The meeting held on December 11th started at 7:10 PM.  Those present were Gary Lee, Julie Anderson, Kenny Batch, Susan Diresta, Tom Galiotti, and Kathy Martyka.  Mike Charloff was absent.  Sherry from the management company was also present. 

There was no public reading of the minutes of the November meeting, but they were unanimously approved all the same.  It occurred to me that the November minutes won't be published until our next newsletter, which, following tradition, won't be out until the first week in February.  That newsletter will contain the minutes from November and December.  Since the newsletters are now coming out every other month, the next newsletter, April, will have the minutes from January.  It will NOT have the minutes from the March meeting because those won't be approved until May.  The June newsletter will have the minutes from March, the August newsletter will have the minutes from May, the October newsletter will have the minutes from July, and the December newsletter will have the minutes from September.  Without this website, we would be three months behind in hearing what went on at the board meetings.

It was reported that the trees on Keystone were uplifted a few times.  Really?  It looks to me like several trees were hat racked - a procedure that is frowned on by anyone who knows the horticultural business - or completely left alone.  Above All Lawn Care was represented by its owner who stated that the sprinklers weren't being maintained by them.  Julie Anderson asked why the sprinklers weren't working on a timer.  Above All said that he would not go and check on that.  There is no regular maintenance of the irrigation system.  Julie said that she goes out 2 or 3 times to check on it.  Why doesn't she just keep on doing it for free?  Above All suggested a FULL maintenance schedule.  I'm sure he doesn't want to do it for free!  Sherry says that we should go through and find all the sprinkler heads.  My question is WHAT are they irrigating?  The Association owns NO land and therefore has no right to irrigate anything.  The land under the power lines on Keystone has been dedicated to the Association for recreational purposes, but FPL doesn't want us on that land and why would we irrigate weeds anyway?  And the canals, which have been dedicated to the Association for maintenance, don't need irrigation either.  So we come back to the cement sign on Palmetto Park Road.  The homeowners near that sign should check the distance from the inside edge of their sidewalk to the back corner of their property.  Is that sign ON their property?  If not, it is on the county right of way.  In either case, the Association doesn't have the right to irrigate anything.  Finally, assuming that the sign is legal and legally placed, why irrigate plantings, when you can xeriscape, planting native, drought resistant trees and bushes that don't need any special watering.  Just a thought, why did the prior board drill a well and our current board use it for irrigation when the deed restrictions prohibit that in our community?

Above All said that any trees that were taken down were done by FPL and that Above All was fertilizing the back of the hedge.  Julie and Kathy are on the landscaping committee.  It was suggested that they should meet twice a month and include Sherry from the management company to go over the finer points of landscaping.  Are we going to wind up spending more money for these extra meetings, or is the management company going to do this for free?

The question of benches came up.  It was asked if people wanted benches on Keystone and Palmetto Park Roads.  Kathy said that when her mother comes to visit, they can go for a walk and sit on a bench and look at the scenery.  What scenery?  The power lines on Keystone, or the cars whizzing by on Palmetto?  Sherry said that a couple of letters were received against the benches and when Jack Knight asked about having the county put in benches (on county land?) he was told that there weren't enough people riding the buses to warrant putting in benches.  One homeowner said that they thought is would be a bad idea because of graffiti and because they would attract teenagers, who are already congregating behind the sign on Palmetto.  Susan motioned to shelve the question of benches and Julie seconded it.  The board voted 4 to 2 to drop the idea of benches, with Tom and Kathy voting for the benches.  After the vote, Kathy was very disappointed and Gary Lee said that she could bring it up again at the next meeting for ANOTHER vote.  Can't this Board ever vote on anything and have it stick?  Sherry said that she needed to get letters from the homeowners for or against the benches so that the Board would know if the homeowners really did or didn't want them.  Unfortunately, that information won't be published in a newsletter until a month after the next Board meeting.

The lady who is the head of C.O.P.S. reported that in October they drove 350 miles and spent 114 hours patrolling the neighborhood in two different cars.  The mileage included trips to Lantana to pick up the car and trips to Delray for repairs.  For all of that she received three checks, one for $50 and two for $30.  She feels that she is not trusted because she has to put in receipts before she gets any money.  Gary tried to smooth things over, but I didn't hear any settlement, such as giving her a certain amount of money to use for the program, before giving in receipts.  Now that the Board is meeting every other month, how will she get her money, or are we never to hear any more about this again, since money will be dispersed in secret?

In the Manager's report, Sherry said that she is soliciting bids for a few projects and will discuss them in January.  WHAT PROJECTS?!?!?!  Not one Board member asked her what she was spending her time and our money on.  What kind of power does this management company wield over this Board?

There was a report that Lt. Steve Perrillo at the Firehouse, heard about our visit from Santa and how it was cancelled and said that he would do it.  Kenny and his son went and bought 84 bags of candy (with our money?) to go on the truck on Dec. 18th at 7PM.  A notice was placed in the West Boca Times about it.  I hope everyone saw that.  I don't know what route they took - all I heard that night was sirens - and I hope that they didn't go to any other housing developments with our 84 bags of candy.  Maybe next year they'll print out a route map in the newsletter for everyone to know where the fire truck will be going.

As to street lights - it was reported that 5 or 6 lights were transferred from FPL to an electrician to be repaired and have now been fixed.  A few more still have wiring problems and this is an ongoing problem.  Gary Lee motioned to get combination lock for the circuit breakers for the lights.  Julie Anderson seconded it and it was approved unanimously.

The county said that bushes couldn't be planted in front of the guardrails because it would be hazardous to anyone trying to make a U turn, thinking they were just going to hit soft bushes. 

The county took pictures of the No Fishing signs and said that they were not county signs, so they wouldn't replace them.  One of the board members asked if the No Fishing signs could be replaced when we got new entry signs.  Gary Lee made sure to inform the 13 people who showed up that the No Fishing signs do NOT apply to Palmetto Pines Homeowners.  How nice.  How are we going to tell the difference between a homeowner who parks his car on the canal bank on Keystone to go fishing and an outsider who does the same thing?  Maybe we should take Jack Knight's suggestion from several months ago and put stickers on all the vehicles of the homeowners.  Frankly, I can't see why anyone of us would want to catch a fish from a canal in South Florida.  The water isn't clean and the fish can be contaminated with mercury.  At the January meeting the Board wants to finalize the signs, but no figures were mentioned.  Sherry did say that she found signs at half the price that Kathy found.  The last figure I heard from Kathy was $40,000.  WHY do we need new signs?  A coat of paint would do wonders and cost a fraction of what new signs would cost.  AND we can remove the "Deed restricted community" off of every sign, not just the concrete one on Palmetto.

Sherry said that assessments are current and correct as to when they were "applied".  If I understand that correctly, she is looking at the date when the check is applied to the account.  Since the checks aren't being sent to Coral Springs, but to Mississippi, by the time the management company gets word that the check has arrived, it could be two weeks after you sent it in and you could be in danger of getting a lien placed on your house for a late payment.

As the final bit of Board business, Kenny Batch motioned to remove Mike Charloff from the Board.  The reason given was that he missed three consecutive meetings.  It sounded to me like Kenny had finished his motion and his reasons and it must have sounded like that to the other Board members too because they started questioning the motion.  At that point Gary told them to wait, that Kenny wasn't finished yet.  That sounded suspiciously like he and Kenny had worked out a little script and Kenny hadn't said everything Gary expected him to say.  Kenny repeated why Mike should be removed and Julie Anderson seconded the motion.  It was unanimous.  Mike Charloff was one of the most vocal members of the Board, always saying that the Board needed time to make changes.  Mike is also a surveyor and was a major member of the ARB committee, if not the only member.  Did Mike start disagreeing with what the Board was doing with land that wasn't theirs?  Why did he stop showing up?  Not one Board member volunteered to go and find out why he was missing meetings.  Mike is certainly invited to comment on the bulletin board of this website or write to the webmaster.  Anything he wants to say will be published.  And now the Board is down to six.  Who will be the next to go?  We should get up a pool as to who it will be and the date he or she is removed!

At this meeting, almost anyone who spoke was identified by Gary Lee, so I will be including their names in this report.  Mr. Dubree said that the canal water was low on Labrador Street.  The weir was checked by All State (canal maintenance company) and by Sherry.  The wood is old and rotten and will be replaced to maintain the level.

Jack Knight wants to know if Sherry is writing violation letters for trucks, commercial vehicles, vehicles parked on lawns - 7 in front of one house!  Mr. Dubree said that the sheriffs need to straighten up their act because they park any which way.  Mr. Dubree said to just give him the letters and he'll put them on the cars!  Sherry said that violation letters were going out.  Mr. Dubree shouldn't be so upset about how the sheriffs park their cars.  If I remember correctly, the last set of rules and regulations written up by Jack Knight said that sheriffs were exempt from the many parking rules loaded on the common homeowners by Mr. Knight.

One homeowner asked why the signs for the meeting were taken down before the meeting, leading people to believe that the meeting was cancelled.  Sherry said that before the November meeting five signs were put up, but three were stolen before the meeting.  After the meeting, one sign came back.  This month, five signs were put up and all five were stolen.  In case you didn't know where to look for the signs in December, there was one in front of the cement monolith on Palmetto, one on each corner of Hammock and Palmetto, and one on each corner of Keystone and Palmetto.  Anyone going home from Oriole wouldn't have seen any of these signs.  I guess our community is only along Palmetto Park Road.  Sherry said that 10 signs were bought a few months ago at $25 each.

On that happy note, the meeting was adjourned.

I have to say that the meeting was a little dull because, although Tom showed up, he was extremely quiet.  Since that meeting, Tom has again erected his For Sale sign, without the deed restricted community sign attached.  Tom, are you really trying to go this time, or are you getting ready to yell at Sherry again for not enforcing something that isn't in the deed restrictions?  I guess we'll have the answer at our next meeting.  No signs have gone up yet, but the meeting according to tradition should be January 8 at 7 PM in Loggers Run Middle School.  This Board is spending your money without a legal right to do so and without your permission.  Homeowners, don't let just 13 people show up for meetings where 6 people decide what to do with an almost unlimited supply of your money!

Editorial - November 2001

The October/November 2001 Newsletter has come out and, as usual, some very interesting things have been printed.  Let's look at what was written.

It's nice of our Board to try to save costs by having the newsletter come out every two months.  It would be even better if the Board tried to save money by doing only what they are legally able to do, according to our Deed Restrictions.

Instead, what the new board wants to do is spend money on new signs and plants, benches and trash cans on the path on Keystone, fountains in the canals, and stocking the canals with fish.  Since the deed restrictions only allow the Association to maintain the canals and waterways, none of these grandiose plans, except maybe the fish restocking, is within the Board's authority.  Even dredging out the canals is questionable, since the dedication of the canals specifically mentions that the volume of the canals cannot be changed.

As to having trash cans, what would be put in those cans?  Dog poop?  Food garbage?  Can you imagine the wildlife drawn to these cans - the dogs, foxes, opossums, RATS!  Who is going to empty these cans?  And what is wrong with our signs?  Weren't they just improved?  Didn't we just spend over $4500 to improve our signs?  It appears that the Board is spending money just for the sake of spending money.  

Another question is when did the Board decide all these new goals?  It wasn't mentioned in the minutes from the August meeting and it certainly wasn't discussed at the October meeting.  Is the Board meeting in secret?  That is directly opposed to state law that says that all meetings, except legal meetings, are to be open to the public and minutes are to be kept.  I am not aware of any meetings other than the noticed monthly meetings, so when was this decided?  Why does the Board want to spend our money without letting us have any say in how it is spent

As to reducing maintenance fees, the Board can start by not printing coupon books, which cost $2500!

We have a new canal management company.  When were bids received from three companies?  When was there any discussion as to which company was the best? 

Do you know how much it costs to maintain the canals?  According to audits going back several years, it costs about $13,000 a year.  How much money would be collected if we followed the deed restriction number 25, which calls for $2/month, or $24 a year?  $21,336!  That is more than enough to pay for the canal maintenance, which is the ONLY expenditure that the Association has been given the authority to make in the deed restrictions.

On the second page of the newsletter, it is again stated absolutely that you must have a deed restricted community sign attached to your FOR SALE sign, because that is in our deed restrictions.  I will stop harping on this if one person shows me where, exactly, this regulation is in our Deed Restrictions.  Don't bother telling me that it is in the rules and regulations, because those were voted on by eight people and have NO effect on the 881 homeowners who didn't vote on them.

I love the ARB article.  Did you know that the ARB is mentioned in the Deed Restrictions number 12, paragraph 3?  It says that after January 1, 1985, the HOMEOWNERS get to vote in an ARB committee and that vote must be accompanied by a written document listing the ARB committee members. Also, according to paragraph 2, if you have been denied a request, purely on aesthetic reasons, you can go ahead with your plans after three years.  And, finally, according to state law, 720.303(2), all ARB meetings must be open and noticed to the homeowners.

On the first page of the newsletter, it says that the same Board members will remain in office.  On the second page it names the Board members.  Where is Don Hulse's name?  There will be a message from Don in the coming days about this oversight.

I'm sorry, but I can't respect any Board that puts out a newsletter that reflects the lack of knowledge that Board has as to the Deed Restrictions and the State Law.  Maybe they should read this website to get educated.  It certainly is easier to get to than the "official" website!

Last modified: June 13, 2001

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