To All Owners at the Orlando Apopka Airport. Change The board! re-elect no one!
There is about to be an election concerning our HOA board members. There are 7 seats open as the HOA board is only a 1 year duration. Only 6 of the current board members have chosen to run again. This is important to know. Many of the 6 seeking re-election have been on our HOA board for over 10 years. Yes, 10 plus years now. These include Jan Potter, Mark McCoy ( 13 years ) , Jim Heekin, who left for two years and now is back. With the old saying “ absolute power corrupts absolutely “ our board has problems….
Current board members seeking re-election:
Adam Barney
Dave Croson
Lon Delatte
Mark McCoy
Jan Charles Potter
New Candidates for a better HOA:
Laurence Albrecht
Julius Fowler aka "Toney"
Pete Lankester
Mark Laughridge
Doralisa (Chady) Sherrod
Roger Sherrod
Micheal Young
The construction around our airport:
Surely many of you have noticed the abundance of construction to the South, West, and North of our community. Currently there seems to be over a million square feet of commercial space under construction, totally surrounding the airport.
Does anyone know the first plan of this construction?
At first it was slated to be a nine hundred custom home fly-in community with at least 10% of the new homes having their own hangars and expanding the runway north and adding more taxi ways to greatly improve the overall airport and the footprint of our existing community. These new additions to our community were slated to pay HOA dues to our community. With the addition of 900 new properties adding to the HOA budget, imagine what could have been accomplished? Maybe a CBP station so one could fly direct to the Bahamas, maybe a small cafe ? Who knows what could have been.
The sad reality is our current HOA board told the developer ” NO - NOT INTERESTED.” We like our small, personal airport. Mr. John Hitt, Apopka City Commissioner, could not believe this was the response of our HOA Board. Please contact Mr.John Hitt at 407-703-1713 for his comments
Not just did our HOA board tell the developer “ NO “ but the HOA board never told the owners about this. The HOA Board sat on it. Whether you agree with the expansion of the airport or not - it should have been brought to the attention of the 180 plus owners at a monthly or special meeting concerning this as it would have positively influenced our property values and that is the sole responsibility of the HOA: property values. There could have been at least an Email regarding this as the HOA board is more than capable to send out Email invitations for BBQ’s or hurricane preparations. etc. There were no meetings or notices concerning this posted prior to any monthly board meeting mentioned on the agenda of a possible 900 home construction plan. Total silence on behalf of our HOA board with no regard to the owners. So now the airport is simply surrendered by massive warehouses that contribute nothing to our community.
Another reason new leadership is needed in our HOA community, the ARB.
ARB or Architect Review Board is a subgroup that serves to accept “ applications “ for new construction, alterations and or modifications to the land or hangars themselves in an effort to maintain property values.
How the ARB rules and guidelines are created:
The HOA is authorized to establish an ARB committee, a quorum of three people or more. Then the owners vote on the rules and guidelines that the ARB committee is to enforce. These rules and guidelines must be approved by 75% of the owners to be valid. The HOA board may not create any ARB rules and guidelines and enforce them without the owners' vote to approve. This is exactly what is going on. ( see above menu our communities Declaration and bylaws )
Has anyone been provided a ballot or voted on ARB rules in this airport community?
Speaking with several long time owners including Mr. Gary English, owner of lot 100. He has been an owner since 2000, 23 years now. He states emphatically there has never been an owner vote for any ARB rules or Guidelines.
How the board has actually conducted business.
Mr. Matt Jordan is our HOA records custodian and has been with our HOA since 2007. Mr. Jordan is an HOA expert with 30 plus years experience and owner of Specialty Management Company. It has been said that Mr.Jordan is the greatest record keeper since Stalin. Mr. Jordan states: “ If it's not in the records ( Meeting Minutes ) it did not happen “
Mr. Jordan, in his deposition testimony stemming from the HOA lawsuit to enforce ARB rules and guidelines against an owner for building / altering their hangar, has testified that there has never been an owner vote concerning any ARB rules or Guidelines ever.
The exact origin of our ARB rules are nowhere to be found. To substantiate this contained in the meeting minutes dated Jan. 5, 2010. Taken by Mr. Jordan:
“ Action Item: Board to develop rules and ARB guidelines. “
Any owner can contact Mr. Matt Jordan for further comment or questions during normal business hours.His office phone number is 407-647-2622 and Email is: mjordan@greatcommunities,com
On Jan 5, 2010 this is where the board began to “ Develop “ ARB rules and guidelines. The Board can develop rules and guidelines however to be enforceable they have to be voted on by the owners. ( See entire meeting minutes from Jan. 5, 2010 above menu )
Outlined in the deposition testimony of Mr. Joel Kagan, Mr. Kagan stated that in 2015 he was tasked by the HOA board members to “ Generate “ a set of ARB rules. He testified that he searched numerous documents and websites, contacted the city of Apopka, and third party information etc. Contained in the meeting minutes dated Dec 2, 2015 it reflects that Mr. Kagan completed his task in generating an ARB and simply published them into the HOA website without any owner votes. Quote from the meeting minutes on Dec 5 2015:
“Joel Kagan reported. Guidelines have been published online.’ ( see above menu Dec. 5, 2015 meeting minutes )
This is in Dec 2015. The only time there is an “ Owner vote “ is in February at the annual owner meeting. Does anyone remember voting for these ARB rules or guidelines in Feb 2016?
It is also noteworthy that during the course of the construction of hangar 27/28, Mr. Kagan attempted to have the city of Apopka revoke the permits for the construction of hangar 27/28 EIGHTEEN TIMES. He even went so far as to represent himself to the city building Dept as the President of our HOA. When asked about this outrageous behavior he simply replied “ I was not successful “ Is this the caliber of the people we want serving / involved with our community? Their feelings get hurt and they complain to the city 18 times ? As well as pretending to be someone he is not ? ( See Mr. Kagan’s complete deposition in above menu.)
During the deposition of Mr David Kotick it was stated by Mr. Kotick, that HOA Board CANNOT adopt any rules and or guidelines without the owners' vote. In fact the only thing the board can do is mistrial changes to the ARB. Also Mr. Kotick stated these are general GUIDELINES and NOT RULES. Wait let's let that sink in… The HOA president says under oath that the ARB is merely a” Guideline ?” Then states the rules and guidlines have to be voted on by the Owners. ( See above menu for Mr. Kotick complete deposition )
The only problem with ALL the statements above is the fact that the current HOA Board did the exact opposite. They simply made up ARB rules and guidelines and published them on the website with the help of Greg Kelso, the HOA communication officer. Mr. Kagan simply wrote them and posted them in direct conflict with their own sworn statements and the declaration of our HOA. The HOA under Mr. Kotick filed a very expensive lawsuit to enforce rules or guildlines they all know were never voted on by the owners and direct violation of our HOA Declaration .
As a result numerous hangar owners have been harassed by the board wielding the ARB as a stick. It would seem that if you are not a board member or a friend of the board you get hit with that stick in the form of not being “ Approved. “
Hangar 127 and 128 were both browbeat into making a “ Donation “ to the HOA in order to receive “ board approval “ for their two new hangers. The issue was they are 23 feet tall. It is worth mentioning the surrounding hangars previously built are 23 feet tall as well. So the problem exactly is what? Some hangars are 26 feet tall.
EXPENSES AND COSTS
These are bills incurred to help maintain and secure our community.
Lawn care:
Back in 2018 and 2019 numerous estimates were sought for lawn care service. The board rejected all of them, The lowest bid received was around 60,000 dollars. Even if this lawn company did a poor job, imagine the money saved, Currently the HOA board continues to simply use the same company year after year with an expense of Apox. $120,000 dollars annually. Many owners at meetings have inquired about lawn care bids only to be dismissed by the current HOA board. With every new hanger built there is less grass to maintain yet the price does not come down, $120,000 Dollars a year equates to $10,000 Dollars an acre.
Lawsuit filed by the HOA:
Currently the lawsuit filed by the HOA board back in 2019 to enforce the never voted on ARB rules and guidelines has cost the community over $120,000.00 Dollars. These facts are reported through the orange county clerk of courts. Case number 2019-CA-3579-0 @myorangeclerk.com
Since the lawsuit was filed numerous hangers have been built. Non so questioning our HOA behavior the #17/18, the large brown half hanger half office building, How does this fit in our community ? How was this approved ? There was even a special set meeting for the approval last November.
Additionally several hangers now completed have never received a vote of approval from the HOA board. The meeting minutes do not delineate any board member vote approving hangar #29, #43, #61, #65, #93./94 ( Lon Dellote ( current board member ) #101, #42, #87, #88, #108, #136, and #149. Are these owners being sued for building without HOA written board approval. Maybe they are friends with or have friends on the board?
