Copied this from the Celebrity BBS:
Re: BRIGANTINE Celebrity Resorts owners meeting 10/19/2007
« Reply #1 on: October 19, 2007, 03:22:11 pm »
I just attended the Celebrity Resorts Brigantine Inn/Brigantine Villas owners meeting. Sadly, not much encouraging to report. Exterior of Inn has been repaired/painted as well as roof.
Floors one and two of Inn have been gutted for rehab. Interior work in Inn to be completed by Spring 08, then they will start on Villas. So says Jeff Ingram, CR stand-in for our "Trustees" who were a no-show again this year.
Biggest problem in my view is lack of owner oversight of what CR is doing.
They refuse to abide by owners assn. rules and convenents (in my opinion).
In the few minutes I have spent on this and similar forums, this seems to be happening at other CR managed condos also. I am preparing a complaint to be forwarded to the NJ Dept of Consumer Affairs. BUT I NEED YOUR HELP! Anyone wishing to take up the battle to return control of our resort to the owners, please send me an email,
bobncynthia@voyager.net. Include Brigantine Owner in the subject line as my virus/spam software will throw out anything else.
I too attended the meeting. For anyone reading this who was also there, I'm the gal with severe laryngitis who used the microphone to convey some thoughts. As a result, a few owners gave me their contact info at the end of the meeting. I tried to obtain it discreetly. The "head honchos" were watching closely and seemed to be seething. It's too bad we didn't have someone standing outside the building to catch more people, especially the folks who left early. I will send the info collected by private Email.
It's sad to see how many owners are not Internet savvy; some don't even have an Email address. Well I guess that is not totally unexpected given the age of many of them who have owned for 20+ years. I was impressed by how loyal they are. They seem to really LOVE Brigantine Inn. Paying the Special Assessment was quite a financial burden for many who are seniors on a fixed income.
I think a good starting point would be for us to get in contact with Harry Doria (sp?), a long-term and current owner who is former President of the HOA. He stated that he is a practicing attorney and he seems to be a very intelligent, articulate individual with a committment to seeing that things are done right at Brigantine.
In response to the "mumbo jumbo" statements by Mr. Jeff Ingram that a lot of key documents were lost in the acquisition by Celebrity from the Leisure bankruptcy debacle, Mr. Doria said that he has "mountains" of paperwork collected over the 20+ years he has owned at Brig..and during his years as a Board member. Mr. Doria further stated that he undoubtedly has copies of the "lost documents" and will be glad to share them. Unfortunately I think that CR would rather the documents remain "lost". This seems to be the lame excuse they are using for not having an HOA Board. People present at the meeting stated, "Let's vote on it now." Mr. Ingram said it's not possible because they do not have a quorum, that no proxy forms were sent out. He gave a non-answer as to why this has not been done for the past 3 years, again trying to blame it on--you guessed it, the "lost decuments."
I don't have the paperwork handy now, but I believe Ingram stated that CR owns 167 units and that they are paying the maintenance fees and Special Assessments on each of them. They will not attempt to sell them until the Summer of 2008 after the renovations are completed. He said that CR has determined thet the market is not right for trying to sell them now. I was going to mention all the Ebay auctions without any bids but I didn't want to break the hearts of the owners who had paid full frieght during the years. Although the maintenamce fees have just about doubled over the last 8 yearss, the resort has been grossly neglected.
The one optimistic statement Ingram sort of let slip out is that the developer has a committment to restoring Brigantine to its "former glory" because that would result in a much higher selling price if they decide to sell the property in the future. If this is truly representative of their goals, at least it should lead them to use the Special Assessment monies wisely. Hey, I can dream, can't I?
In addition to seeking advice from Mr. Doria, we could also try to speak with Ray Jacobs, owner of Timesharing Today Magazine
www.tstoday.com. . In addition to his long-term role in the magazine, he is a full time attorney in New Jersey.
I "accidentally on purpose" mentioned during my brief "speech" at the Brigantine meeting that CR owners are forming Internet groups (e.g. Yahoo) to discuss the possibility of retaining a law firm to investigate what's going on, and to pursue a class action lawsuit if necessary. Perhaps if messages like that are conveyed back to the Meyers, they may think twice about running roughshod over the rights of owners. Again, I can dream, can't I?
