Letter to Owners - Jan. 5, 2017
Posted on Thursday, January 05 @ 14:13:13 EST by
tchadmin
Contributed by
tchadmin
A Place at the Beach
January 5, 2017
This is an open letter from the Board of Directors to whole and timeshare owners of A Place at the Beach (“APATB”).
The Board received a letter from a Board member on September 8, 2016 announcing his resignation and that he had found some concerning information tied to past use of ‘comp days’ by Board members and their families. We immediately requested that SPM provide a complete report to us on this alleged use of ‘comp days’ and their recommendations, if any. We did not receive a response from SPM with their conclusions and recommendations until October 23, 2016. We quickly noticed that SPM did not consider all the available information. Due to the incomplete nature of SPM's conclusions and recommendations, we felt compelled to have our attorney analyze the allegations with the available and relevant information. The APATB attorney had to recuse himself as he represents both the HOA and SPM; this notification came on November 4th. Due to this limited conflict of interest, we solicited the assistance of another disinterested attorney with experience in this area. He agreed to take our case on November 22, 2016. He completed and delivered his legal opinion on December 30, 2016. The Board scheduled a meeting to review his opinions, conclusions, and recommendations on January 2, 2017. We formulated and initiated our plan of action at that meeting. The legal opinion is attorney-client privileged and details the strengths and weaknesses of any available legal claims. We have been advised by legal counsel that it is in the best interests of the Association to keep the opinion confidential. The opinion was not shared with SPM, Bill Schiavone, Helen DeFlorio or Rita Knish. In addition, Bill, Helen and Rita recused themselves from the entire analysis process and from any votes on action on the legal opinion. Our legal counsel did not find evidence substantiating the allegations against Rita Knish. Using all available information and the recommendations of legal counsel, the Board has decided not to pursue litigation on any legal claims available to the Association although there was evidence of inappropriate SPM and Board Member involvement in the rental agreements. However, Bill Schiavone and Helen DeFlorio, who have been valued members of the Board for over a decade, have elected to resign. Finally, the Board intends to formalize a ‘comp day’ policy for consideration by the entire membership.
There have been many questions and concerns surrounding the Board’s decision to not renew the management contract with SPM. The Board has found a need to micro manage SPM’s financial reports as far back as 2012. The Treasurer’s audits of SPM financial reports have found numerous errors. Each time an error is identified SPM quickly rectifies the account in question. On one such occasion in April 2013 the error was over $50,000. There are several additional documented cases of financial issues with SPM over the past 6 years. Without our due diligence these errors would have gone uncorrected and would have resulted in significant losses to APATB over the course of 4 years. In addition, certain SPM employees were prone to publish inaccurate and incomplete communications to certain members and to the membership as a whole. For these and other reasons, the Board saw fit to transition to a new management company - VRI.
Please accept this correspondence as our official explanation of the events leading to the change in management and the resolution of the SPM allegations about certain Board members. The Board hopes to continue to serve the owners of APATB with trust and confidence. This is an unfortunate event for the Board and the Association. We believe we have dealt with these events in a professional and appropriate manner. Let us all move forward for the betterment of our fine resort. We are convinced that VRI will work with the Board to continue the progress made over the past six years.
We hope everyone enjoyed a Happy and Joyous Holiday Season.
Your Board of Directors
Pat Shaheen, President
Rita Knish, Vice President
Tom McMahan, Treasurer
Brian Minshew, Secretary
Hugo Almodovar