by Frank Leeming, September 2, 2019
A wonderful community could be derailed by apathy
Here’s the dilemma
We live in a nearly perfect place.
Affordable housing. Low cost of living. Beauty. Four seasons. Little traffic (not a single stoplight). Low crime. No hurricanes, floods or earthquakes. Fabulous amenities. Great neighbors. A community that works. Excellent emergency medical services. Countless clubs, churches, and organizations to meet all our needs and interests.
The only blemish is at the top of our property owners’ association. The leadership is not up to the task it faces.
Hundreds of talented and caring POA employees work hard every day to make the Village what we want it to be, often straining against the tone and direction of those at the top of the organizational chart.
A collusion between several boards of directors and the last three general managers/CEOs built a virtual wall, blocking Village input from making an impact or inducing change.
How property owners feel about their aloof managers was demonstrated the last two times they were given an opportunity to vote. They soundly defeated proposed Declarations changes and then elected three candidates who said they opposed how things were being done.
No matter.
The last two boards have given our CEO such immunity and protection she feels free to impose her control and intimidate any who challenge her.
The centerpiece of her administration – a Comprehensive Master Plan (CMP) – is not right for Hot Springs Village. Yet she pushes it and imposes it at every opportunity.
While our streets go unpaved for a third straight year, she builds an outdoor pool with marginal appeal.
Now she’s trying to jam through upgrades to the Balboa Golf Course and Clubhouse with little time for property owners to express their feelings. Both projects are valid, but details of the work and its funding need to be openly talked about. One public forum isn’t enough. Delaying final decisions for at least six months should be a given.
And while some good people are looking at marketing and trying to make our budget process more transparent, they’re constrained by the platforms they’re working on.
Marketing needs its own independent venue to help shape how we’re going to attract new homeowners to the Village. Being shoved off to the side as a part of the CMP is not going to lead to meaningful control over the hundreds of thousands of dollars the POA has spent for marketing in recent years.
And an ad-hoc budget committee is not the same as a standing finance committee reporting directly to the board.
So the dilemma: We live in a great place, a near-perfect community, yet we feel it slipping away and there’s nothing we can do about it. In a democracy, and in a corporation where shareholders determine the future, we feel helpless.
Danger lurks around the corner in the form of apathy
The danger just around the corner is apathy. Property owners may turn away in frustration and go about playing golf and hiking and fishing and working in the garden and going to church and traveling and let those in charge of the POA have their way.
If we let apathy roll over us as it did in the middle of this decade, our wonderful community will flounder and slowly fall apart. All the dynamism and excitement which led the Village to be named the only Thousand Points of Light community in America will fade and what makes us special will be gone.
Hot Springs Village – a thousand points of light
Let’s remember how President George H.W. Bush said he would “keep America moving forward, always forward – for a better America, for an endless enduring dream and a thousand points of light.”
That’s the spirit we need to keep alive in Hot Springs Village.
by Frank Leeming, September 2, 2019
Susan Cox
09/03/2019 — 8:00 am
Well said. We all need to be visible and vigilant.
Kirk Denger
09/09/2019 — 10:25 pm
I have empathy for your apathy Frank.
Peter
09/03/2019 — 9:12 am
Remember, folks, it will take 25 years of golf round surhcarges to repay the Balboa cost of improvements. This crazy lady doesn’t care about the $ as she will be long gone before the chickens come home to roost.
Also, she has threatened the Voice and KVRE so they won’t report what is going on…otherwise she will cancel POA ads…
very sad situation…out of control…you notice people leaving everyday…latest is, in fact, the Voice editor.
Pretty soon the only people left will be the idiots who caused all this trouble in the first place.
Fools.
Linda Anderson
09/03/2019 — 9:47 am
FRANK, THANK YOU for such a meaningful and clear understanding of what is happening to our wonderful Village. It is imperative that everyone open their eyes, listen with an open mind and take time to learn the facts of this serous situation and become involved. Our land-the spirit and beauty that surrounds us and our homes must now be defended and protected.
Anonymous
09/03/2019 — 9:56 am
The Legacy board of directors dictionary.
Fiduciary Duty = Spend with frivolity
Anonymous
09/03/2019 — 10:06 am
Workers are indentured servants under the totalitarian regime
Mimi Johnson
09/03/2019 — 10:30 am
Well stated.
Minn Daly
09/03/2019 — 11:09 am
Frank thank you, Apathy: lack of interest, enthusiasm, concern. Words that really hit this situation clearly. High debt, our life style, community we live in being split & destroyed for what? A BOD that is not functional, that lets Chair/CEO run wild with debt & a CMP plan that will not work for this community! Financial issues questioned. Building distrust With members & treatment from staff to society around not warranted by BOD @ meetings in a free society. We pay dues to live in a gated community, that is beautiful not to have a select few (BOD/CEO) take it away from us. We pay dues, we have a right to question activities that are totally abnormal. Message to Chair/CEO Congressional NEW Urbanism will not work within this community. Members please Go to the next BOD meeting express your opinion, there are laws that protects FREE speach! It is time this BOD/CEO understand these principles. Respectfully, Minn Daly
Anonymous
09/03/2019 — 11:22 am
Does anyone know of a way to verify that a proper background check was done before hiring this CEO as well as her current group of highly paid people who not even needed? With all that has gone on in the past few months I can see how this important part of the hiring process could have been over looked. Finding something negative in their backgrounds could be a way to void these insane contracts. We are being made fools of while they feast in our cookie jar.
Anonymous
09/03/2019 — 11:57 am
Well said . thank you.
Pat McCullough
09/03/2019 — 12:28 pm
This looks like some good material for the television show “American Greed”
Wallace Mathews MD
09/03/2019 — 1:22 pm
Frank Leeming has a very solid track record in this Village. Pay attention to what he is saying. In my 18 years here, I have never seen such a disaster being forced on us by the POA. The vast majority of villagers don’t buy this CMP garbage. It is time for those who care about the future of our Village to oppose the direction management is taking!
Anonymous
09/03/2019 — 2:48 pm
Such a great narrative from our friend and neighbor Frank. Thank you!
The sad part about this Village “situation” is absolutely NOBODY, is taking any ACTION to resolve the problems. You all sit at your computers and spend countless hours assembling perfectly formed diatribes about the woes of HSV.
What do we need to DO? We need to take ACTION.
What ACTION do we need to take, you ask?
There’s several courses of action that would lead to possible solutions but only 2 realistic actions should be considered.
1) Form a Property Owners Coalition Group with the sole purpose of executing litigation against the 5 BOD members that have betrayed our trust and violated their fiduciary responsibilities to the Village membership. We need to remove them from office – period! We need to remove Lesley Nalley from office. To do all this will require money and a sharp lawyer that has no ties to HSV.
2) Be content to WAIT! Over the next several years (YES YEARS), we can replace all of the BOD members that have turned their backs on Property Owners and we ALL know who they are.
Which choice do you like?
I’m ready to contribute to a Property Owners Coalition Fund until it hurts to get these incompetent traitors out of our way and begin putting the Village back to the way it was when we all bought into this so-called dreamland.
Somebody – please step forward and start the process. The Village won’t survive with Lesley and her spineless BOD members at the helm for much longer.
Just do it! There’s thousands of Property Owners ready to fund the litigation needed to remove them all.
George
09/03/2019 — 3:36 pm
Anonymous- please cite what part of the declarations we would start litigation against the board/Nalley. This sounds like someone sitting at their computer imagining that a “sharp” lawyer will solve our problems with a nice fund to back them up.
Frank seems to be stating we need to continue to voice our concern and this website is a good source of education for those who are in need of honest information. So spreading this information and encouraging members to express their opinion here and to the board directly are good options.
Anonymous
09/03/2019 — 4:10 pm
George – with all due respect – as Property Owners – we’ve been ” feverishly expressing our opinions to the BOD and to Nalley for at least 2 years. We “sent a clear message” as a result of the November 2018 Election and look where that has got us. NOWHERE! We even tried to elect 3 champions for Property Owners and look where that got us. Turncoat Tormey!
Nalley and her crew on the BOD do not care what we Property Owners want. She and her spineless legacy members and turncoat Tormey are marching to the CMP. They could care LESS about anything but the marching orders documented in a $500,000.00 document.
Write all the perfectly constructed narratives you want. Complain in a compassionate manner all you want. Go to the useless forums, and BOD meetings and get up close and personal with the BOD members and I guarantee you that ABSOLUTELY NOTHING will change.
These people need to be hit where it HURTS THE MOST. In their pocketbook!
You can only do that with intelligent fact-based litigation. We have all the data we need to use against them but no one will step forward and lead the charge. They’d all rather sit behind their monitors and cry wolf.
They know it. The informed Property Owners know it.
Lesley and her “crew” are counting on us Property Owner to DO NOTHING and so far they are making all the right moves while we all spin our narrative wheels in the mud.
The problem is – we Property Owners have ZERO REPRESENTATION.
All the perfect words in all the blogs, in all the Facebook and Nextdoor pages will do NOTHING to resolve our problems.
We need someone to take action.
George Chelf
09/21/2019 — 11:43 pm
Anonymous— why don’t step up and get the ball rolling at least believe in what you are saying enough to sign your name.
Kirk Denger
09/03/2019 — 10:46 pm
George, where have you been? For starters The HSVPOA’s By-laws. Article XII, Section 4, H: ‘a member who is serving on the Board of Directors, or whose spouse presently serves on the Board of Directors, shall not serve on a Standing Committee, until after completion of service on the Board of Directors‘. The governance committee has been illegally voted into existence since 8/2017 by our BODs. These unlawful committees are not about conflicts or inconsistencies with Bylaws, these committees are and have been illegally established premeditatedly by criminal lawbreakers. We do not need a “sharp” lawyer to see the blatant illegalities of this board and CEO. Add to that changing the bylaws that you have already broken is obstruction of justice by premeditatedly covering up the crimes you have willfully committed. The illegal Governance committee since its inception in August 2017, as the only vehicle to offer a BOD’s vote on several bylaw changes, the total rewrite of the Articles of Incorporation in January of 2018 and the CMP are all therefore illegal. Immunity of the Board members only protects those who respond in confusing situations. It does not; however protect unreasonable mistakes, plain incompetence or willful lawbreaking. Mikey mentioned that the audit committee needed to be comprised of upper management because there were things that the POA could be prosecuted for and therefore needed to be kept covered up. China has education camps where they send anyone who does not smile at the communist party. The 5 BODs we now have enable the CEO to do the same thing here in HSV. The CMP Committee is totally illegal and so are it’s sub-committees. The Chair was appointed, NOT elected by the committee members. Puppet committee for the Congress of New Urbanism who has taken over our Village. CCI intended the POA to be organized by committees made up of property owners to produce the will of the property members. The problem we have had for at least two years is fraudulent illegal committees made up of Staff and BODs or committees whose chair is appointed by the same staff/BODs. This is fraught with conflicts of interest and against the will of the membership. These facts are not in conflict with Frank’s website. All members, meet at the next board meeting, the third Wednesday of this and every month to evaluate the HSV BOD and tell those Board members who will not listen to the overwhelming majority of property owners, that we oppose the CMP and that we will replace illegal Board members by a majority vote at a member’s meeting.
George Tenuta
09/04/2019 — 8:41 pm
Kirk,
I am aware of these situations and also aware there is some effort being made to correct “some” of this.
However you need to read the current by laws…
H. Elected directors may serve on Board Standing Committees. Household members of elected directors and officers may not serve on Standing Committees.
We may not like it, but the by laws give the board the right to change them with a majority BoD vote.
I am not a believer in all these standings committees, I was on the rec committee for a very short period, they struggle to have any impact on decisions because of the leadership.
So, before you extend your hyperbole about illegal and unlawful acts along with analogies to communist regimes, I think you should talk to a lawyer.
I am not sure what outcome you would expect after spending thousands of dollars in legal fees, but if you research what Attorney Generals offices in various states, as an example, have done in HOA/POA situations, I think you would very disappointed, I was. They tend to stay out of the arguments.
I am also not a supporter of threatening to say we will vote out illegal board members. We do not have that right.
We can continue to ask specific questions and express our disagreement with actions they take. We can ask that they make a very objective review of the CEO and make it public. If this is done, they will come to the conclusion we must move on. I do believe that once we are able to remove Nalley and get an experienced manager to run our operations and collaborate with realtors and knowledgeable villagers, there is a path to growth and peace.
Kirk Denger
09/04/2019 — 9:35 pm
Tenuta, my consul comes from a lawyer certified to practice at the Supreme Court level, dirty hands cannot change bylaws to make them clean. As a majority of members, we have the absolute right to remove and replace Board members.
Craig
09/04/2019 — 5:14 am
Weak and tired.
George R
09/08/2019 — 10:12 am
BLAH, BLAH, BLAH
A lot of talk now as there has been for the last couple of years. The longer we just talk/complain the worse it gets. The Board and LN must be enjoying watching us flounder in their mess. How much impact has all this complaining had? NONE!!!
I will (and surely many others) financially help legal counsel if an attorney will step up to help. Is there one out there to champion our cause?
Jim Dunnahoo
09/12/2019 — 4:40 am
SIMPERFI
The Old Ranger
06/25/2022 — 2:44 pm
Well, here we are in June 2022 and a lot of HSV people did decide to get more involved. Gone is Nalley et al, and we have had some excellent leadership from John Paul (twice) as interim manager, and he has show the way for future managers. I feel we have a very good one in Kelly Hale (he was already a resident when he was hired) and he had taken some bold steps to move the Village in a better direction and continues to rely on feedback from the constituency. He had to replace a lot of people (who either retired or took another job elsewhere), and he has found some excellent replacements. Mr Hale is a strong leader, with a strong sense of doing the right thing at the right time, and he listens to the Villagers. He explains his decisions as well as taking care of those things we need rather than what we would like.
HSVP C
06/25/2022 — 2:55 pm
Hi Old Ranger,
Thank you for the comment. We have moved on from this website. Here is a link to the new site: https://hsvgazette.com/ I hope to see you there! – Cheryl Dowden