we can all be proud of. 

What more could you possible want?

2.  Alice Silver:

Alice has lived in Cascade Lakes since 2014 and says that “Cascade Lakes is my forever home and I care about it deeply.”   

She wants what you want:  a vibrant, thriving community which is run smoothly and fairly with no personal agendas. 

She wants to guard your money carefully and make sure it is spent wisely.  She also has an impeccable reputation and outstanding credentials and is an independent thinker.

Alice has a B.A. from Rutgers University with majors in Economics and Finance.  Applicable areas of study included corporate and public finance and business management. 

She holds a current Florida Real Estate Broker Sales Associate license since 1993.  She is not actively working as such (i.e., she is not attached to a specific company and actively working, hence “inactive” but current in terms of the actual license).

Formerly she was the head bookkeeper for a community bank in Jackson, New Jersey, a bookkeeping clerk for a Florida bank, and a computer programmer for Bell Telephone Laboratories. 

She was also a newspaper stringer for her local paper (a part-time correspondent for the newspaper) with front page stories to her credit.

She is a member of the Cascade Lakes Computer & Technology Club, the Duplicate Bridge Club, the Chess Club, and the Cultural Arts Club.  She has also contributed to the HOA magazine, News & Views, with occasional poetry and photo submissions and sometimes her photographs are displayed on the community art wall in the clubhouse. 

Rounding out her versatility, Alice also loves sewing, has played multiple musical instruments, and is a member of virtual choirs online and sings soprano. 

She is an excellent listener, which is critically important when tasked with representing the community and she will listen to your concerns with patience, courtesy, and respect.  She is also honest, fair, trustworthy, responsive, transparent, and friendly.

Her focus is her fiscal and fiduciary responsibility to the membership, and her goals include making sure that the Board is there to serve you, not the other way around. 

What more could you possibly want?

3.  George Klein:

George moved here from Arizona.  He has a B.S. in Business Administration from Salem College, West Virginia. 

He breeds thoroughbred horses for racing.  He bred the Florida thoroughbred champion of 2021, “Shifty She,” who won the Noble Damsel Stakes at Belmont.  He also likes to play golf and is actively working on his handicap.

He was an on-site manager for a computer chip equipment manufacturer for the semi-conductor industry at Intel (this is the equipment that Intel uses to make the chips).  This took him all over the world where he supervised field service engineers.

He started a high school Booster Club (which raises money for school sports programs) from scratch, was the President, raised $100,000 from nothing, and oversaw the budget. He was also a youth coach and mentor.

He lives here with his lovely wife who was an RN for over 40 years.

He wants the Board to be transparent, honest, make decisions on matters and then follow through with those decisions in a timely manner, all of which is its obligation. 

He wants Board members to be prepared for Board meetings and read their pre-meeting Board packets. 

He wants oversight of major projects by the appropriate Committee members and Board members alike to ensure the project is being carried out as specified in the contract. 

He wants the Board to hire vendors based upon experience, competency, and what’s best for the community after the Board has properly negotiated with those vendors to obtain the best deal for the community. 

He knows how to prioritize. He wants the community to be fair and equitable for everyone.

He is patient and will listen and is willing to be swayed by a fair and decent argument. He is committed to honesty, fairness, openness, integrity, and adherence to the rules. He is independent and unintimidated and he will stand up for you and your rights.

George, like the thoroughbred racehorses he breeds, is an excellent bet. What more could you possibly want?

**********************************************

So there you have it:  your T.A.G. team: Tony, Alice, and George!  These are three ideal candidates to bring integrity, honesty, openness, transparency, and fiscal responsibility to the Board.

Now it’s up to you to prove that you really want those things, because if you do, this is your slate of candidates to make it happen. 

**********************************************

Now let’s see who else is running.  These individuals, (with the exception of one) in my opinion and that of many others, have either actively or by their silence when they had a duty to speak: betrayed your trust, disrespected you, abused their power, and breached their fiduciary duty to you. 

Some of them engaged in deceit and manipulation, are unethical, and could care less about fairness and equality, as more fully described below, unless you’re part of their “in” crowd of elitists.  Others acquiesced in this behavior by their support of it and silence against it. 

The incumbents put their own self-interests ahead of the community.  They spent your money without your knowledge.  The met in secret.  They voted in secret.  There is nothing good or honest about any of this; in my opinion and the opinion of many others, it is bad and it is corrupt.

This necessarily means that you don’t matter to them, unless you’re part of their elite group of friends, bullies, harassers, and/or character assassinators.  Some of their supporters are predators who harass other residents in and around the common areas. 

4.  Jeff D. Green: 

Jeff, the current HOA president, is in this horse race, but even his horse is bucking free from him and voting for someone else.

I can’t say he’s the worst president in the history of Cascade Lakes because I wasn’t a member here since the inception of the community, but anecdotally that’s what I’m hearing and I’m hearing it from unrelated groups of residents and even residents who play tennis with him and like him as a friend. 

And that’s the point here:  this is business; it’s not personal.  There are financial and other consequences to actions taken by someone like this in authority.  Let’s see what he did during his brief tenure and there is actual evidence of all of this:

A.  Voted in secret to give bonuses to the office staff and also separately voted to give them 4% salary increases in July 2022 outside the terms of their contract, thus creating a new base price even higher at renewal time. 

Gave these secret raises to FSR’s employees multiple times outside the contract and without your knowledge or opportunity for input before spending your money. 

Just did it again in late January 2023, retroactive to January 1, 2023, by a secret, closed board meeting with his fellow rule-breakers, and the renewed contract’s effective date was January 1st!  Staff got between 4% and 6% raises retroactive to January 1, 2023.

B.  He directly helped spearhead the dishonest recall effort of another equal Board member both directly and by directly steering people to the disgraced Diane Green (no relation), who used her position as Entertainment Chairperson to repeatedly lie to residents to fraudulently induce them to sign the failed petition to recall director Arthur.

This included falsely telling them that he was a two-time felon - that he broke into the property manager’s office and hacked her computer, two completely false and made up statements which were then 100% disavowed by the property manager.  It never happened.

For details on that disgusting debacle, see the June 15, 2022 Board Highlights entitled, “Explosive: Lies Exposed, A Smoking Gun, and Vindication” where a resident bravely stated at the podium that Diane Green told her those lies to her face. 

This alone is grounds for denying him another term as a director, as he was complicit with this fraudulent and utterly corrupt effort and was a co-conspirator. 

But that’s not all.  Here is a list of additional issues concerning this candidate:

C.  Does not believe that all board votes must be in front of the community at an open board meeting.

D.  Does not believe that agenda items must be noticed to the community so as to allow meaningful community input.

E.  Does not believe that all board meetings require official minutes open to your inspection.

F.  Partied privately with other Board members and vendors at a vendor-sponsored private shindig and against the clear statute to the contrary after being put on notice of its illegality.  This party was put on by Hotwire and FSR, the latter of whom employs the office staff.

G.  Erroneously believes that the president and the secretary control the agenda and that agenda items raised by one equal board member can be given to another at the whim of the majority, thus disenfranchising another equal board member.

H.  Has not indicated that he ever negotiated with a vendor on your behalf or engaged in competitive bidding for large landscaping projects (at the January 18, 2023 Board meeting, landscaping matters alone totaled $179,362! That’s $298.94 per house.).  This is in addition to their base contract prices.

I.  Guard Shack:  wanted to do away with the live guard at the guard shack and stick you with a “virtual” guard off site in some warehouse staring at a screen of 40 communities and hopefully not asleep when you needed assistance.

J.  Uses the HOA attorney with your money without a board vote and without your knowledge.  In fact, he regularly spends HOA money on the lawyer without community knowledge or required resident input and without a required vote at an open meeting. 

This cost you thousands and thousands of dollars for which you have nothing to show for it and he refuses to allow other equal board members to see the HOA lawyers’ written opinions sent “to the Board.”

K.  Dispensed with Robert’s Rules which provide clarity and consistency at board meetings and replaced them with farcical rules crafted to stifle debate.

L.  Has used News &Views, the official HOA magazine, and the president’s opening remarks at board meetings to denigrate residents. 

For example, in the March 2022 edition of News & Views, he criticized residents who disagreed with him.  He denigrated them by calling them “naysayers,” and criticized them for vocalizing their displeasure at Board meetings and on the HOA Message Board. 

That’s not good leadership and it’s insulting, condescending, and dismissive.  That’s elitism and someone who is not interested in what all residents have to say.  That’s someone not interested in robust debate or any kind of opposition to his edicts.  That’s dictatorial.

M.  He clearly has no idea that his functions as president are extremely limited: conducting the Board meetings, signing documents, and making sure Board orders are carried out.  That’s it. 

He clearly doesn’t understand that he is an equal Board member because he doesn’t act as an equal Board member.  He acts to the exclusion of other Board members and without their knowledge and he does so repeatedly and intentionally.

N.  His waste and his abuse of his fiscal and fiduciary responsibility is glaring:  he has used the HOA’s attorneys to try and silence dissenters, and this was extremely fiscally irresponsible.  That’s the residents’ money, not his personal piggybank.

And the lawyers represent the entire Board, not just Jeff and one or more of his colleagues, yet he engaged the lawyers’ services at your expense and without the knowledge of other Board members.

O.  He has used other nefarious tactics, including bullying and defaming members of the HOA when he did not get his way or when he felt threatened with opposing views.  For example, he congratulated a resident for bullying another resident on the Message Board.  Director Arthur personally witnessed that incident. 

P.  He was so reckless and callous during a meeting of the Board that he apparently believed the HOA’s attorneys were his own private counsel because he told another equal Board member to go get her own attorney and shut down her intended questioning of the HOA attorney.

That statement in itself, “go get your own attorney” to an equal board member is troubling and should automatically disqualify him from earning your vote. 

Q.  Inappropriately did not include all directors (Arthur) on all Board email correspondence and other discussions among Board members.  This disenfranchised you, the members, because Arthur represents you as one equal board member.

R.  Signed a “Board Resolution” in secret without a board vote and without the knowledge of other Board members and the community; falsely attested therein that Richard, the Treasurer, was a CPA when he was not an active CPA anywhere in the world.  This is inexcusable.  There is no room for dishonesty on the Board.

S.    Pushed the road renovation project of $618,000 three to five years early after director Bob, an engineer, stated unequivocally that the streets were sound for the next 3-5 years.

T.   Unilaterally decided to raise the temperature in the Fitness Center without consultation with the Fitness Center Chair, that committee, or even other Board members.  Purportedly told a resident that he alone made the decision and that if she didn’t like it, she could run for the board.  It’s interesting how someone could be so dripping with arrogance and nastiness at any time, but especially right before board elections. 

On February 8, 2023, he allegedly scolded Carrie, the YMCA fitness center employee, and threatened her that if she touched the thermostat again (after lowering it because residents were hot after he raised it unilaterally) that she would lose her key to it.

Later he claimed that he had the consensus of four board members (another secret illegal vote than neither Arthur nor Sue even knew about).  Those four engaging in this illegal maneuver with him, assuming he even got their illegal consent, were by process of elimination: Harvey, Richard, Pat, and Bob. 

U.  Sicced the HOA attorney on your Editor and Arthur (before Arthur was on the Board) to try and shut down this website without ever convening a Board meeting for such purpose, which cost the community thousands of dollars in legal fees which were entirely wasteful.

(And if the HOA lawyers were ethical, they would have refused to waste your money because clearly, they knew or should have known that the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects free speech, so the benefit to you for their frivolous attempt was zero but you paid all of those legal invoices.)

This is an example of using your money for personal agendas that have nothing to do with benefiting the community.

So there you have it, items A through U above: I’m almost through the entire alphabet here, and he’s not even through with one term! 

This is inexcusable.  There is no room for dishonesty, deception, manipulation, and arrogance on the Board.

Send a clear message as to how you feel about all of this (and regarding other deplorable behavior these board members have engaged in) when you cast your vote. 

You want more of this disgrace?  You want more secrecy unless you’re part of his inner circle of friends?  You want more rule-breaking?  You want more deception?  You want him running this place as if it’s his own personal fiefdom?  If so, he’s your man. 

If you still vote for this power-hungry politician, then you’re voting for elitism, you really don’t care about his treatment of other board members and residents, and you really don’t care about the majority of the members who demand transparency and accountability and who deserve fair governance.

However, in my opinion and the opinion of many others, the above outlined behavior lends to the conclusion that this individual is ethically challenged and does not deserve your vote.  You can still play tennis with him, just don’t vote for him.

Bottom line:  it’s a neigh-h-h-h for this guy.

5.  Harvey Ginsberg:

Midway through the race, Harvey discovered that his horse is actually a donkey. This is the current vice-president.

I must at this point acknowledge that Harvey was promptly and effectively helpful to me on February 6, 2023 when I had an issue with the GateKey for my parents’ house on Grove Ridge Lane. 

I reported it to the office and then he called me back immediately, figured out the problem, and solved it with me on the phone while troubleshooting it on his computer.  He was very patient and gracious.  I appreciated that very much.  I only wish he would refrain from bashing me at public board meetings and elsewhere.  He has done it multiple times.

Harvey can be a very nice guy who is affable and good natured when he is so inclined.  But unfortunately, there is a long list of some of his troubling actions and conduct while a Board member and there is actual evidence of all of it. 

It gives me no joy to report this, because he clearly has the capacity to be personable and kind, and it upsets me to have to report the following, but this is of his own doing and I would be remiss in my report not to lay it out, so unfortunately here is the list:

A.  Voted in secret to give bonuses to the office staff and also separately voted to give them 4% salary increases in July 2022 outside the terms of their contract, thus creating a new base price even higher at renewal time. 

Gave these secret raises to FSR’s employees multiple times outside the contract and without your knowledge or opportunity for input before spending your money. 

Just did it again in late January 2023, retroactive to January 1, 2023, by a secret, closed board meeting with his fellow rule-breakers, and the renewed contract’s effective date was January 1st!  Staff got between 4% and 6% raises retroactive to January 1, 2023.

B.  Showed up sick to the December 21, 2022 Board meeting sniffling, coughing, and without a mask to contain his sputum.  It was Covid he contracted, having just come back from a trip three days earlier. 

Two Board members predictably got Covid five days later: those who sat to his immediate right and left.  Whether it was Covid, the flu, or a cold, he knew he was sick when he walked through the door.  This was incredibly poor judgment by a former ER nurse and member of the Cascade Lakes Covid ad hoc committee.

That night, I reported that he attended the Board meeting sick and that it was, indeed, Covid.  He then immediately sent a defamatory hit piece out on me, your Editor, to the entire community for daring to bring it to everyone’s attention, and he did so by abusing his privilege of access to the community email addresses through the official HOA website. 

At the next Board meeting (January 18, 2023) he stipulated to a website violation and apologized to the community and the Board, but not to me, the target of his rant, and in his apology, he falsely claimed that my original report “attacked” him.  The honorable thing to do is to own your mistakes, not compound them.

C.  Fence/Gate:  who could forget that this is the guy who tried to do an end-run around a required community vote by splitting up a project to get it under the threshold price which would have required it to be voted on by the membership.  This was sneaky and dishonest.

This man is your “piecemeal” poster boy.  For a refresher, see our October 7, 2020 synopsis & commentary entitled “Three Dog Night” where we exposed his intention to go around a required community vote (fence/gate) by doing a fence and gate project piecemeal, which proposed fence just happened to conveniently abut the back of his property. 

It seemed that he only begged for your forgiveness, after defaming us, when he wanted to be Vice President.  But for months he falsely claimed our report was “bogus news” and “fake news” only to admit it was true when he wanted the vice-presidency.  He never apologized for his defamation nor retracted it.

D.  Guard Shack:  this is also the director who wanted to do away with the live guard at the guard shack and stick you with a “virtual” guard off site in some warehouse staring at a screen of 40 communities and hopefully not asleep when you needed assistance.

E.  He has interrupted other Board members.  That’s rude and disrespectful. 

F.  He erroneously believes that Board business is confidential.  It’s not, except for very limited exceptions (pre-litigation discussions with the lawyer and personnel matters, the latter of which this HOA has no personnel).  Because of his erroneous belief, you are kept in the dark on a lot of things that you should be aware of.

G.  Does not believe that all board votes must be in front of the community at an open board meeting.

H.  Does not believe that agenda items must be noticed to the community so as to allow meaningful community input.

I.  Does not believe that all board meetings require official minutes open to your inspection.

J.  Partied privately with other Board members and vendors at a vendor-sponsored private shindig and against the clear statute to the contrary after being put on notice of its illegality.  This party was put on by Hotwire and FSR, the latter of whom employs the office staff.

K.  Erroneously believes that the president and the secretary control the agenda and that agenda items raised by one equal board member can be given to another at the whim of the majority, thus disenfranchising another equal board member.

L.  Dispensed with Robert’s Rules which provide clarity and consistency at board meetings and replaced them with farcical rules crafted to stifle debate.

M.  Has not indicated that he ever negotiated with a vendor on your behalf or engaged in competitive bidding for large landscaping projects (at the January 18, 2023 Board meeting, landscaping matters alone totaled $179,362! That’s $298.94 per house.). This is in addition to their base contract prices.

N.  Inappropriately did not include all directors (Arthur) on all Board email correspondence and other discussions among Board members.  This disenfranchised you, the members, because Arthur represents you as one equal board member.

O.  Signed a “Board Resolution” in secret without a board vote and without the knowledge of other Board members and the community; falsely attested therein that Richard, the Treasurer, was a CPA when he was not an active CPA anywhere in the world.  This is inexcusable.  There is no room for dishonesty on the Board.

P.    Pushed the road renovation project of $618,000 three to five years early after director Bob, an engineer, stated unequivocally that the streets were sound for the next 3-5 years.

Q:  Here’s an exchange from the July 20, 2022 Board meeting as reported in my highlights from that open Board meeting, discussing the board meeting itself:

Harvey: “It’s a business meeting of the Board.  The agenda is for the Board.  The residents are here as a courtesy…”

Arthur: “It’s not a courtesy.”

Indeed, it’s not.  It’s a required open board meeting with required member input, Harvey.  You mean to tell me you’re on the Board for years and still don’t know that?  Oy vey.

Based on an informal survey, a lot of members are tired of putting up with this man, and these opinions come from different factions of the community.  Enough is enough.  The behavior described above in my opinion and that of others shows that he should be disqualified from receiving your vote.

Bottom line:  it’s a neigh-h-h-h for this guy, too.

6.  Bob Dingee:

Bob’s horse left him for the circus. 

Here’s the lowdown on this current board member, who looks innocuous at first blush but upon closer scrutiny, turns out to be extremely disconcerting, and there is actual evidence of all of this:

A.  Voted in secret to give bonuses to the office staff and also separately voted to give them 4% salary increases in July 2022 outside the terms of their contract, thus creating a new base price even higher at renewal time. 

Gave these secret raises to FSR’s employees multiple times outside the contract and without your knowledge or opportunity for input before spending your money. 

Just did it again in late January 2023, retroactive to January 1, 2023, by a secret, closed board meeting with his fellow rule-breakers, and the renewed contract’s effective date was January 1st!  Staff got between 4% and 6% raises retroactive to January 1, 2023.

B.  This board member, when he’s at home in Connecticut for about half the year, believes that the HOA president is the “site manager.”  He literally said that.  This means he has ceded his authority to another equal board member. 

He has therefore breached his independent fiduciary duty to the members.  This behavior also means he is not committed to representing you all year around.  (P.S.: Deborah Balka, the property manager, is in fact the “site manager.”)

Ceding authority to locally based board members is a huge no-no, and the rest of the conduct described below should also disqualify him from receiving your vote. 

You deserve seven equal and independent board members, not someone who follows or cedes to another board member as a dutiful soldier.

C.  Bob also ceded his position as liaison to the Long-Range Planning Committee and had HOA president Jeff go to their first meeting and instruct the Chairperson as to what the focus was going to be.  To heck with what the community wanted or didn’t, they were instructed to focus on reducing the community voting threshold from 75% to 66 2/3%.

D.   Being on the Board just for engineering (he’s an engineer) is not a reason to be on the board. He pushed the road renovation project of $618,000 three to five years early after stating unequivocally that the streets were sound for the next 3-5 years.

All the streets needed was a $70K resealing which is about $116 per home instead of $1,030 per home. This was his pet project and totally unnecessary and completely fiscally irresponsible.

E.  This is also the man who screamed expletives during a Board meeting (December 21, 2022; see synopsis entitled “Secretariat and the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse”), so obviously he has anger issues and/or lack of control issues. 

Having outbursts and carrying on like a toddler who didn’t get his sippy cup is not the level we all expect of a person making decisions on how to spend your money and what rules and regulations you must follow while living here. 

F.  Does not believe that all board votes must be in front of the community at an open board meeting.

G.  Does not believe that agenda items must be noticed to the community so as to allow meaningful community input.

H.  Does not believe that all board meetings require official minutes open to your inspection.

I.  Partied privately with other Board members and vendors at a vendor-sponsored private shindig and against the clear statute to the contrary after being put on notice of its illegality.  This party was put on by Hotwire and FSR, the latter of whom employs the office staff.

J.  Erroneously believes that the president and the secretary control the agenda and that agenda items raised by one equal board member can be given to another at the whim of the majority, thus disenfranchising another equal board member.

K.  Dispensed with Robert’s Rules which provide clarity and consistency at board meetings and replaced them with farcical rules crafted to stifle debate.

L.  Has not indicated that he ever negotiated with a vendor on your behalf or engaged in competitive bidding for large landscaping projects (at the January 18, 2023 Board meeting, landscaping matters alone totaled $179,362! That’s $298.94 per house.). This is in addition to their base contract prices.

M.  Inappropriately did not include all directors (Arthur) on all Board email correspondence and other discussions among Board members.  This disenfranchised you, the members, because Arthur represents you as one equal board member.

The conduct described above shows that he, too, in my opinion and the opinion of others, should be disqualified from receiving your vote. You can still play tennis with him when he’s in town and not hibernating at his house in Connecticut; just don’t vote for him.

Bottom line: whoa and no for this guy.

7.  Shelly Andreas:

Here is a reminder for those who cannot seem to, or who refuse to, separate business from friendship:  this isn’t personal; this is business.  Board business is business, and it involves spending other people’s money and instituting rules for living in this HOA.  The criteria for being on the Board has nothing to do with personal relationships or feelings. 

A.  Shelly has been the Chair of the Landscaping Committee since the year of the flood.  In fact, this candidate is just a recycling of the “same old same old.”  This is just rotating in another of the old guard ruling class member with the same tired old policies of lack of transparency. 

B.  I say lack of transparency because she threw a hissy fit on the HOA Message Board after last year’s organizational meeting when Arthur questioned why Director Jeff should be president given all of his malfeasance and poor behavior (see my report of the Board’s organizational meeting on March 24, 2022, entitled, “Gentlemen, Start Your Engines!”).

Arthur was trying to be transparent as to why Director Sue was a much better choice for president than Director Jeff.  Shelly put out a hit piece on the HOA message board against Arthur (see same report, under “Post-Board Meeting Chatter”) and she got away with it.  The old guard ruling class loved it and left it up there.  It was shameful all around.

She called out Arthur for objecting to Jeff as president and Arthur’s having set forth the factual reasons why.  Here’s a news flash about what Arthur did, Shelly:  it’s called healthy, robust debate.  What part of healthy, robust debate don’t you like, Shelly?

It seems to me that Shelly is perfectly fine with all of the corruption both Arthur and I have pointed out now for the last several years; she’s never objected to it, and she laid into Arthur when he did object, and she did it publicly on the HOA message board for which the “powers that be” gave her complete and total immunity. 

This circling of the wagons by this group of elitists is not what Cascade Lakes needs to lift itself up from the mire it finds itself in as it swirls around in corrupt mud.

C.  In fact, Shelly is repeatedly rewarded with choice Chairperson positions for towing the line:  she appears to have a lock on landscaping and the ARB (Architectural Review Board) Chairmanships.  She’s the co-Chair of the Landscaping Committee.

D.  Shelly, as Chair of the Landscaping Committee, supported the Board members’ (minus the objecting Arthur) giving a 5% raise to vendor Palm Beach Broward Landscaping in 2022 midway through the term of their contract and outside of the terms of their contract. 

Arthur opposed that motion; it passed because Shelly’s cronies on the board were not being fiscally responsible in my opinion and that of others.  Shelly fully and publicly supported this outrageous extracontractual raise midway through the contract with this vendor who rakes in (no pun intended) more than a million dollars a year from our HOA. 

The excuse was that PBB Landscaping “deserved it.”  Since when do you give more money to a vendor outside the contract price during the term because they “deserve it” and just because they say their prices for labor have increased?  They knew that when they first presented their renewal terms.  And why weren’t those terms negotiated at the time of the renewal? 

Also, the contract itself already has built in inflationary increases, and we don’t believe PBB ever gave back to the HOA any money for years where there were no appreciable inflation factors, for example during the first year or two of Covid. 

PBB asked for 2% above the 3% already in the contract and what did these Board members do with Shelly’s support and approval?  They bent over and took it with Shelly’s full blessing, concurrence, and support. 

The ridiculous excuse made by Director Richard was that if we didn’t pay it, PBB would walk.  Nonsense.  They’re not walking away from a million-dollar contract and opening up the door to their competitors here or anywhere.  This was completely fiscally irresponsible on top of the total lack of negotiation to begin with.

Now, at the time of the next renewal in 2023, the starting price before the annual increase will be at this higher (new base) amount, not the amount stated in the actual contract.  How is this being fiscally responsible?  It’s not, plain and simple.  It’s dumb.  It makes all of them look like a bunch of saps and pushovers.

E.  Furthermore, upon information and belief, as Co-Chair of the Landscaping Committee for umpteen years, Shelly has not once suggested a negotiation of prices with them for the seemingly monthly add-ons that appear on almost every agenda.  Why not?  How is that being fiscally responsible?  That is one of your main jobs as Chairperson in my opinion.

How about suggesting other landscaping companies for competitive bidding?  Upon information and belief she never did that once either.  Why not?  How is that being fiscally responsible?  That is one of your main jobs as Chairperson in my opinion.

Candidate Tony D’Agrosa above, who was previously on the Board of a condo association in Palm Beach County, reports that they had six different landscaping companies bidding for their contract.  If they can do it, why haven’t you?

As Co-Chair of the Landscaping Committee, one of your main jobs is to advise the board after doing your research on these matters.  I have never heard of one time that any such research was done and/or any such advice was given. 

Certainly, at Board meetings when Chairperson reports are routinely been given, in the four years I am here there has been zero reports that have ever mentioned any efforts to encourage negotiations with the landscaping company or to bring to the table competitive bidders for the board to consider.  Why not? 

And now this individual wants your vote to be on the Board with a zero track record of suggesting negotiation or bringing other companies in for competitive bidding.  No way.  That’s not fiscal responsibility at all.  It’s the opposite.

The January 18, 2023 board meeting alone had $137,032 of add-ons for the landscaping vendor with no notice to the community (in addition to the $42,330 noticed on the agenda, for a total of $179,362), no negotiation, and no competitive bidding, and this was perfectly fine with Shelly, the Co-Chairperson of the Landscaping Committee.

If you vote for her, you’ll get more of the same, which is a board with no business sense whatsoever which continually eats away at your pocketbook.

I have a simple question for Shelly: did you ever research and suggest other potential landscapers for competitive bidding for the umpteen years you’ve headed the Landscaping Committee? Yes, or no? 

Answer: to my knowledge, not since I’ve been here 4 years, and upon information and belief, never. Why the heck not?!? That’s an integral part of your obligation in my opinion.

Instead, you supported raises for PBB (the landscaping vendor) outside the terms of the contract already in effect. And my understanding is that that wasn’t negotiated either. Where is the fiscal responsibility?!?

All these years Shelly’s picking out flowers; why did she never pick out some landscaping companies to submit bids for landscaping which is our largest expense of over a million dollars a year?

Cast your vote elsewhere if you care about fiscal responsibility.  This isn’t personal against Shelly; this is business.  You have great choices in people with a lot of business sense and experience.  Take advantage of this unique opportunity and vote intelligently for them instead.  Vote smart.

8.  Jay Bleiman:

Jay is a snowbird who is on the Board at his other home in Skokie, Illinois.  That’s a lot of responsibility (and time commitment). 

If elected here, it would therefore involve being on two different boards at the very same time with two different states’ statutes to follow, two different association documents to adhere to, keeping them separate, and juggling all of this while living half the time at the other place, not here.  It’s doable, but is it wise?

I interviewed Jay in person on February 21, 2023 at 3:00pm.  He stated to me, in the presence of another person, “I don’t expect to win.  I’m running so people can get to know me and then maybe next year I’ll get more recognition and run and maybe win.”

That seems rather selfish, don’t you think? Getting recognition is not a valid reason to run for the board.  Is he going to run every year from now on in the hopes of getting elected?  Respectfully, that’s not a platform to run on. 

At no time during the conversation did he mention what his goals were for the community or his vision for Cascade Lakes moving forward.  He did mention that he was not happy with the current leadership who are up for re-election this cycle.  On that we can agree.

He told me that he was going to Skokie, Illinois on March 14, 2023 and he will not be back here until April 7, 2023, so he will miss the March 23, 2023 Members Annual Meeting and the Election and also the first meeting of the Board, which is the all-important Organizational Meeting.

This is not a serious candidate and he is not fully committed to this community.  He just proved it through this interview. 

Conclusion:

If you truly want change and you don’t want the current Board members up for re-election (and their cronies) to continue destroying this community and its good will, the slate of three, Tony, Alice, and George, are full time owners who are here and ready to work.  Take advantage of their collective talent and let’s get it right this time. 

Each candidate in this slate is 100% fully committed to Cascade Lakes and collectively, Tony, Alice, and George are a true dream team.

There’s no real jockeying for position here because the three thoroughbred challengers, Tony, Alice, and George, across the board are a trifecta of talent.  It shouldn’t be close.  The community is incredibly fortunate that full time owners Tony, Alice, and George have agreed to take their places at the starting post. 

As we come into the backstretch of the race, you have a very clear choice here.  You have a unique and golden opportunity to rid this place of corruption and instead, bring kindness, honesty, openness, transparency, and integrity to the community’s leadership, or you can continue to feed the corrupt beast that currently occupies the hallowed hallways of the clubhouse.

This community is either going to move forward in a more open, honest, and fair way, or it’s going to stagnate or further degenerate with so-called leadership led by personal egos and special interests and those who regularly violate the law and those who support that abhorrent behavior.

It’s time for those individuals and their entourage to start understanding the following inalienable principles:

1. That each Board member has an independent duty to the membership, not to the other board members,

2. That this is a business relationship, not a dictatorship, and not one based on friendships, and

3.  That everyone has the right to express their opinions freely without being harassed and maligned.

The community’s reputation and your pocketbooks are at stake. 

It’s time to bust up the stranglehold these rule-breaking elitists and this ruling class have had over this community for too long.  Your Editor strongly endorses the following candidates:

Tony D’Agrosa

Alice Silver

George Klein

In my opinion and that of many others, the rest of the candidates should not be anywhere near the halls of power controlling your lives and your pocketbooks.

This is no time to horse around.  This is serious.  Please give this your due consideration, and please vote well.  Thanks for reading.