We received correspondence from one of our valued readers and
former Mr. Fix-It, Forrest Fetherolf, regarding the
problems associated with the Liberty Center.
For those of you unaware of Forrest's extensive 30 year background, he
owned a construction company in California for a number of years with his son,
and still continues to actively assist that successful
venture.
He has asked....and we at Anthem Opinions are most happy to oblige....his
request to publish this article he has authored in order for the Sun City Anthem
Community to more fully understand the nature and history of the problems
associated with that structure.
Sun City Anthem Liberty Center
Debacle...
It Could Have Been Easily
Avoided
by
Forrest Fetherolff
Let
me first state that I love this community, and have always tried to be available
to residents, board members, and management company personnel to guide them in
providing them advice in making construction decisions that have been learned
from my many years I spent in that industry.
What
I have to say is fact, and though somewhat condemning of certain individuals, I
pledge to you that all that has been written, is accurate and a result of
personal experience.
The current Liberty Center construction defect leaking roof and
mold could have been prevented, along with the thousands of association dollars spent on initial
repairs and construction defects subsequently discovered, soon after Pulte turned over the keys to our leadership with the
"AS IS" agreement.
Backtracking to 2008 during the time Sun City Anthem Board of
Directors, led by then President, Roz Berman, having zero background experience in construction, repairs and
maintenance, took on the task to negotiate an “AS
IS” contract with Pulte to build Liberty
Center.
What
did that exactly mean?
Pulte would build Liberty Center their way, and Sun City Anthem would have no say
or representative during the planning, construction phase.
In addition, no one
would be allowed on the site at any time during the actual construction of the
building.
When
I moved to the Sun City Anthem Community, I had a background with over 30 years
of experience as a general contractor, building custom homes and commercials
buildings, including repair and maintenance.
I
attended the Board of Directors meetings regularly, and due to my background, I was quite interested in how our
association operated; especially with regard to construction, repair, and
maintenance issues.
It
was during a meeting in 2008, then Sun City Anthem president, Roz Berman, announced that a Pulte representative would
attend a meeting to discuss building the Liberty
Center.
During that meeting, I took the opportunity to comment and
made a suggestion that our Board consider an "oversight" group to monitor the
various Liberty Center construction phases to ensure code compliance and quality
building standards.
The
Pulte representative gave the idea an affirmative nod, and Mrs. Berman initially
agreed that the idea of seeking additional guidance from those experienced in
such matters, would make an excellent addition toward the successful completion
of the project.
Mrs.
Berman and I met to discuss it further, and during that session, she again stated she would support the idea I proposed of
creating the "oversight" group.
Weeks passed and I then
approached her for an update on the progress of the "oversight" suggestion.
This
time, the reaction was quite different.
In a
short "we're working on it" answer, she then promptly
went her merry way.
"It looks good on the surface, we don't
know what is hidden. It would take several days to conduct an inspection, and I
recommend hiring a professional contractor to conduct a detailed inspection of
the facility before accepting the
keys."
Neither Roz Berman nor Bruno Panek took my advice to hire a professional to
inspect Liberty Center, and they accepted the keys without
question.
Within a very short period of time, The Liberty Center began
to experience major failures due to the substandard workmanship; and of course
that resulted in an immediate cash outlay for those repairs.
During the first rain, guess what took
place?
THE ROOF LEAKED.
That roof has been repaired constantly since
that time…
.. and now...
WE HAVE
MOLD.
There
is only one conclusion that can be drawn from this entire, and soon to be, VERY EXPENSIVE RESULT.
Due
to the ignorance, incompetence, and refusal to listen to sound advice from
experienced Sun CIty Anthem residents who were willing to volunteer their past
valuable and extensive experience to avoid future problems, Mrs. Roz Berman and
her fellow board members took it upon themselves to breach the
fiduciary responsibility given them by the residents of Sun City Anthem for
their arrogance in being....
PENNY WISE AND DOLLAR
FOOLISH
Sun
City Anthem residents, both new and old, should also be aware of these
additional facts that resulted from the poor and incompetent management
decisions made by that board and those that followed:
1. An
Independence Center shade structure designed, built, and installed by an
UNINSURED and UNLICENSED contractor, collapsed during a 2008 snowstorm that
could have killed anyone beneath it, was not only authorized and fully paid,
but after the collapse, the Sun City Anthem Community PAID for the subsequent
REPAIRS as well.
2.
Five consecutive restaurant failures.
3.
$550,000 replacing nine heating and air condition units that were working
properly, simply because a "budget" stated it was time to replace
them.
4. An
IRS fine of $100,000 plus legal fees as a result of both filing an incorrect
income tax return and failing to return excess funds to Sun City Anthem
residents.
5.
Allowing our management company to spend double the costs for numerous repairs
and maintenance items by only utilizing "specific"
companies".
The
list goes on and on.
-------------------------------------
We want to thank Forrest Fetherolf for
this information and his taking the time to write this detailed summary of the
what took place during the construction of the Liberty
Center.
What has to be the moral of Forrest's article can best be summarized in a
single sentence.
LOOK CAREFULLY AT THE EXPERIENCE OF THOSE WHO YOU
CHOOSE TO REPRESENT YOU.
Now...it's your turn...and...we'd like to hear from
you.
Send us an email at:
Anthem Opinions Administration
We have already spent over $500,000 to complete projects in the Liberty Center that Pulte failed to complete.
The building was accepted too soon and the uncompleted projects had to be done at SCA homeowners expense.
Now we face the major costs of correcting the leaking roof and mold.
A couple other points our unit owners should be aware of - -
1. When the Independence Center was "done", there were several aspects that Pulte did not complete.
At that time the board negotiated with Pulte and agreed to accept the building after Pulte paid the association $250,000, and the board agreed to do the remaining work.
2. Pulte charged significant premiums on the lots close to the then proposed Liberty Center.
Pulte kept those millions, none went to SCA.
We, the homeowners were stuck paying the deficits.
So peeved at our so-called Board of Directors, and especially Roz Berman.
I think they all should be sued and removed from serving on the Board.
When will this end???
Seems to me that history continues to repeat itself. You've pointed out all the failures in the leadership of this community, past and present.
It looks like we are at the mercy of the board, no matter who that might be. The last election didn't change any of that, so it looks like the residents are just as inept. I don't think this information reaches enough people, or they just turn a blind eye.
We have enough experience in this community to be able to find a capable board. People seem to be disinterested, because of lack of any attempt at change.
Anyway, my question is, once again, how do we fix this?