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After remaining silent for a very long time, it’s time to give the Newman’s audience the facts that as usual weren’t provided in their Facebook Forum site posts. The latest posts were made at 2:23am following last Saturday’s board meeting. We have endured their slanders for many months but enough is enough. It’s time for us to speak up. The Newmans stated that the purpose of their website “is a space for healthy debate – we don’t have to agree but we do need to be respectful of others!” (Jennifer Pinsky Newman 2:23am 11/12/23) Does this statement not apply to her or her family? In addition to mistruths, false conjectures, and let’s just say innuendo, Tim Newman is very disrespectful to the resort and to the board members. Rules don’t apply to the Newmans? Jennifer is the host of a website that condones lies and multiple defamations of character. The site is anything but respectful.
Let’s start with Jennifer’s summation of the first 15 minutes of the board meeting. Little snippets totally taken out of context that didn’t capture one iota of the meeting. The “Solutions” as Jennifer described them, were not labeled as solutions at the meeting. Tim wrote, “there are no solutions as long as we have a board in place that is dishonest, lacks the moral and ethical compass to do the right thing.” No disrespect there…… Jennifer posted that one of the “Solutions” is raising the POA Dues. Raising dues provides only $40,000 next year. Hardly a solution to a problem, or as she terms it “Challenges”. But what she really doesn’t understand is that the projects don’t have anything to do with the budget. To critique a budget to a large audience, one must first learn how to read and interpret it. Jennifer’s recent “do the math” reference insinuates that the $100,000 pickleball seating project will be paid by the 2024 quarterly dues. If she knew how to read the budget correctly, she would be able to see that this project is NOT in the budget, as are none of the projects, and will NOT be funded by the 2024 quarterly dues, because it is a Capital expense project and a Balance Sheet item. The point is the information presented on her FB Forum site is misleading and doesn’t present the whole picture that was presented at the board meeting.
She says passing the budget is a “Solution” to the “Challenge” which isn’t true. Why? Because there isn’t a problem. The budget was worked out so the resort makes a small profit, (we are a non-profit and pay no tax), and the LLC suffers a small loss so that it doesn’t have to pay any taxes. This wasn’t done by “a board that is dishonest, lacks the moral and ethical compass to do the right thing” (Tim Newman 11/13/23). In fact, this was done by board members with both a great amount of experience and a licensed CPA. Ask yourself – what is Tim bringing to the table aside from vitriol?
One of the comments on the Newman FB site from one of their loyal misinformed followers was “Getting tired of their answer to everything ‘just raise the dues!’” A modest 3% increase in dues is not meant to solve a problem. In fact, the majority of the dues increase is slated to replenish the Reserve Fund as we are spending $327,500 on projects to take care of maintaining the resort. Maintaining and improving what we have is the best way to increase rentals and sales. Projects such as Repairing and Paving loops 1 and 2, renovating the dog park, paver repairs, replace failed water valves, pool repairs, and improvements to the staging area. That will help solve the rental problem one project at a time.
Why are we building a Reserve Fund? In 2020 the resort paid for a study done by Miller+Dodson Associates, Inc. It identified 168 assets that the resort owns and must maintain. To develop this slate of projects we looked back 3 years and looked forward to 2027. Of the assets listed in that time frame we made a list and then graded them. We looked at 6 categories and gave them a grade of 1 to 3. The categories were: It was in the original study as an asset, it directly increases our rentals, owners have requested it, it enhances our appearance, it reduces maintenance, or it reduces energy use. We graded each project and ranked them by score. We put an estimate on each one and this became our request for the Reserve Fund spending. Only the highest score or projects that would not be impacted by future projects were funded. So, if that 3% increase is too much to ask to keep the resort in good condition, you don’t understand inflation. And where does the remainder of the 3% go? It pays for the staff and vendors who need cost of living increases.
Now to the Capital Fund. We used the same process to create a list of capital projects. The only difference is that these projects are funded from the POA Savings Account. Its present balance is $1,345,000. This savings account is intended to fund improvement projects that are new. The projects selected were: Digital monitors for displaying events, a dog park expansion, build a sound absorbing fence near the car wash, create a seating area for the pickleball, tennis, basketball, and shuffleboard courts, a music system for the pool, and improvements to the staging area to name a few. The surplus is created from money left over from the budget each year. It needs to be spent to keep us current with the market. It
also needs to be spent wisely and carefully recognizing the limits of contractors, and our staff to manage projects. Your board has done that.
In our board sessions, we have healthy disagreements quite often. We are certainly not a rubber stamp board and when we have dissension, as we did on the budget, we continue to meet to work through it to clarify how projects are funded. We eventually came to a consensus as a board to present the budget for 2024. It’s a good budget with solid action items to improve the resort. And all this happened in the last 3 weeks. We have been very busy with 2-3 meetings per week to work out issues. That is how a board works. We meet to discuss issues and work out a compromise that is good for everyone. There’s a simple reason why there were no comments at the budget vote. Although we all would also have liked to eliminate a $25 increase each quarter, it is needed to continue funding renovation of our assets. Are we the only ones who noticed the inflation rate?
Tim takes on Tony Goddard by name. (Not the first time.) Tim, can you say disrespect? Let’s look at the facts about this. Our marketing company found our listing on the web that said we were #1. It’s still there. It appeared on our website. The unelected Newman pair took it on themselves to complain to the website that listed us. Even though we are still listed on that website they asked us to take it off ours. (Maybe they were tired of listening to the Newmans.) That’s what really happened. Tim ranted and raved for a whole page on this.
Next Tim shifts his vitriol to our “absent-minded Treasurer” (Tim Newman 11/13) Spiros Gerekos. He complains that there was no budget forum. Maybe that’s because the budget wasn’t finalized until Owners Week. When a single “deceitful, lacking a moral and ethical compass in relation to their duties for the resort” (Tim 11/13), member decided to vote NO and ask for a review of the budget, Spiros and Phil took the time to reframe the spending and the sources of funding for the operations, capital expenditures, and restricted funds. We came to a good agreement that positions the resort to improve our rentals and hopefully property values. Amazing, we were doing our jobs, for which we were elected to do!
Over the past many months, other board members have been called out by name by the Newmans and have been accused of being dishonest, unethical, liars, thieves, immoral, and complicit. Those are harsh accusations that are slanderous and libelous. Indeed, a few of the members have become routine punching bags for the Newman’s regular enjoyment, to what end?
Disagreeing with the Board’s decisions or the direction the Resort is heading is acceptable. Serious unfounded accusations are not. Jennifer and Tim Newman, you need to cease your vitriolic attacks of the board. We were voted in by the owners. You two were not. The owners elected us to make tough decisions and spend the resort’s money wisely. If you have any real evidence of mismanagement of funds, put it up. Not your opinions, not your innuendos, not your conjectures, not your lies. You two have accomplished nothing constructive with your Facebook Forum website. Jennifer, you want to represent the resort? Not while you continue to allow posts to be made on your site that shows such disrespect to hard working people.
The HHIMR Board of Directors
Marylis Wozniacki – President
Tony Goddard – Vice President
Bud Grindle – Secretary
Spiros Gerekos – Treasurer
Phil Noftsinger – Member
JL Belisle – Member
Glenn Rockwood – Member
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