November 29, 2009 by THE VOICE.

In case you missed it, there was a recent LV SUN article describing how 3 directors on our Anthem Coventry Homes Board who admitted to flagrantly violating Nevada Statutes by awarding profitable landscaping contracts to themselves.  3 Anthem Coventry Directors Admit Guilt

See this link for more details:
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/oct/13/henderson-hoa-ante-board-members-conflict-interest/

The  outrage of this event was the unanimous failure by the Nevada State Authorities to punish the self-admitted, guilty directors!  Instead, they unanimously agreed to the homeowners association paying the fines!  The outrage was not so much about the money lost as it was that the guilty parties escaped with no negative information on their personal records!

Anthem VOICE had two members present at that Commission Meeting, and we were stunned at the outrage!  Even though three of five Anthem Coventry Homes Board Members admitted to committing self-dealing and fraud, the Nevada Deputy Attorney General, Ms. Nancy Savage, and the Nevada Commission for Common Interest Communities, and the Nevada Real Estate Division agreed UNANIMOUSLY to require the Coventry HOA to pay the fines assessed for the personal law violations!  The perpetrators got off without being punished!  Not one of them was removed or barred from serving as a HOA director in the future.

Perhaps we should not be surprised at the injustice?  Three of the seven Governor-appointed CIC Commission members include the Sun City Anthem infamous (1) Favil West, (2) auditor/tax preparer Gary Lein, and (3) Anthem Council/Del Webb Community Management Chief Executive Randolph Watkins.  The chair of the CIC Commission is Attorney Michael Buckley, a long-time associate of SCA attorney John Leach.

With that flawed team in control of Homeowner compliance at the Nevada State level, what kind of results should we expect in Sun City Anthem?  Is it any wonder so many of our current and past directors and the DW/RMI CAM members feel safe from being held accountable for their massive financial misconduct involving millions of dollars of loses?  Accountability through the law enforcement channels is clearly our only hope for justice.

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November 23, 2009 by Norman McCullough.

My enclosed letter to RMI and the Board illustrates yet another example of the incompetence and misconduct of our current Directors and our current Community Management Contractor.

My letter was sent to both organizations via certified mail.  And, both refused to acknowledge receiving the letter–let alone challenge the content. 

Some members say they are tired of hearing my complaints about the Board and RMI–and so am I.   But, they are causing villa owners to lose ten of thousands of dollars and we have the right to demand clear and concise answers to our questions about mismanaging OUR money.  It’s the law, you know.

See this file for the details.  Villa Questions & No Answers

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November 22, 2009 by bobfrank.

David Berman and Don Manning falsely stated on the Berman blog this week: ‘Bob Frank stated that he thinks owners have been overcharged on their Association assessments, adding that he thought fees of $720 per year would be appropriate. Finance Committee Chair Don Manning, who had presented a summary of the 2010 budgets, expressed disagreement with Frank’s assertion. ‘We can’t run Sun City Anthem on $720 a year,’ Manning said, adding that he’d like Bob Frank to show him how it could be done.”

My comments were referring to the facts that the Board/Finance Committee could not justify the $960 annual assessment for 2010 because:
1. SCA has accumulated a huge surplus even though it only collected $720 dues in 2009,
2. SCA has accumulated a huge surplus even though it only collected $860 dues in 2008, and
3. SCA has continued to hold on to over $4 Million in multi-year surplus dues/assessments. The board’s “stash” is OUR money that has been overcharged and not returned to the members as required by statutes and IRS rules.

If most of those surplus funds are not used to cut dues to around $820 in 2010, SCA will have to pay heavy corporate income taxes on the “profits”. Why are we being overcharged dues–only to become vulnerable to wasting money on paying unnecessary income taxes, fines and penalties?

My position while serving as a board member, and now as a unit owner, is that SCA’s financial history proves the SCA boards have illegally:
1. Overcharged dues by more than $100 per unit per year for many years,
2. Violating statutes and IRS rules by refusing to return the accumulated surpluses to members,
3. Abandoned millions owed by the developer at transition time, and
4. Wasted/lost hundreds of thousands of dollars using unsatisfactory contracting practices since 2005.

All of those gross failures will cost unit owners dearly in the future. We are the only source of funds when those losses have to be made up. Does this remind you of what the federal government is doing to us and our children?

Contrary to Berman’s and Manning’s false claims, I have demonstrated that the 2010 assessment could be around $820. That would sustain the $720 level collected in 2009, and it would also allow a generous extra $100 for the brand new Liberty Center–which is a small facility and supposed to be “super-efficient”.

SCA’s history clearly substantiates my numbers. Those who disagree should have to do more than just stand on their self-proclaimed CPA and committee credentials and prove that dues/assessments can not be set to $820 while maintaining our overall superior service levels.

Meanwhile, we do not need to hear any more bragging about SCA’s “good financial management” when they are constantly rolling in huge surpluses gained from illegally overcharging assessments and retaining the surpluses. Anyone could look good on the surface when the money is being taxed and spent as if it was the federal government in charge.

We must demand high quality RESULTS for our hard-earned money. We must elect directors and select committee members who can be trusted to serve the best interests of unit owners in the future. And, when they fail, they should be removed to make room for better people.

Posted in Truth Squad, Ann_Small, SCA Board, Community Affairs, Laws & Rules, Operations | Print | 1 Comment »

November 21, 2009 by bobfrank.

While many members are working hard to document homeowner dissatisfaction with RMI as the Sun City Anthem community manager, we should remember to focus on the facts.

For example, it would be helpful if those members who have knowledge of specific misconduct and poor RMI management actions would list some specifics of every case and type that is publicly known. If there was a long laundry list of such misconduct and poor management actions posted, it would be much easier to make some progress during the forthcoming “workshop” concerning competition and lower prices in the future.

Just to begin listing some possible examples–dozens more also come to mind from RMI’s mismanagement over the past few years:

- RMI gross negligence for failing to effectively manage the S&D Company Trumpets lease. The RMI contract clearly places the responsibility on RMI for collecting the rent and catering revenue shares, and RMI failed to do so for over 2 years. That mismanagement failure cost the association close to a million dollars over the long-run. A prudent board of directors would replace RMI for that reason alone. Any management company could have done better than RMI on that S&D Cafe lease. It was a case of basic lease administration.

- Frequent failure to effectively and efficiently compete SCA contracts that lost hundreds of thousands of membership dollars with no impact to RMI. In addition, RMI corporate managers have claimed to be doing things to properly compete contracts and and to perform effective contracts administration that have often been proven false. Either the managers have not known what was going on at our site, or they have provided false information to the association. Either way, it seriously discredits the claims by Jack Silas, RMI, and others who boast that RMI is the best in the market for large associations. Even if the board kept RMI on for site management of staff, it should remove contracts from the agreement and sub it out to a contracts specialist company who can be required to do the work above board and avoid suspicions of improper dealing.

- One of RMI’s key selection criteria some years ago was about having exceptional management of large associations. However, the results have proven the company is no better than the managers they hire, and none of the RMI managers in the past 4 years have been above average in knowledge or performance. RMI charged top prices while providing no special expertise in anything they have provided.

- There is the case of RMI unilaterally charging $.25 a page for the self-serve copy machines to knowingly discourage SCA members from using them when it is obvious that the cost per copy to the association must be less than $.10 a page.

I will add many other examples in the future, but I would like to encourage others to add to the list by adding your comments to this blog item.

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November 17, 2009 by bobfrank.

During the past few years the policies concerning Special Interest Groups and Chartered Clubs have been debated. A key point has been universal access by SIGS and Clubs to free use of SCA community property (i.e., meeting rooms, sports amenities, etc.).

As a previous board member, while participating in the policy decisions during that period I recall that since all members share in the ownership and maintenance of community properties, no SCA organization can prohibit any member from participating and belonging to any chartered club, SIG or other group that uses SCA community property at no charge.

Our SCA SIG Guidelines confirm this by stating:
“3. Special Interest Groups may be limited to special interests of some residents of
the community, but membership and participation shall not be denied to any
resident of the community.”

“4. Special Interest Groups shall not deny equal access to any activity based on
religious, ethnic, and/or racial characteristics.”

But, the SCA Democrats SIG is trying to illegally reject SIG membership of SCA homeowners if the member does not register as a local member of the Democratic Party. For example, the Democrats SIG recently violated its SIG charter and SCA CC&Rs when it notified a new member:

“Unfortunately, after reviewing our By Laws at the Executive Board
Meeting, we have realized that you may not be eligible to join the Sun City Anthem Special
Interest Group.  Our By Laws and Charter with the Clark County Democratic Central
Committee requires that our members be registered as Democrats.”

Would you agree that the Democrats SIG has violated its charter?

Has anyone else found a club or SIG violating this basic community right to all unit owners to belong to any and all community sponsored clubs and SIGs?

What kind of sanction should a SIG receive for such a flagrant violation?

Posted in Truth Squad, Ann_Small, SCA Board, Community Affairs, Operations, Clubs & SIGs, News! | Print | No Comments »

November 16, 2009 by bobfrank.

Please come to the SCA Annual Membership Meeting at 7 PM Tuesday night, November 17, 2009 in Anthem Center/Hanneman Hall.  It will be a historic event.

The following info provides facts relevant to some membership discussions and analysis of the proposed budget. The 2010 budget once again includes excessive annual assessments and fails to allow members to vote on whether to refund or credit our massive surpluses–as required by law.

Our effective dues were $720 in 2009 (after the 4th quarter credit to SCA units). And, considering our huge surplus asset position, it is clear our annual assessments for 2010 should not be much above $800 per unit. But, the board is unjustifiably requiring $960 per unit and pretending the new Liberty Center will justify it.

At the below link, you can find a discussion about the many previous years of improper and/or illegal overcharging of SCA assessments followed by the apparently illegally accumulated retention of $4.7 MILLION of surpluses (excess funds available after paying all obligations and reserves).

The referenced source data was treated as “Board secret” prior to this year. It was finally released at the August 27, 2009 Board of Directors Meeting. That data proves that John Briggs and I were right by blowing the whistle in 2008 about the board’s huge overcharging of dues and related major tax liabilities.

The data also shows that the surprise personal attack on me by the Finance Committee and the Board at the 2008 Annual Membership meeting was WILLFULLY FALSE and/or DISTORTED. That false “Memo” was also improperly and unfairly distributed by the Board in February 2009 without allowing me to publish corrections to the errors and distortions. It was intended to politically influence/deceive our SCA membership during last year’s board election–and it worked.

Prior to the membership meeting on Tuesday evening, and the Board meeting on Thursday afternoon, you may hear some bogus and/or deceptive claims made by some culpable individuals that by quickly spending the surplus funds the board can help SCA avoid having to pay back taxes and fines. However, that is false. An association must refund or credit the cash to members or pay corporate income taxes on the “profits” from revenues. See the following quoted Nevada Statute about surplus funds in homeowner associations. IRS rulings and policy statements provide even more restrictive requirements. The laws and rules are clear.

“NRS 116.3114 Surplus funds. Unless otherwise provided in the declaration, any surplus funds of the association remaining after payment of or provision for common expenses and any prepayment of reserves MUST be paid to the units’ owners in proportion to their liabilities for common expenses or credited to them to reduce their future assessments for common expenses.”

We truly regret having to prove to you that SCA members have been seriously deceived by our Finance Committee and Board members. But, the facts are clear. No amount of double talk can explain what has been going on. It is possible the IRS audit team has already contacted the Board and our tax preparer for the past decade (Gary Lein) about our potentially huge back tax liabilities.

http://blog.anthemvoice.org/2009/08/29/unjustified-47-mil-surpluses-forces-09-dues-cut-to-720/

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November 15, 2009 by bobfrank.

One does not have to be serving on the SCA board to be a positive force for the community. Any member with detailed knowledge of the rules, the statutes, past board misconduct, and the will to do something about the misconduct causes former directors and disunity party members to be fearful.

Since they can not allow the truth to be widely known, they are motivated to constantly attack those who continue to oppose the corruption. They desperately hope member apathy, and the statute of limitations will save them. They are in a “Sword of Damocles” situation.

As a reminder, the Greek story concerning the “Sword of Damocles” refers to “A thing or situation which causes a prolonged state of impending doom or misfortune.” The reference can also be used to “denote the sense of foreboding engendered by a precarious situation…”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sword_of_damocles

Current and former directors have fearfully struggled to keep a lid on their developer-favored past behavior that has cost our members millions of dollars. They have viciously attacked me, Ron Johnson, you and dozens of others who dared to speak the truth. The disunity party members know they are in a very precarious position.

Since disunity party people can not tell the truth without admitting to their guilt, their only viable defense is to attack those who object. The massive attempts to confuse the SCA membership with blatantly false claims and vicious personal attacks shows how desperate they are. If they were as clean as they claim, they would have nothing to fear, and they could just ignore the allegations.

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November 13, 2009 by bobfrank.

While it is impossible to keep up with and respond to the hundreds of false personal attacks against me, my wife, and other honorable residents on D. Berman’s blog, some of them are so outrageously bogus that they can not be ignored. For example, Berman said this week:

“Bob Sansing: Since it is clear that the SCARFS flyer was composed substantially of things I had written about Bob Frank on my blog, all of which were completely true and none of which have been refuted…”

For those interested in the truth, please read my Anthem Voice blog posting on March 25, 2009 where I published a high level response to all of bogus SCARFS claims by the dishonorable (dis)unity party. For more details, please ask.
http://blog.anthemvoice.org/2009/03/25/response-to-scarfs-political-hate-mail/

In the meantime, our group can substantiate our many serious allegations against directors, CAMs, association attorney and association auditor with validated facts. After spending three years researching the truth on dozens of issues, we have the records to backup our claims of serious corruption by past and current boards who have been “cooperating” in support of the developer’s (not homeowner) interests.

Members should recognize that the (dis)unity group can only respond with personal attack after personal attack. Without self-incrimination, they can not openly answer the hard questions on their past financial misconduct that forfeited millions of dollars to the developer and past trumpets lessee, consistently overcharged our assessments since 2005, and filed what appears to be false income tax returns. It is no wonder they refuse all requests for investigative/forensic audits.

Unlike our opponents, our group has life-long, spotless records of honesty and integrity. We do not file unjustified complaints and we do not enjoy their endless, hateful, political games. The corruption we have written about is substantiated, and it can not be allowed to remain covered up. If the allegations were not true, you can be sure the (dis)unity bozos would just ignore us.

The main problem we have discovered is that NV homeowner rules and NV law enforcement rules make it very difficult to get rid of a corrupt group of “cooperating” directors supported by a “cooperating” attorney, a “cooperating” auditor and “cooperating” community managers. The “system” reminds us of mob rules.

So, community members MUST do the work of replacing the dishonorable directors with ethical and caring individuals at normal election times, or during a removal/recall election. We have to clean up our own dirty laundry, or suffer the disharmony and financial losses until we do.

Many of members who voted for me in 2007 have told me how sorry they have been for believing last year’s hateful attacks and for choosing the unity slate last year. The obvious answer is that the hundreds of members who narrowly missed rejecting the (dis)unity party last year have another chance during the next few months. Members need to dig in, investigate, and work to understand what has been going on behind the massive list of serious complaints and refusal to answer the hard questions. Where there is so much smoke, there is a raging fire of corruption.

Members need to vote this time ONLY for those with verified honesty and integrity, high business qualifications, and proven commitments to serving on behalf of our residents. Maybe this time around we can finally see some real progress and achieve some honest harmony within the community? Even a change of attitudes by just 3 directors could make a major difference in our community lifestyle and costs of living in SCA.

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