Sun City Anthem Legal
Fees
Soar in
2017
by
Barry
Goldstein
Former Member of The Sun City
Anthem Finance Committee
Remember we were promised that
self-management would save our association money?
Well...it certainly didn't when it came
to dialing....
(800)
A T T O R N E
Y
According the "supposed"
excellent financial capabilities of our $200,000 Chief Financial Officer in conjunction with
our Association Treasurer, we learned that when it
comes to decisions, all too often, Ms. Seddon & Mr. Weddle jump on the telephone at will to discuss association
affairs.
And...there is a problem
with those ...
... frequent telephone
calls to the Clarkson Law
firm.
You see, the budgeted
amount for association legal expenses is $7,500.00
per month. ($90,000
for the entire
year).
BUT...
Let's see now, the total
legal fees incurred year to date:
$195,587.00
The Total Amount budgeted
for the first 9 months of 2017:
$67,500.00
So...according to simple
subtraction, that means we're this much OVER
BUDGET in the first nine months of
2017.
$128,087.00
OR
290%
Above the original
projected
There is a detailed
report attached to the recently published financial statements which I consider
a significant number of lawsuits filed against Sun City
Anthem.
As to the total legal fees
expended to remove Nona Tobin, that has yet to be
disclosed.
In June, 2017 a detailed report
of claims against the association insurance policies was obtained that uncovered
a total of 55.
On the recently produced October, 26, 2017 report, that number has now jumped to
92.
Of those 92 claims, two involve
workers compensation; one from 2016, another from 2017.
Both claims far exceed the
premiums on the insurance policies and as a result, Sun City Anthem claims
experience has been severely hampered, and insurance premiums have skyrocketed
to an unprecedented sum.
These claims and the adverse
experience of their relationship to insurance premiums suggest this
question:
Is there a
problem of some kind for employees working for our association that would cause
these results?
Would it be wise for our
management team to contact a risk management professional to assess a problem
that may exist?
When huge legal fees
began to appear a number of months ago, according to reports, the General Manager Seddon commented
on the Clarkson legal
fees:
"It's part of the New Attorney Learning
Curve"
Wonder why Rex Weddle should be removed or that 836 unit owners signed a "No Confidence" petition against
the management of Ms. Seddon?
This is just another
reason.
Isn't it nice to know our
association attorney's "experience" required...
"A
Learning Curve"
???
Perhaps they..."should do the walking"...
... rather than their fingers....
...hitting the A T T O R N E Y speed dial button at what appears to be a
"hotline" between their phones !
Got a
comment?
Send it to us
at:
We've gone over this before, but apparently Mr. Feeney is one of those who might also respond to these comments following his misguided comments.
No one who supports his beliefs has to date, perhaps because they know they can't ! Like all others, rather than addressing anything factual, he chooses to kill the messenger and avoid these facts.
First, who decided to spend the $50,000? Who signed the check, Mr. Feeney?
Second, to prove the proponents wanted NOTHING TO DO WITH SPENDING SUCH AN OUTRAGEOUS AMOUNT:
These were the suggestions we made THAT WERE DENIED.
A. certification could and should be completed by Sun City Anthem employees IN OPEN VIEW of BOTH SIDES of the removal positions.
They are paid to perform such clerical functions, and those concerned about accuracy should be allowed TO VIEW such certification.
During such certification, any denial of individual signature eligibility should IMMEDIATELY be brought to the attention of those who favor the removal for EXPLANATION and/or rebuttal, and any such disputes FULLY DOCUMENTED.
(Had that taken place, Mr Feeney, there would not have been a need to file complaints after examining the CPA tally and finding THEIR ERRORS.)
B. Using any counting machines should be prohibited...especially in light of their prior failures. This also costs the association NOTHING.
C. the actual petitions or the ballots must NOT leave the Sun City Anthem premises FOR ANY REASON.
D. a count of the number of ballots received must be DOCUMENTED and OBSERVED each day by THOSE BOTH SUPPORTING AND OPPOSING the removal INCLUDING those received at time of mail delivery AND any ballot boxes established in the various centers.
A representative volunteer from each camp would SIGN a statement as to the number of ballots received each day from all sources.
This procedure verifies that none will be "lost" .
I fully believe that there exists a sufficient passion in the Sun City Anthem community to provide the needed volunteers.
These are the proposals that I believe the proponents of the removal would gladly accept RATHER THAN THE ALTERNATIVE OF SPENDING "tens of thousands of dollars", demanded by others.
...and totally negates the absurdity of the ludicrous expenditures suggested and demanded by the attorney and/or Board or General Manager to provide sufficient security.
So, can we be any fairer than this?
Now, Mr. Feeney, how about your commenting on these facts rather than the propaganda written elsewhere?
The sad thing is, the overall Apathy in SCA allows Weddle to get away with such antics (as well as allowing the HOA Board of Directors to treat the residents as their serfs in a Medieval village).
There are also a limited number of SCA Residents who find it impossible to make up their own minds, and allow the HOA's Blogger Lap Dog to make the decisions for them.
As Pogo said: "We have me the enemy, and he is us"
I am an avid reader of Anthem Opinions and really appreciate being informed of so many of the issues that have arisen in Sun City Anthem.
I can only imagine the time and effort it must take to put this blog together.
Until now, I have remained silent and have never commented an any of the issues. The time has come that I will comment.
First and foremost is the big picture. Our board is not controlling this community. It is being directed by 2 parties. First is our illustrious association attorney. Our board does not take a breath without calling and being billed for Mr. Clarkson telling the board what to do.
Recently our board president took our time at a board meeting to give his personal opinion on the state of affairs regarding many things including the recall election. Note that he gave his opinion and specified he was not speaking for the board.
Interesting that our little dictator appeared to read this opinion as a prepared statement from his laptop. Also interesting that his speech appeared word for word on the board mouthpiece’s alternative blog. Now how did that happen?
I can only speculate that this prepared speech cost us some attorney’s fees. A friend of mine had a question regarding how to get a ballot to a different address and after calling our association manager, was sent a copy of what the attorney told her.
She actually called the attorney that we paid for just to answer a simple question regarding mailing of a ballot.
I understand that the attorney arranged the accounting firm relationship. I wonder if he approved the cost to hire a CPA firm.
I wonder if our high priced association counsel gave guidance to the CPA firm as to how to count the ballots, how to send them our without identification of the contents and how to disqualify votes that were qualified votes?
The CPA firm did not make this poor decision without guidance. Thanks Mr. Clarkson for doing so much and continuing to charge us.
I wonder if our board decided to continue with the Pulte lawsuit even when they did not get the required resident vote to proceed?
Did they or our lawyer charge forward?
Face it, they are too stupid to sue without the advice of counsel.
After all, the board was the party that told us how many votes were required to authorize the suit.
The other community leader is our newest community manager Sandy Seddon.
She continues to make decisions and tell the board……I will take care of it. The board just sits on the side and allows this lady to make herself the Most Valuable Player in the community.
She has and continues to create her own future by doing the job of the board so these weak people feel she has all the answers.
This recall election did not have to be handled the way it was with all the excessive costs of the accounting firm and the lawyers fees.
In a short time over 800 people said, enough is enough.
Community has proven that the majority of home do not even vote for regular elections that are fair and use the appropriate time frame to vote, ballot boxes etc so the likelihood to get enough resident to create a true recall was next to impossible.
Add the interference by the board, the lawyer and the manager, it could not succeed. It certainly did make the community aware of the deceptive practices that our board is using.
Lastly is the Nona Tobin removal. A pure disgrace for the board and the lawyer.
Inappropriate and disgusting that they were so scared of Nona that they had to take improper action to remove her.
We the people voted her in and 6 board members pulled her out.
My opinion is that we have a totally incompetent board of directors that have no confidence in their action and have been made totally dependent on Mr. Clarkson and our newest queen Sandy Seddon.
I have heard that numerous complaints have been filed with the office of the Ombudsman.
Remember, it isn’t over until it is over. Let us see what happens.
Evidently you, like many of our readers, seem to have become a "star" on another blog. We noticed that you were advised that the information about the Weddle comment was taken from the Association Board Book.
We checked it out and here's what we found....nothing about the statement. Just click on the link that was posted. For anything other than this, in my opinion, it could not have been posted due to Friday being "Nevada Day", the day all Sun City Anthem Administrative were closed.
How it could be interpreted in that manner is more than difficult to comprehend.
It was certainly not, and no insinuation was made, but of course it appeared to be yet another reason to dramatize an "off the wall" reaction of an individual who apparently "lies in wait" to take a single comment and twist it in a manner that suits a sordid purpose to further another immature tirade against a single individual.
Perhaps if the Sun City Anthem website was easy to navigate, it might have avoided the comment. The community has been promised to have this information system revised, yet to date has obviously become a low priority.
Naturally, there was no response to comments made by a Mr. Bill Feeney that documented the manner in which the outrageous removal costs were IN NO WAY ENDORSED by the removal proponents, summarizing the suggestions made that WERE IGNORED by a Board, GM, and attorney.
That conveniently was ignored in the piece that concentrated on one aspect...
...and certainly would not have served the objective of destroying a target in a manner displayed again and again.
And..I might add, were asked to Mr. Feeney in a POLITE and professional manner that in no way attacked this man's character as to a response to what we proposed. Did we in any way condemn him or call him names or insinuate he was ignorant for his line of reasoning?
No, we merely asked him to explain why he felt the way he did after we provided our evidence.
We are still waiting for the blogger or Mr. Feeney to respond; however, we're not holding our breath.
Why? because our evidence proved we were truthful.
Nevertheless, it is sad that one must take a simple comment and turn it into such a disgraceful condemning piece.
...yet at the same time, insist others display hatred.
It just does not make sense that one can accuse others of "hate" while at the same time in just this single article alone, use rhetoric that includes "the latest piece of crap" or that capital letters are used "making it easier to read" or "becoming increasingly paranoid" or being referred to as "a defamatory liar".
Perhaps someone might explain that to the rest of us.
Is that supposed to impress others? Is that supposed to endear individuals to look a person as a role model? Is that the type of person to admire?
And...
Is that the type of person a Board, GM, or Association Attorney allows themselves to be influenced by?
Obviously there are some who do find that he is a role model and admired, but why? That has always been "a puzzlement".
What DOES concern a number of people is a past display of violence that many have advised me could erupt again as it did years ago when he picked up a chair and threatened to hit an innocent woman at a meeting.
Accordingly it appears the time has come to take their advice. !
"Am surprised to find out that Dick Arendt got his Bachelor of Science 1965-1970 in Finance, Economic and Marketing from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Why? Because his past comments about SCA Finances should have been more accurate? Just saying."
Well, Jan, I did.
But, perhaps you might ask yourself if I was so wrong and uninformed with a lack of financial experience, how a guy as ignorant as you seem to paint me, was able to sell a business and retire at the age of 54...waited to age 70 to get my government social security benefits, and live for the past 17 years without them solely on investment income, moving to Las Vegas, while increasing net worth in six figures each of those years, and writing a check for $640,000 in 2005 to buy a home?
Surely, in your mind, that describes an individual who doesn't understand financial matters, doesn't it?
I could have lived in peace and prosperity for the rest of my life, only looking out for myself, Jan.
So Jan, why do I put up with insults, and uninformed comments on a regular basis?
I look at those less fortunate and say THEY COUNT and do my best to ensure they are FULLY INFORMED in order for them to make an intelligent decision ON THEIR OWN.
Ever see me seek any power, Jan?
Nope, never have and never will. just looking for people who would like to treat others in a fair and equitable manner; and when I see injustices and people taking advantage of others, that bothers my code of ethics.
And you know what Jan, I never even lost a license, forged a judge's signature, or even financially harmed a client either....and believe me, had I compromised my principles over my working years, I could have made even more than I did.
You see Jan, in 1970 I made a promise to my dad when he looked at me on my college graduation day. He told me that he was proud that I was the first person in both sides of our families to ever graduate from college, that he wished me success, but that there was one thing he gave me that I never dare tarnish...the name he gave me.
That promise I have always kept, that no person will ever tarnish a name I was given...until I arrived here in Sun City Anthem and realized that there is an element present that cares little about people or how they are treated, or the damage they do to others as well as their loved ones for the sole purpose of power.
So, Jan, when you or others attack my character or credibility , you attack my father. And that, I can assure you and all others that do so, will result in exposing those individuals for what they really are.
Now that surely describes my lack of character, business knowledge, experience and little concern for others, doesn't it?
Yes Jan, you really have it all figured out, don't you ?
Jan, perhaps you might explain your background in order show your expert qualifications to make that statement?
Am waiting anxiously.
PS...Bring your balance sheet and let's compare them.
Just saying !