HSV Board of Director Candidate
My Platform
Before I get into discussing my commitments and objectives if I am fortunate enough to be elected, it has already been suggested that my brief time in the village somehow doesn’t qualify me to run and serve. Has it ever occurred to anyone that because the selection up to now has been members of the good old boys club, that may have contributed to the issues being faced today? So in the interest of transparency, I have been in the village for four (4) years. We decided to rent for a while before we made a decision to buy. The reason being, we saw many make this mistake when we moved to Panama and after two years they were disenchanted and wanted to go back home and they could not recoup their investment. We did not want to be in the same boat. We fell in love with the place and the longer we stayed, the more we were convinced that we were home.
That is until we, like many others, discovered how poorly the village was being managed. It doesn’t change how we feel about the village itself, but it did concern us that our investment here might also be in peril. In addition, when we moved here, I had just finished extensive cancer treatments that ended the month before our move. I was weak and had limited energy. It took me a while to get my sea legs back. But I did serve on the board of one of the fishing clubs and was the Vice President. I have also been elected to the HSV Realtor Board beginning in 2019. I’m back and I’m ready to serve!
Initial Focus:
- Personally, make myself available to property owners via email, phone, meet and greets, one-on-one, or whatever forum is comfortable for them to gain property owner insight on what they would like to see the board focus on.
- Encourage the Board to hold Town Hall’s at least once a quarter to solicit input from property owners.
- Suspend current long-term activities and develop 1-3-5-year plans for both revenue and cost containment. Focus attention on deferred maintenance issues, elimination of bad-debt issue and establishing adequate reserve levels.
- Board to establish prescribed budget processes and goals for the CEO to follow in the management of their duties and tracking back to the Board and the property owners. A format that is acceptable as a standard business practice and one where you don’t have to second guess where the numbers are coming from.
- Board to establish measured performance goals for the CEO. Revenue growth of 10% per annum within 5 years. Reduction of costs by 10% by April 2020. ‘Standards communicated downward and division/department managers also accountable for growth and cost reductions. Failure to perform to these standards will result in a change of management.
- Board to be held accountable and ensure that non-essential spending is temporarily suspended until financials indicate expansion makes sense. Operations analyzed and decisions made on their continued use.
- Salary ranges to be reviewed by a trusted compensation organization and recommendations made to the Board for their adoption.
- While this also ranks as a top priority, a forensic audit of our books needs to be performed and a report submitted to the Board so that we can establish trust with the property owners that all expenditures are accurate and necessary.
- Formation of a finance committee made up of seasoned budget managers from our impressive property owners.
- An Ad Hoc committee of property owners specialized in the food industry to bring forth suggestions on how to manage the current POA restaurant structure.
I have gotten literally hundreds of comments on changes or attention that needs to be paid to certain items, and while they should be, it is contingent on the Board to give those marching orders to the CEO. No more of what is perceived as the tail wagging the dog. As I move through this process, I will be providing more information on this page, but in the meantime, please reach out and provide me with your feedback. Decisions made in a vacuum seldom turn out with a good outcome.
GENERAL POSITION ON MY CANDIDACY
- PLACE A MORATORIUM ON CMP – Entire document needs the components broken out and individually addressed and prioritized to identify those that can be accomplished in
a windows no further out than 5 years. No30 year plans! - OPENNESS AND RESPONSIBILITY – While legally the FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) does not apply to HSV, it should operate as if it does. Too many meetings shrouded in secrecy. BOD members should truly represent the people! BOD needs to operate like a Community.
- TRUE FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY – Wasted expenditures appear to be the standard practice. New gate system (failed endeavor) – CMP expenditure with no accountability to the people – Growing number of departments and employees (i.e. real estate business is hemorrhaging) – Number of operations that are being subsidized by assessments (i.e. sports activities, restaurants, etc.).
- RESTORE BALANCE BETWEEN BOD & POA MANAGEMENT Decision-making authority has been shifted from the BOD to POA management. Direction seems to indicate that we have become a benevolent dictatorship.
My Qualifications & Experience
Key Skills:
Action and results oriented. Troubleshoot and solve problems. Develop, manage and motivate empowered teams. Provide leadership, training, support, and outlook for peak performance. Expert in change management and implementing sweeping changes, succeeding where others have failed. Manage complex operations. Apply leading-edge technologies. Authored major business plans. Develop strategic alliances. Strong verbal and written communicator.
P&L●B2B●BestPractices●Budgeting●Forecasting●Turnarounds●Continuous Process Improvement●Cost Reduction●Multi-Site●Sales & Marketing●Technology Solutions●Outsourcing●Call Centers●Startups●Project Management●Production Management●Imaging●Customer Relations
Work Career
1967-1970 U.S. Navy – Drafted and served 3 years and 9 months. Primary rotations were Adak, Alaska and Washington D.C. Highlights was the experience received in IT system design and computer programming. Worked for Ret. Lt. Commander (GS 13) as the lead military resource on building the cost accounting system for the Navy.
1971-1981 Washington Mutual Savings Bank – Originally hired as an EDP Auditor in the Audit Department. After two years was promoted to operations manager and promoted to Assistant Vice President after 2.5 years. Had responsibility for many of the internal operations.
1981-1997 Dataplex/ACS – In 1981 I joined what then was Southern Vital Records Center. During the period of of ’81-’89 a group of six of us senior managers built the company from $1.3 million to $58 million. This operating group also renamed the company to Dataplex. During this same period of time I personally managed the records center, southern sales division, records management consulting division (which I started) was a product manager of the leading product/service to the financial industry and worked hand-in-hand with our outside marketing agency to develop brochures and other marketing avenues for the company. In addition I managed many of the internal operating departments including human resources. In 1989 our private company was acquired by ACS and I agreed to move to Dallas, TX to take over the Southwest Region. This region was composed of 500 employees with a $38 million dollar budget. Highlight of taking over this region was building the Texas offices from $10 to $22 million in a little over two years.
1998-2010 Sherman Affiliated Services Took on a couple of smaller consulting jobs during the initial startup of my business and expanded as time went on to provide both short and long-term engagements providing general business consulting services. Services covered all areas of a company to include sales, marketing, operations, financial and administrative. Had contracts ranging from the restaurant industry to imaging companies to manufacturing and service-related industries. Several engagements included starting up operations with an existing business and several start-up businesses.
Clubs and Associations – Have been active my entire life in clubs and associations that support my work career and have served on many committees and served in an
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