by Tom Blakeman, September 27, 2019
In the August CEO Report, villagers got a lecture about “funding”. The word was used nine times in various contexts, mostly all negative: broken funding models; funding mechanisms; funding imbalance; funding level; inadequate funding model; amenity funding strategy; funding mechanisms; appropriate funding; funding is off balance.
At the September Board Meeting under New Business, we got a preview of the 2020 Budget. It was advertised on the POA website as “education”. We learned that utility rates are going up by 3% and assessments by the maximum allowed CPI adjustment. That’s “funding” – never enough.
Things do cost more than they used to. But, increasing assessments, rates, and fees, no matter how or when, or on what “models” – isn’t the answer. We first need to stop “funding” (subsidizing) departments we don’t need and activities and operations which should be self-supporting.
Three prime examples are: Homes and Land, Golf and Restaurants. Between those three we are “funding” (subsidizing/losing) something like $3 million per year. That is about the same annual amount that the two-tier assessment increase generated (only four years ago).
No one wants to “fund” golf courses they do not use and restaurants they do not patronize. They certainly do not want to “fund” real estate offices and employees to compete with the 100 or so Realtors® both inside and just outside the gates.
POA refers to itself as a corporation. Corporations focus on revenue generation not “funding”. They focus on cost containment not “subsidizing”. They focus on sales and efficiency – on doing more with less.
That is called Management. Once we have that, then we can think about more assessment, rate and fee increases. Until then all the “broken funding models” talk is bogus – just a lot of false narratives.
by Tom Blakeman, HSV Resident, September 27, 2019
Cover Photo by Jp Valery on Unsplash
Minn Daly
09/27/2019 — 8:18 am
Thank you Tom Blakeman for your astutely accurate accounting of NEW business from BOD/CEO! Keep in mind this has been developing for sometime over the past 3 years. This is about allowing the CEO to spend us into bankruptcy & exceptional lawsuits, unneeded arbitration & CMP issues. Attorneys are very expensive, we have no idea as to how many attorneys represent CEO or HSV. You are so on target management is the issue. We need a BOD that controls the manager. We do not have that now! We need change with this legacy board. Respectfully, Minn. Daly
Mary Szczepaniak
09/27/2019 — 10:07 am
agree
Jim Langford
09/27/2019 — 8:54 am
Good accounting Tom. I have been espousing for months that the POA needs to
get into full maintenance mode until the expenses meet income or less than income. The overhead in Naley’s org chart has to be taking a huge chunk out of the budget. As you mentioned, Restaurants and Village Homes and Land have never met revenue.
Mary Szczepaniak
09/27/2019 — 10:09 am
Agree
W Carter
09/27/2019 — 10:17 am
Having been away on business for a couple of weeks I have not been following this site. However, I have been catching up the past couple of days and I am truly appalled by what appears to be going on in Hot Springs Village.
Just to list a few things I have seen reported:
CEO filing grievances against directors
An elected Director fired by a majority vote
Board Members threatened
Multi-million dollar proposals that cannot possibly be paid for
A “budget” that makes no sense
Police calling at people’s door because of posts on a facebook site
This cannot continue and, if it does, is surely going to end in disaster. As an absentee property owner this is scaring me and I am now seriously considering selling up and getting my money out of the place while there is still something left.
Anonymous
09/27/2019 — 11:35 am
As I have said many times over , like a teenager with an unlimited credit card and no responsibility what so ever. The parents should never answer to the child , don’t you see the comparison.
NittyGritty
09/27/2019 — 12:30 pm
As the board hires outside help at the gates, Villagers complain that it should be done by the POA. As the board keeps its real estate profits in house, Villagers complain that its profits are not being hired out. There will always be a loud minority of contrarians, regardless of which way the wind blows.
Everyone’s ideas differ about what “needs” to be supplemented. It should be obvious by now that it is unfair to play favorites. Hot Springs Village owners were provided documentation that each and every existing amenity would be maintained at its existing location and at full functionality.
Linda Anderson
09/27/2019 — 1:01 pm
THANK YOU-TOM. You are correct. Management is determined to spend the village into huge debt. The Balboa project was a perfect example. A clear determination to tear down everything at huge expense without attempting to see if their plan was feasible. An irresponsible decision that might have passed if it weren’t for property owners taking notice and taking the time to come to the POA meeting to say : NO.
Now there is no attempt to stop a bleeding budget. Everything is in the red except Utilities. Everything is broken. Look at the CPI increase for the Village : 2.7 %. when the United States CPI is 1.7 %. Every opportunity to raise fee’s. The majority BOD continues to look the other way and ignore the red flags. Management is making huge salaries while the Village is circling the drain.
This is about spending without accountability.
Subsidizing is breaking HSV’s financial back.
Anonymous
09/27/2019 — 2:35 pm
I think all of you need to move out of the Village. You need to be in a community where only what you want to participate in exists. Why any of you want to live here is bewildering to me. You all knew these amenities were going to be here, and none of you living here at the time prevented John Cooper from building more. than you want. Those of you who moved here a short time ago knew what was here. It is a community with a lot of amenities. It is the responsibility of all of us. to support. the community we live in. Because you don’t like or use something don’t mean everyone agrees with you. Shooting down amenities in this community is assinine. Just move and find a community more to your liking. Let the rest of us find. new neighbors to replace you.
Melinda Noble
09/27/2019 — 4:15 pm
To Anonymous (Lesley): Thank you for your advice, I’m sure some people will take it. I for one had rather see you find a community more to your liking and one that likes you more.
Cynthia L. Anderson
09/27/2019 — 9:23 pm
agree Melinda
Dan
09/28/2019 — 12:44 pm
Cat fights are not helping, Melinda. We are making ourselves look like fools.
Julie
09/29/2019 — 4:08 am
Well, you most assuredly are.
Anonymous
10/06/2019 — 8:36 am
amen
HSVP J
09/27/2019 — 3:53 pm
I don’t think Village Homes and Land, the POA’s real estate company is keeping any profits because there is none. VH&L relies on property owner subsidies.
Minn Daly
09/27/2019 — 8:13 pm
To anonymity above that thinks those members who love & live in HSV for years, who want sound management & financial stability, should move to another community is absolutely an ignorant individual! We could all sit back & wait for the train wreck does not care about this community of the values members halve invested in it. This includes the developer interest. Ignorance is bliss & you sound very blissful! Minn Daly
Cynthia L. Anderson
09/27/2019 — 9:24 pm
again agree
Pat McCullough
09/27/2019 — 9:31 pm
I too have no doubt that Lesley and her people are writing a lot of the posts. They are as plain as the noses on our faces. She is making fools of us and I am very , very tired of it. We must continue to look for a way to expose her. Has anyone verified that a background check was done on her?? If it was not we may find that if we do it we will find a way to cancel her crazy contract!!! Where are the retired lawyers who should be getting involved here? They must care about their property value??
Dan
09/28/2019 — 12:00 pm
Listen to yourself would you. Fanatical, fact-free posts from the same people over and over are making us look more foolish than anything.
Tom Blakeman
09/28/2019 — 2:57 pm
Dan, losing upwards of $3 million per year is foolish. That is a fact. In just two years it could have paid for the Balboa GC renovation.
Julie
09/29/2019 — 4:09 am
I am listening. Are you?
Julie
09/28/2019 — 4:54 am
They have no profits to keep because they are not a true business and no one who works there has any idea of how to run a business.
Julie
09/29/2019 — 4:13 am
No one retires knowingly to a community where simple board meetings can’t be held without a massive police presence.
No one retires to a place with 9 poorly run golf courses that lose millions and millions of dollars.
No one retires to a place where the employees have such ridiculous job titles that defy any understanding.
No one retires to a place with a crazy, half-baked lunatic making more than the governor of the state and who seems intent on destroying the very fabric of the place without delay.
No one retires to a place where inept, frustrated, former military career guys become board members so they can finally leave a legacy of further ineptitude.
No one retires to a place that bills itself as a gated community but is, in fact, so porous as to be laughable.
No one retires to a place where the police chief constantly reminds us all of the many things he is unable to do about the lax security rather than actually doing anything. Come on in – we’re open for anyone to use our amenities. No charge.
No one retires to a place that can’t figure out how to contract for projects that don’t end up a disaster (gates, thermal cooling, dredging, etc, etc.) and a complete and total waste of money.
No one retires to a place where the CEO can successfully direct the local paper to not report on anything unfavorable regarding the board or the POA management.
No one retires to a place that illegally holds secret meetings, illegally conducts improper committee meetings, and illegally silences members of the community.
No one retires to a place that has waffle cone vendors on the beach for the non-resident “guests” to enjoy.
No one retires to a place that can’t operate a single restaurant without losing money.
No one retires to a place that signs secret, multi-year, money-losing contracts with shady outfits like Troon that result in nothing but more lost money.
No one retires to a place where property values decline on a regular basis year after year after year.
No one retires to a place that leaves dozens and dozens of rusting culverts ready to collapse in place but builds a crummy little outdoor cocktail pool that is only used 1/4th of the year for twice what it would cost if anyone knew how to contract.
No one retires to a place that raises fees on every possible thing you might ever want to do every single year. Fees that reduce the use of the amenities and that result in less income, not more.
No one retires to a place where the management hides behind their desks and never openly engages with the very people paying their salary.
No one retires to a place that loses every single change they had proposed to our bylaws and then acts like that vote never happened and goes about making the changes anyway.
No one retires to a place that spends massive amounts of money to “fix” an old, dilapidated, run-down, leaking golf clubhouse only to have a newer run-down leaking golf club house that loses money and that few people even use.
No one retires to a place that proposes to throw 6 million dollars they do not have to “fixing” an old, tired, and run-down golf course that doesn’t draw enough players to even break even.
And no one ever retires to a place that pays $500,000 for a crummy, ill-planned, inane, asinine, sophomoric, boilerplate document from some crazy outfit in Florida that is absolutely guaranteed to destroy what we have if ever implemented.
Not a single soul.
Anonymous
09/29/2019 — 3:25 pm
Julie…. But here we all are……retired in Hot Springs Village. There are a lot of wonderful things about living here. Why not write about the good reasons to retire here. We have only been here 4 years and with all of the negativity, this is our home. Why trash your home and make people think it’s not a good place to live. Sure, the village has problems, but everyone needs to come together and work for the betterment of the village. This negativity has to stop. The question is how. Just my opinion….just like yours.
Beverly
09/29/2019 — 3:33 pm
Sorry, the above comment was not suppose to be anonymous. It was written by me. I now know how some anonymous comments are posted. Is there a way to add your name after posting? My mistake.
Anonymous
09/29/2019 — 9:23 pm
Julie, Nasty reference to military. Who do you think you are.
Pat McCullough
09/29/2019 — 9:34 pm
your comment here makes no sense at all .
George Sorrell
10/01/2019 — 2:50 pm
My wife and I began seeking an Arkansas retirement location in 2010. We considered Greer’s Ferry area as a first choice. Here are the considerations that helped me decide to move to HSV instead.
The Village offered a certain type of stability and order you could just feel. If there was a financial crisis in 2010, I was not aware. Village amenities were somewhat overwhelming. I knew based upon my age and physical well being, I would never be able to fully use them all. However, it pleased me to live where these amenities exist. Even if I am no longer able to participate in Tennis, softball or pickle ball, I could at least go and watch others enjoy these activities.
The homes I could afford in Greer’s Ferry seem to have a wide variance for home design and/or size. Not that I want identical cracker box homes. I do prefer each home to blend with the neighbor’s houses or at least not detract from the immediate neighborhood. This is how I see HSV.
At the time, home prices between Greer’s Ferry and Hot Springs Village were significantly different. HSV has the best value (from a buyer’s perspective) than any place I’ve ever seen. Not just in the price of a home, but taxes, energy and water are still a bargain. This is especially true when you again consider all the amenities.
If we could focus on stabilizing wasteful spending (see Tom’s examples), get our financial house in order, stop this War, become friends and neighbors again, market the heck out of HSV by telling the world what a great place this is, we can turn this ship around. I know it won’t be easy and I readily admit I have neither the skills nor wisdom to make these things happen. I hope we find and elect the right leaders who can.