Where’s The “Beef” (Our Missing $4.8 Mil. of Un-Returned/Untaxed Surplus Dues?)

See:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ug75diEyiA0

Our AnthemVOICE article dated March 7, 2011 reminded Sun City Anthem members that the SCA Board’s 2009 Federal Tax Returns had reported $4.8 Million of untaxed and un-refunded surplus member dues held in a working capital (slush fund) account.  

Here is the page from Sun City Anthem’s 2009 budget planning presentation reporting the $4.8 Mil. surplus.
http://blog.anthemvoice.org/__oneclick_uploads/2010/07/surplus-build-up-2002-2009.pdf

But, when Finance Committee Chair Candance Karrow was asked during the November 2011 Annual Membership Meeting why assessments were being increased by $714,400 in 2012 when there was such a large accumulated surplus account balance, she stated that all of the surplus had been spent. 

When asked “what for” she just shrugged her shoulders, and claimed she did not have the details!  Even worse, not a single board member was willing to answer the obvious questions about the missing millions of surplus funds.

Imagine a corporate board and its finance committee responsible for the assessments, collections, accounting and spending of a 2-year total of $16 Million of member assessments plus an additional $4.8 Million for expenditures of unidentified “stuff” and they have refused to explain such outrageous over-expenditures!

Imagine that all seven board members, all community managers, and the association attorney  just sat there and said nothing to help Ms. Karrow explain where the missing $4.8 Million had gone! 

And, imagine that the former board member and disgraced attorney tried to misdirect the audience from the hard questions during member comment period by reminding people of the 4th quarter 2008 “$100 dues holiday”. 

Anyone who can use simple math can readily see that such a $100 reduction in the 2008-mandated $160 increase in annual assessments had absolutely nothing to do with the reported $4.8 Million surpluses carried over and declared during the 2009 budget year.  In fact, one has to wonder how in spite of the $714,400 “dues holiday”cut in 2008 assessments it was possible to report an increased total of $4.8 Million accumulated assessments a year later in August 2009!

Come to think of it, one has to wonder what kind of serious conflicts of interest that man might have for so often seeming to work to cover up the mismanagement of past and present board members?  Year after year, on advice of counsel and RMI, the boards have refused to clean up the past financial disasters while the former VP creates smoke screens and misdirections to keep members confused about the essential facts.  As many say, follow the money through independent forensic audits, and we will find the truth.

So, where’s the “beef” (missing surplus funds)?   Since embezzlement has been found so often in national HOAs and during the current Nevada FBI investigations of HOAs, prudent/ethical people will not allow such major questions involving apparently missing millions of dollars to go unanswered.  Honorable directors cannot continue to tolerate such obvious signals of past and current financial mismanagement.

Even if the boards can eventually prove they legally and properly spent all those millions in such a short time in such secret ways, how will they explain away the apparent waste and abuse of funds that were required by federal and state laws to be refunded to our members?  It is absolutely required that the boards return those millions of surpluses or ask the members to vote via formal ballots to authorize the boards to pay the income taxes and spend the resulting funds on clearly identified capital improvement projects.

Considering the FBI’s ongoing investigations, this matter would seem to be an extremely high priority for the board to resolve.  Each serving director in recent years could face criminal allegations if nothing is done.  It will be truly painful for all directors and SCA members if we wait to act until the FBI announces an interest in SCA’s financial and board election affairs.  Out of self-interest, our members must stop ignoring the obvious signals of serious problems.

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FYI:   For those who have not been following the “over-charged dues/slush-funds–working capital funds/False Income Tax Reports” fiasco since it was first identified in 2007, the following links contain some details.   

http://blog.anthemvoice.org/2011/03/02/irs-report-released-boardauditor-has-no-more-excuses/

http://blog.anthemvoice.org/2011/02/19/reject-the-boards-shell-game-on-income-taxes/

http://blog.anthemvoice.org/2011/02/11/irs-audit-finds-sca-owes-1345-million-in-back-taxes-for-07/

http://blog.anthemvoice.org/2010/09/18/dues-holiday-is-bogus-tell-the-board-you-know-the-truth/

This entry was posted on December 4, 2011 at 00:21 and is filed under Truth Squad, SCA Board, Community Affairs, Operations, Lifestyle. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

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