President Response to Misinformation on Nextdoor and General Info.

Based on a continuing publication of false and inaccurate information that is posted on a daily basis on Nextdoor, I have decided to create a method for homeowners to get the facts surrounding issues at Ormond Lakes. It is my intent to use the Ormond Lakes HOA website as a supplement to my monthly president’s report where homeowners can log onto the Ormond Lakes website and get the facts! My supplemental reports on the website will be limited in scope, as if I respond to every factually incorrect statement on Nextdoor it would be an exercise in futility!

1–Historic Live Oak located on Indianhead Dr rehabilitation
On or about September 2018, Director Tom Boyer sent an email to the City of Ormond Beach requesting permission to take down the two historic live oak trees on Indianhead Dr. The City responded advising the HOA would need a permit, arborist recommendation, and city commission approval. In December of 2018, the landscape committee recommended hiring an arborist. On January 17, 2019, Arborist Don Spence evaluated both trees advising the decline of both trees was the lack of water. He further stated, “if the trees are given irrigation as soon as possible, there is a chance that they could recover their health, however, it would likely take at least a decade for these trees to recover. It would be more practical to remove them.” On September 18, 2019, President Don Diedo made a motion “to approve the Indianhead traffic circle renovation for $7,500.00 “(project was completed for $7,400.00 last month). The motion was approved unanimously by all board members. On or about June of 2020, I took over the task of implementing the 2019 board motion from Director Tom Boyer. During the process of obtaining bids, and as a courtesy, I advised former president Don Diedo of my progress. Mr. Diedo congratulated me on the fact I got the City of Ormond Beach to install a water line/meter at the north island at no cost to the Association. During the renovation process, Susan Waters hired Don Spence to re-evaluate both trees. On August 4, 2020, Arborist Don Spence issued a report advising, the south tree needs pruning, “it should live,” In his report he recommended irrigating the south tree on a regular basis. Regarding the north tree, Mr. Spence writes “the tree is in an irreversible state of decline, a hazard, and should be removed immediately. On August 10, 2020, a city arborist examined the tree and reported “I was pleasantly surprised when I saw the north island tree was not dead as previously suggested but looks almost exactly like it did two years ago in pictures I took in September 2018.” He further reported, “Hopefully, once the irrigation is supplied to the two island trees they will respond positively and increase their canopy density.” During the examination, the arborist recommended that we not remove any blocks from around the trees as suggested by the board in 2019. In closing, I want homeowners to know I’m aggressively interviewing ISA Board Certified Arborists and ISA Tree Risk Assessment Qualified Arborists with equal qualifications of Don Spence.

2-Replacing full and part time contracted employee

We are in the process of hiring a full and part time Leland contracted employee to fill our vacancies that exist at Ormond Lakes HOA. When our full-time contracted employee, Michael Bussey, resigned to take a job with the City of Daytona Beach it left a significant void in maintaining the association aging assets.    Based on the importance of finding someone, I have recently assigned Vice President, Mike Legutko, to head up a committee of two homeowners and two directors to review applications from Leland’s advertisement. The hiring committee has approved an applicant for hiring for the full-time position, and has forwarded the name to our management company for vetting. According to VP Mike Legutko, the prospective contracted employee has indicated if hired he will temporarily use his personal vehicle until a Gator vehicle can be obtained. It should be noted that several previous employee interviews resulted in the inability to hire as the prospective employee would not use his personal vehicle.
 

3-Gator utility vehicle

I want to clear up some negative post on Nextdoor about liability concerning the use of a Gator vehicle. I want homeowners to understand liability is a double edge sword. A contracted employee through Leland Management Company driving his own personal vehicle does not exclude us from liability. If in fact the employee gets involved in an accident while conducting HOA business and is at fault, we and Leland could be included in a lawsuit. It has not been the practice of this association to require a contracted employee to purchase a high level of liability insurance or to verify whether the contracted employee has advised their insurance company they use their vehicle on the job.  Based on our fiduciary responsibilities, we have reached out to our insurance company and they have advised it would cost us an additional $250.00 a year to cover the Gator vehicle for liability and theft. If you read Nextdoor, the purchase of the vehicle will increase our association fees.  The fact of the matter is, during 2019, we paid our part time employee $150.00 a month and our full-time employee $250.00 a month for gas and cell phone allowance. Our current plan after purchasing the Gator vehicle will result in only a $25.00 cell phone allowance to the full-time employee. Any need for the employee to drive to Ace Hardware or Lowes will be reimbursed based on the IRS mileage rate. The savings by eliminating the gasoline allowance will result in savings of $4500.00 a year in payroll expense, will increase the efficiency of our employee and reduce liability. Last point on topic re. Gator vehicle is that I have not requested anyone to request bids to enlarge the storage facility at the pavilion. Furthermore, no architectural drawings have been drawn to support a bid process.   

 

4-Ormond Grande Development

Last Thursday, October 8, at 7pm, Vice President Mike Legutko, Lakes Chair Tom Gaynor, Charles Genter and I, attended the planning board meeting as it relates to the Ormond Grande project at the City of Ormond Beach Commission Chambers. Tom Gaynor and I asked the planning board to table the approval until the developer satisfies our concerns regarding storm water runoff, and the ditch behind two homeowner’s properties. Regardless of our opposition, the planning board unanimously recommended approval for the development that will include the construction of 60 townhomes. The Planning Board Chairman requested the developer work with our homeowner’s association to work out an amicable resolution of our concerns. I will be contacting Ormond Grande developer’s engineer next week to set up a meeting so that we can further address our concerns. In the event we cannot come up with a resolution, our association will have one more chance to oppose the project with the City Commissioners. 

 

Sincerely,

 

Joe Gallagher, President