Archive for July 2009
What To Do About Trumpets Lease?
July 18, 2009 by bobfrank.
The extremely damaging words “permission cannot be reasonably withheld” were obviously added to the trumpets lease at numerous points by lessee demands–AFTER the board had approved a different version.
No director would ask for such ridiculous terms to be added. Roz Berman’s action to unilaterally agree to modify a board-approved contract clearly violates a number of Nevada Statues. All involved should be identified and held personally accountable.
This situation clearly suggests that Roz Berman failed to have the courage to make the ethical and legal decision to just say “NO” to unreasonable demands by the lessee. This is just the latest example of the incompetent contracting, negotiating and leadership abilities of Roz Berman. There have been over a dozen seriously defective SCA contracts developed and agreed to under her authority. SCA homeowners are being openly exploited by her repetitive series of failed and/or seriously defective contracts. We are talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars being wasted–not pennies!
Members should also worry about the association’s legal firm’s role concerning those highly damaging words. If involved, and not expressing any written reservations over the words, such behavior could be considered sufficient cause to replace the association law firm.
It the law firm was not involved BEFORE the final version was signed by Roz Berman, that kind of unprofessional behavior by the board president and CAM would be a repeat of 2007. That was when the disastrous/illegal neighborhood reserves agreement was unilaterally agreed to and signed by Favil West and Kay Dwyer–allegedly without the CAM and attorney John Leach’s involvement and concurrence.
Finally, there has been no mention of RMI’s role in this whole fiasco. Why not? Why do we pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for a “professional services” contract to avoid such mismanagement–when it so frequently fails to perform as expected by the membership?
Think about it. What role has RMI served in the history of trumpets leases? Why have there been such consistent failures in the restaurant area? Did any of the RMI managers do anything in writing to advise the board to disallow such damaging words to be included in this agreement? If so, where is the evidence of that professional conduct?
Conclusions: the majority of directors appear to have been deceived by the Board President, CAM, and perhaps the association attorney. We now have a seriously flawed lease agreement. The other directors are obligated to demand corrections to a contract that has been illegally modified by the lessee, board president and CAM or be held equally responsible for the results. The financial consequences of failure to act by the board majority are truly serious.
But, the problem can be quickly fixed through a simple amendment. The CAM needs to help the board majority to prepare the documents to vote that the illegal/unauthorized/damaging words be immediately removed from the contract.
If Roz Berman and the lessee refuse to agree to such minor changes, then the the Board President’s and lessee’s hidden agenda will be in the clear. Competent business people know that it would be a major mistake to continue with such a flawed business relationship.
Our members should require Roz Berman to resign from the board if she can not or will not correct this mistake and avoid future contracting misconduct.
Posted in SCA Board, Community Affairs, Operations | Print | No Comments »
The Board of Directors never tire of taking advantage of the Villa Owners.
July 17, 2009 by Norman McCullough.
When it comes to managing the board duties to maintain our Villas our facilities manager (Bruno Panek - RMI), has been a complete failure.
Consider his record regarding the Villas.
- He never provides the required bids package to the P&G committee, or the Finance committee’s for reserve study specialists, or for work contracted for maintaining the Villas for their consideration.
- The Look back committee reported that he furnished costs figures from “Bid Estimates” that were used by the reserve specialist but now he claims he has no record of their existence, (IF there ever were bid estimates).
- The Look back committee reported that he actually changed the square feet of coverage to paint a typical Villa to make it appear that the developer (Del Webb), did not owe any money to the Villa neighborhoods on May 31, 2005.
- He never provided the P&G committee or the finance committee with inspection reports for “proof of need” to repaint the Villas in 2008 OR in 2009.
- He never informed the P&G committee or the finance committee of the actual age of each of the Villas to be painted, and as a result many were painted prematurely.
- He failed to inspect and identify stress cracks in the exterior stucco walls of the Villas that were construction defects, and as a result the reserves of the Villas are being depleted to repair these construction defects. Many of these stress cracks were painted over BEFORE the association’s law firm inspected the Villas in 2008. There was never any money reserved to repair these construction defects.
- He failed to alert the Board of Directors, or the P&G committee, or the Finance Committee that the paint contractors hired to paint the Villas was actually destroying evidence of cracked foundations and slabs. The association has declared they have no interest in the foundations or the slabs, yet the reserves of the Villas are being depleted to hide and conceal these defects. There was never any money reserved to repair these construction defects.
All of the above acts were done at the direction of the Board of Dirctors or with the approval of the Board of Directors.
I have contacted both Linda Krivic (Present chair of P&G), and Don Manning (Present chair of the Finance committee), to inquire about the Board of Directors withdrawal of reserve funds from the neighborhood reserves. I expect to hear from both in the near future regarding these issues.
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Trumpets Lease Has Critical Defects?
July 14, 2009 by bobfrank.
Director Carl Weinstein posted today on Ron Johnson’s blog in response to unilateral attacks on Berman’s blog concerning the truth about the trumpets lease’s flawed language on gaming and other vital matters:
“THE MOUTHPIECE: The President’s “press secretary” is relying on the fact that supposedly all board members got the full final lease in their board books. Whether we did or not is NOT the issue. What is the issue is that the lease that was signed WAS NOT the lease as presented to the residents at the Board Meeting.
Sneaky wasn’t it. REMEMBER DAVID YOU CANNOT ACCUSE ME OF OVERLOOKING THE BOARD BOOK CONTENTS. I VOTED “NO” WHEN WE VOTED FOR THE LEASE. I knew what was going on!
Remember also on this blog when I questioned the THREE WEEK delay from the Board approval to the availability of the full lease to the residents. I owe Caren (CAM) an apology for thinking that she might have been the culprit who was responsible for not getting the lease on the website.
Finally, as I said before, the board met in groups of two to go over potential changes in the lease. This was done to avoid having a “noticed” meeting. However, once all the changes were written there should have been a noticed BOARD WORKSHOP to discuss all the changes. BUT NO! that would have added another month to the lease process and the pressure to open a restaurant was too great to delay another month. The residents of Anthem deserved better!”
My response: Board President Roz Berman is the ONLY one who knows exactly what she did, and why she did it. As board president, and as the self-selected, single director on the contract negotiation team, she has personally violated the law by unilaterally creating problems in the lease. She is required to correct them or be subject to allegations of willful misconduct under NAC 116.405 and other statutes.
In addition, the other directors have been ignoring the errors and tolerating her misconduct. Carl Weinstein’s recent actions to try to achieve corrective actions are important steps in the right direction. But, at least 3 other directors must join Carl to correct the problems created by Roz Berman. By failing to act, the 5 other directors are individually and collectively violating NRS 116 and NAC 116.
The trumpets lease creates SERIOUS ambiguity and clear DISADVANTAGES to the members of this association. As fellow SCA member, retired appellate Judge Mort Zwick, stated on July 12 on the Berman blog:
“The thrust of my statement is summed up by the cardinal rule of contract construction which is the contract should give legal effect to the intent of the parties at the time of entering into the contract. If the intent, at this time, is to prohibit gaming, putting an ambiguous phrase only clouds the issue. By deleting the phrase you have a contract that absolutely prohibits gaming. In my view, if an ambiguity is recognized, prior to the execution of the contract, it should be eliminated. Mort”
Whether you are in favor of the selected lessee, or gaming, or not, that contract is critically flawed. Further delays to act to repair it will add credibility to the growing allegations that Board President Roz Berman, and some other directors, are acting to deceive the community. Delays until after the July board meeting can cause serious consequences for the future of this community.
We have elected 7 directors to avoid this kind of unilateral misconduct, and we must demand that at least 4 directors initiate emergency board action. While all directors may not be fully responsible for the problems, the board majority has the power to immediately correct the problems.
We need the board to act now to eliminate the confusion, resolve the disputes, and avoid the rapidly growing disharmony and potential legal actions.
Posted in SCA Board, Community Affairs, Operations | Print | 3 Comments »
Who Owes Community For Wasted Funds?
July 11, 2009 by bobfrank.
Bob Sansing said today on DB’s blog: “Bob Frank recently said on another board, “Wasting community funds can be considered stealing/theft under NV law.” I wonder when he will begin paying back the huge costs incured paying our SCA lawyers to substantiate our positions against his allegations? Or instead, is he preparing to call the Henderson Police and turn himself in for theft/stealing?”
My response: A fair question except that Sansing should have directed it to Mike Dixon, Roz Berman, Kay Dwyer, Lanie Berg, bob Berman and Barry Friedman for what they owe the community for such wasted funds.
About $60,000 of legal fees were obligated/spent by the Dixon and Berman boards in 2007 and 2008 while trying to force me off the board. They disliked that I refused to cooperate with the board’s and attorney John Leach’s illegal secret meetings and related financial misconduct.
There would have been no legal fees if Mike Dixon, Lanie Berg and their board collaborators had not started the legal actions. See these links for some details:
http://www.anthemvoice.org/resources/original-complaint$2Bref_reply.pdf
http://www.anthemvoice.org/resources/BoD_complaint_5sep07.pdf
http://www.anthemvoice.org/resources/19nov07-Berg_denial$2Brequest.pdf
http://www.anthemvoice.org/resources/frank-affidavit-response_4jan08.pdf
It is ironic that the 100+ pages of allegations submitted against me by Mike Dixon, Lanie Berg and their cohorts were dismissed by the NV Attorney General. But, those same materials were used by the Real Estate Division to confirm the board was frequently holding the illegal secret meetings I had objected to. As a result, the State issued formal sanctions against Roz Berman and her collaborators!
Perhaps my comment hit too close to home for Mr. Sansing? We should not be surprised that he is worried over his personal culpability and potential liability as a member of the 2005-2006 SCA board that:
1. Failed to collect from the developer the $1.4 million of Co-Gen funds due in 2005,
2. Failed to collect from the developer more than $2 million due for unpaid reserves,
3. Failed to collect tens of thousands of rent and catering shares due from the Trumpets lessee, and
4. Failed to terminate the trumpets lease as provided in NRS 116 in 2005 and spare the huge losses in 2005-2007 as well as from the lessee’s law suit.
Of course, it is common for people like Bob Sansing with a guilty conscious to try and cast aspersions on others. We will all have some respect for Bob Sansing when he (1) demands to know the full costs of previous board misconduct, and (2) demands that Dixon, Bob Berman, Roz Berman, Kay Dwyer, Lanie Berg and Barry Friedman begin to pay for those wasted expenses.
Posted in Truth Squad, SCA Board, Community Affairs, Operations | Print | No Comments »
Serious Defect in Trumpets Lease?
July 1, 2009 by sonny.
I believe that The Board Of Directors has a major problem regarding the Trumpets Lease. Please consider this matter very carefully. I do not know what the implications are, but I believe that they are serious.
At the May 28,2009 board of directors meeting, a presentation was made by the Trumpets Negotiations working group. The group consists of Roz Berman (board president) Dan Fogeron, and Robert Murphy. Also attending and giving information and answering questions was the SCACAI attorney, Mr. Song.
Paragraph 7.22 of the power point presentation of the proposed lease stated, “Specific uses prohibited, no gaming devices.”
It appears that one version of the lease was presented to the board of directors and the homeowners attending the board meeting in the power point presentation. But, it appears that a different lease was signed by the board president.
The lease signed by Ms. Berman allows the tenant to have gaming. Ms. Berman knew that the power point presentation prohibited gaming, yet she signed a lease permitting gaming. The Board of Directors saw the power point presentation that prohibited gaming, yet permitted the board president to sign a lease permitting gaming.
As I said, I do not know the implications of the matter. However the Board has a responsibility to examine the total matter.
Nathan Sonnenfeld
Posted in Truth Squad, SCA Board, Community Affairs, Operations | Print | 1 Comment »