The Goal is the Same – A Strong Hot Springs Village
In a move that took the HSV Board of Directors by surprise, Board member Lloyd Sherman has submitted his resignation. Sherman, in a Facebook post cited as his reason for resigning as the “abdication of some board members to the will of staff.” Nothing could be further from reality. The Board is actively engaged in the oversight of the POA operations after hiring a General Manager with the qualifications and skillset that were missing in past POA management. After just three months on the job, the new General Manager has made amazing strides in reducing/controlling expenses, streamlining the staff, addressing long-postponed infrastructure issues, beginning development on plans to improve golf, and revitalizing the food and beverage program.
Mr. Sherman’s resignation comes at a time when the Board was learning about questionable and concerning activities performed by recent and past individual Board members in attempts to discredit various staff members and interfere with various operational decisions.
The Board would like to share a message so well thought out by Board member Dick Garrison:
The process [of change] is still messy. We still have many tasks ahead of us and in all probability we will again stumble a time or two. But we also want everyone to consider the following:
-Thanks in large part to the PPS grant, we are in excellent cash position even though this pandemic was a scary thing to navigate.
-In Charles King we have found a mature, seasoned General Manager who is doing all of the fundamental things we had hoped for and who we firmly believe will be the long-term solution to our leadership problems of the past.
-We have a POA staff who is developing at a rapid rate and whose asset value has been greatly underappreciated in the past.
We still need to:
-Better utilize our Committee structure.
-Manage the pandemic fallout for the Village. So far our cautious approach to spending and managing has worked, but who knows where this virus will take us.
-Plan our future, including our infrastructure needs. A lot of work is underway, but we do not have a finished product.
-Find new ways to grow our revenue. The outcome of a recent meeting with the Realtor community provided an excellent growth potential.
And finally, we need qualified, experienced Villagers to come forward next month and run for the BOD. This is one of those “Greater Good” moments where it literally will take a Village to get us to that next level.
The board wishes to thank Lloyd Sherman for his tireless service to Hot Springs Village.
Editor’s note: This message came to Property Owners in an E-blast on Thursday, November 5, 2020, at 6:27 p.m. A board member requested we publish this.
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Andy Kramek
11/06/2020 — 1:26 pm
Since the last election I have watched, in amazement, how totally dysfunctional the management of the Village has become. Out of the 7 elected Board members who were incumbent, or were newly seated, at the end of in April you now have, by my count, just 3 remaining (Messrs Garrison, Omahundro and Denger). From 7 to 3 (not counting the interim appointees who have resigned or were forced out) in under 7 months. By any standard that is an awfully high rate of attrition. Apart from anything else, it raises the question of the credibility of any decisions taken between now and the next election given that only 3 members, and therefore a minority, of the Board have actually been elected by property owners.
From my (admittedly remote) perspective it looks as if the management of all aspects of the village, both strategic and tactical are slowly, but surely, reverting to the control of the GM and POA bureaucracy. It’s all starting to look just like it did 7 years ago when Mr Twiggs arrived to take the GM position and we know the result of that appointment – a drive down the New Urbanist road that cost the Village hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars. At least there was then a clearly stated ‘plan’ (either the Twiggs Master Planning Document, or the much maligned CMP). The problem was that neither were acceptable to the majority of the property owners – as their repeated defeats in elections proved.
So what, since then? The issues that most drove the 2020 election (removing the CEO and dumping the CMP) were quickly dealt with, but since then all we have seen is chaos and infighting at the Board level and, for the most part, silence from the GM and his management team. I wish HSV nothing but the best (it was my home until mid-2019) but I fear you are all going to need something closer to a miracle than we have yet seen if the Village is going to survive in anything close to its prior form.
Rick
11/12/2020 — 11:10 am
I agree completely.
Phil Lemler
11/12/2020 — 3:56 pm
Me too!
Tom Blakeman
11/06/2020 — 4:33 pm
Andy makes some very good points. Given we now have a minority of elected members on the board a prudent move might be to call a special election, sooner rather than later, to fill the vacant and/or appointed seats. Why wait another 4 or 5 months to have a full compliment of elected members seated? After all, it is supposed to be an elected board that runs the Village, not appointees or staff.
Another thought, one which I’ve proposed before, is why not simultaneously vote to have 9 elected board members rather than 7? Maybe there should even be 11. Other places do. Frankly I’m not even sure it needs a Member vote to make that change. With more elected members on the board it would be less likely to have factions develop as may have happened in the past. Of course it would also be much harder to get a majority vote that way but that might be a good thing.
If anyone is worried about factions, the currently allowed practice of remaining board members appointing replacements (temporary as they may be) should also be scrapped. A board could still operate quite effectively with a couple of resigned (or fired) members if there were still 7 or 9 elected ones remaining. And the famous “work load” we’ve heard so much about would be (should be) reduced. Then again, perhaps the old famous 80/20 rule would still apply.
And don’t forget my other previously proposed idea of compensating the elected board members in some way. Perhaps that would entice more “qualified, experienced” people to want to do the job. After all, don’t we give employees half price on everything POA? Board members don’t even get a free lunch.
Elmo Wiggins
11/07/2020 — 9:06 am
The answers are not adding more board members and/or compensating board members. The largest issues are centered around the competency of the board members who are elected. They are all smart people, and well-intended, but inexperienced in managing an entity the size of HSV. You cannot develop and implement a plan and vision without the experience of “being there before”. HSV has elected boards who have “good ideas” but no background in implementation. A middle manager who ran an accounting department or an IT manager for a large corporation just cannot understand what is needed to move the Village in the right direction. Deciding how much paper to order next year or deciding who will fill in the schedule for Mary … who is sick this week … does not constitute an ability to develop and oversee a workable business plan. It sure doesn’t provide the expertise to manage and craft guidelines for a CEO/GM type of individual. A GM who is worthy of the job will run all over a board of middle managers, accountants and real estate professionals. HSV will NOT succeed unless it finds a way to get ex-CEOs or executive managers from the corporate world who understand strategic planning.
Minn Daly
11/07/2020 — 9:28 am
We have a strong BOD! We have differsivied individuals that have the abilities to run all that is required for HSV Community. The BOD hired a very differse GM who has a terrific resume & experience to handle POA staff & community issues if given the chance by membership instead of throwing arrows at someone who has only been in action for 3 months. Our BOD & GM had a mess to clean up, & was able in a short time stop the bleeding with dissive actions. Our BOD has accomplished a great deal of issues that could have been very costly to all. Of course we have had resigning issues, however if those individuals choose to do so that is for them to decide. We still have Terrific group who ant this community to grow & be productive. We have a great group of individuals who will seek election in the upcoming year. Talented educated individuals who will see community support & be elected representative of HSV membership. Representative of all the community & not a select few. Let’s support our current BOD & NEW GM! Minn Daly
Walter Newburn
11/11/2020 — 7:55 pm
Please be specific about streaming the staff. That is where the Village can save money. Our GM needs to have a sapn of control study done. I was involved in one and it saved the company big dollars and did not effect our customers or sales. My background for many years was HR. Job evaluation is another tool. One finds that to many people the same or similar things.
Tom
11/12/2020 — 7:59 am
There appears to be a new org chart out. Be interested in your thoughts on that. See the Facebook HSV group where cheryl has posted it.
Gene Garner
11/19/2020 — 11:12 am
Once again the BOD and the GM/CEO are tied in knots on which direction to take the Village. Many Property Owners are unhappy with their performance and are questioning their ability to lead HSV . Maybe it’s time to go back to the basics.
Democracy “control of an organization or group by the majority of its members”.
The November 2018 vote on the Declaration amendments and the 1993 re-incorporation was an example of democracy at work. It settled the ongoing argument between the BOD/CEO and the Property Owners concerning how we wanted to be governed. Even though some Owners were unhappy with the result, we all accepted the vote and moved on.
It make’s sense to use the vote to acknowledge the will of the Owners– who have the most to lose when bad decisions are handed down by the BOD/GM. Many “gated communities” use on-line voting to elect their BOD, amend their Declaration, change the By Laws and conduct day-to-day operations.
When everyone has a voice in the decision most people will accept the results and if the decision doesn’t work out at least we gave it our best shot. No Villager wants to be told what to do, this isn’t the military and we’re not green recruits to be ordered around. This is all about inclusion, giving everyone a chance to have a say and letting the majority make the final decision. By letting the Owners decide on suggestions from the BOD/GM every Villager will have an investment in the final decision. It’s time we left the 1970’s way of governing HSV behind and moved on to at least the 2000s.
The voting software used by these gated communities is not expensive and it has very good security safeguards. The vendors that sell the software will assist in setting up the voting website and will do as much or as little as the customer wants in conducting the votes..–Gene
Gene Garner
11/30/2020 — 9:00 am
Correction–I’ve been notified the Ad Hoc Election Committee WON’T be purchasing software that allows the Property Owners to vote on issues before the BOD. They will be “outsourcing” the administrative duties of the BOD to a third party at a cost up to $43,600 to handle the entire Director election.
This will make the election process less transparent and increase the distrust that’s built up between the Property Owners and the BOD– while wasting our money.–Gene