Dear Southwest Ranches Friends and Neighbors:
Good Morning, Good Afternoon, Good Evening and if I don't see you later ... well then ... Good Night!
Your Wanch has been travelling quite a bit as it relates to other aspects of life and thus a number of items have occurred, under the radar, that most of our residents probably are unaware.
First, good things happen around town and should be noticed as prominently as some of the questionable items.
Thank you Alyn Kay for the following report:
Last month, about 24 town residents provided tree trimming and park & trail clean up. This occurred over two weekends and took place along SW 178 Ave., Volunteer Road, Hancock Road and the Equestrian Park. This was done by the tree huggers due to budget cuts town wide. Below is the cost estimate value, provided by the Town, of the work done by the volunteers. The value of the work is between $13,000.00 and $15,000.00. All of this was accomplished with the support of our Town Council and Town Administrator Charlie Lynn & December Haines. Way to go Town! Way to go Ranchers!
December Lauretano-Haines calculated some of the savings below:
Tree Trimming Savings $11,162
Mulch Savings $2,000
Mulch for the Town was generated by the 11/14/09 project. A resident mulched the tree trimmings, at no charge, providing equipment, manpower, and transport/fuel at his own expense. The yield was one full 22 yard truckload of mulched oak material, which is now stored at the Town’s nursery for curing and will be re-mulched at no charge to the town in the next 2 months after it has dried. The un-mulched amount was approximately 222 cubic yards of material, taken from locations on Volunteer Rd. in the Equestrian Park. Bulk mulch prices locally are between $16 and $35 per cubic yard (the Town pay $35 a cubic yard installed for Melaleuca mulch); therefore our savings on purchase of mulch material is between $352 and $770. Counting the machine time, manpower, transport of fuel costs for the service, the resident spent most of one day with 4 laborers (probably about $700), one dump truck ($280), himself, a professional grade chipper ($150) and a pickup truck. Possibly about $50 to $100 in fuel costs.
Thank you again to the volunteers who helped with this effort. Our volunteers are one of the Town’s greatest assets.
Next, I address this missive directly to the Sunshine Ranches Homeowners Association membership and its board.
Do you all remember what it was like in 2007 when the gang of eight ruled like Gestapo’s? Do you all remember what it was like in 2007 when the Sunshine Ranches Waggler was held hostage by the gang of eight thugs that only allowed their spoken / written words to grace the pages? Do you remember how the gang of eight went after a resident by complaining to his employer, and also went after another resident claiming she needed to be baker acted? And then the New York cowboy wanna be politician rode in on his painted steed and tried to finish the job for them when they were kicked out of office only to get kicked out of office himself due to his ignorance?
Take my advice Sunshine Ranches; keep your eye on the ball. You do whatever it takes to get Susan Kutz back on board as the editor of the Sunshine Ranches Waggler. She has been the best thing the Waggler has ever seen, bar none. Not to take anything away from Isolde when she was editor, but you must remember, Isolde was "restricted" by the gang of eight.
Don't allow one boisterous member to upset the apple cart. You have been heading in the forward most positive direction your HOA has seen since 1968.
Ms. Kutz, it may not matter a wit to you what I have to say, but in all sincerity (and trust me, I don't do this often) I Beg of you to reconsider your decision relinquishing the editorship position. The Sunshine Ranches Waggler is the envy of ALL Southwest Ranches communities as well as the envy of the Town itself because of YOU. Please continue your efforts. Don't let the rantings of one supersede the commendations and heartfelt appreciation from all of the others.
The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or in this case the complaints of the one.
I'm speaking to you Ms. Kutz, directly to you ... please?
Hope this is helpful.
Then, we have our SW Ranches Volunteer Fire Rescue Inc. Board of Directors who are still undecided about the fate of our volunteer fire department. They are meeting this week to decide whether they will turn over the fire department, assets, legal name, and non-profit corporation or not, forcing the Town to spend money to create a new volunteer fire department. Several sources have said that the Board, primarily former mayor Mecca Fink, Lil Sayre, and Susan Winn, are concerned with their personal liability. I don’t believe Mecca understand the bad will this is generating towards her; the other two may not care. Do they think that if they put the organization out of business, while turning over the assets to a newly founded volunteer fire department created by the town, they will escape any liability for actions taken under their governance?
The Board should familiarize themselves with Florida Statutes 607.0831 Liability of directors, 607.0834 Liability for unlawful distributions, and finally, 607.0850 Indemnification of officers, directors, employees, and agents.
The summary of these statutes is that even if they dissolve the corporation and in the past made a dumb decision and it was in good faith and didn’t break the law, they are OK, if they made an intentional bad decision, they can be held accountable. If they committed a violation of criminal law, intentionally or through neglect or ignorance, they can still be held liable. It’s doubtful the Town will do a forensic analysis of the SWVFRI Corporation to determine whether any frauds have been committed unless someone steps forward with knowledge or something is blatant. The corporate veil theory protects corporate directors from mistakes but not willful fraud, criminal activity, nor misconduct. Dissolving the corporation does not destroy evidence of criminal activity. You cannot shred witnesses nor can you destroy documents in files of others outside the conspiracy. People and paper trails always survive. Criminal investigators look for situations as we may have here: A non-profit corporation that has a dispute with a public organization, such as the Town over specious issues. This is an easy target for a public corruption investigation.
Therefore, even if laws were broken or the Board was negligent, the best, simplest and most graceful position the SWVFRI Board can take, in the interests of the volunteers and Town, is hand over the corporation aong with all of its assets to the Town for reorganization. Let’s see what the SWVFRI Board does in their meeting this week. There will be more information at the council meeting on Thursday night 12/17.
So, what’s happening on Griffin Road West? The road work is complete but the landscape is not! The job was “completed” over a month ago by the landscapers hired by Bergeron. The job was then inspected by Casey Lee representing the Town and independently by Landscape Architect Alyn Kay, a volunteer representing the Town. Both of these landscape professionals found hundreds of issues with the types and quality of landscape installed, locations (tall growing trees under power wires), installation (new sod over old, wrong dirt, plants planted too deep or shallow) etc. These issues were communicated to the county over a month ago with absolutely with no response. At the 12/3 council meeting councilmember Fisikelli said that he contacted Ron Bergeron about the landscape problem. Bergeron’s answer was that he has a one year insurance policy on the plants. Dead plants are only one issue among hundreds. Bergeron nor the County wants to acknowledge the hundreds of thousands of dollars of issues that need to be resolved. But you know that when Bergeron hosts a political fund raiser for Governor Crist this Thursday, out at his ranch, Money Acres, he will probably route the governor’s motorcade down Griffin Road so the Governor can see the signs for the rodeo grounds, orange trailers parked on the side of the road, and see his latest local project on Griffin Rd. The landscape looks great at 45 miles per hour. Will Ronnie get away without fixing the landscape? Given Ronnie's penchant for putting his name on everything he is remotely affiliated with, perhaps the Town shold put up a big sign orange sign saying "Landscaping mistakes brought to you by Bergeron Land Development" in four foot letters!
On a slightly separate topic, there might be a protest out at Money Acres on Thursday afternoon at 4 PM. The Governor has been connected to two high-profile Broward corruption scandals concerning Scott Rothstein and Alan Mendelson. Bergeron and his girlfriend Ali Waldman (lobbyist) are throwing a party, that for access to the Governor, could cost as much as $4800 per person. You know that Bergeron will likely be joined Thursday by lobbyists Bernie Friedman, George Platt and Ali Waldman, Ron Book and other Broward luminaries like Diana Wasserman-Rubin and our very own Richard Rubin. Of course Rick Case will always be on hand for a Bergeron party, as might Wayne Huizenga, and of-course Indian gambling shill Max Osceola will be there with his wallet open.
Politicians don’t call that influence peddling they call it fund raising. The line has become very blurry in Broaward over the past few years. I wonder how Bergeron got his seat on the Florida Wildlife Commission. Oh that’s right Governor Crist appointed him.
Finally, for all who missed the Sunshine Ranches Holiday Party on 12/13 at the Schroeer residence, rain and mud could not dampen the spirits of the attendees or Santa Claus! A big thank you to the members of the Sunshine Ranches HOA for sponsoring the annual event and a warm heart-felt thank you to Dee and Mike Schroeder for opening their home to host this wonderful party.
Happy Holidays!
That's All Folks!!!
Wanch Waggler
