Open
letter to the new 2011-2012 Riviera Board of Trustees
This letter is from me and only me. It represents my own
experiences and opinions. I am not trying to speak for anyone else. It is given
in the spirit of community. It is offered for you all to do with as you will.
I write as a former Trustee myself, as a citizen of our
community who has followed the happenings of the past year in our Riviera with
horror, and an owner/investor in the Riviera Community Club.
I am impressed with the qualifications, personalities,
attitudes and dedication to community of all of you. I voted for all of you for
good reason. I am convinced that you are qualified and dedicated to doing a
good job for the Riviera this year. Perhaps you will find at least one good
thought in here as you proceed to unravel the issues before you.
·
First, understand that as Trustees, you are not “bosses”. You are servants
of the members (Your neighbors) and you answer to them. Respect them and
listen. They are your investors and they have a personal and financial stake in
your success as a board.
·
I
cannot emphasize this strongly enough…. Every single one of you as a
show of good faith and as a show of a team spirit should attend
the required CAI classes, and provide updated certificates in the allowed
time. Yes, I know some of you have been through these classes in the past-even
recent past, and they are pretty basic, but in my opinion, If you all attend the classes and
all have the concepts fresh in your minds and a common commitment to them as
you embark on your new terms, I think you will all perform better as Trustees, and
much better as a team. Remember to include the positions you are each
assigned in your classwork.
·
An
analogy if you will; Riviera Community Club is similar to a small city
or a “for profit” corporation. Similar in this way; We operate by a
council-manager form of government like a city, or in the case of a for profit
corporation, we operate with a board of directors and management. In neither of
these two analogous cases does the council or board actually manage. Their job
is to set overall direction, provide oversight to management, hire and fire
management, set overall policy and establish short and long term goals and objectives
of the operation. In fact in both of the analogous situations the management
and staff provides most of the information, input and advice on decisions the
council/board is to act on. Not the other way around. Riviera should operate
the same way.
o Our Bylaws
clearly address this issue in the section about what the Trustees may NOT do.
o As
Trustees you are volunteers, not paid executives. This is not nor should it
ever be a full time job. Yes there is plenty to do, but use your management and
staff (And committees) to do most of the work. Task them to provide you with
good, clear, complete information from which you can make solid decisions.
o Trustees
in our kind of organization often have full time real jobs, or are retired and
should be enjoying that retirement. The Trustee responsibility is not nor was
it ever designed to be full time. Again, the staff and management do most of
the work. Not the trustees, ever. Nor should any of you carry keys to anything
and only the treasurer should have access to the GL software.
·
Remember
also that your authority is NOT as an individual trustee operating
independently. Your sole authority is in your votes in public meetings
after public discussions. Your authority is as a board group, never ever as
individuals. Yes each “officer” has specific “duties” that they must do. But
outside of that everything you do is as a board by voting. A
Trustee has no right to tell any employee what to do. The manager does that. Period.
·
Make
your decisions in public after discussions in public. Make them with
the maximum number of Trustees participating. Make them by VOTING publicly. And
for God’s sake record every vote as required by law.
·
Consider
re-instating the “Chat sessions”. As a Trustee I found them very
helpful. Two ways; 1. They allowed the board to review and discuss-ask
questions about decisions they were being asked to make, so that when the
actual Trustee monthly meeting took place they were prepared and could make
informed decisions. 2. They allowed members to observe the discussions
so they also had an idea what was going on. Yep, you need to maintain control
and always remember that your meetings are not member meetings, but where
possible these chat sessions at least give members information that they can
use in their time after the formal Trustee meetings to offer questions and/or
input. Sometimes even in the chat sessions members can offer good ideas if they
are there not to harass the board. What both Trustees and members need to
remember is that we are all in this together. We need to operate in that
spirit.
·
With
respect to CDC management; This Company does this for a PROFIT. They have an ax to grind. Which
is that they want to keep managing our operation for profit.
o The profit
is ADDED on top of the pay that the
manager is paid.
o They are
unable to provide a manager who is part of our community. All the managers they
provided lived off island. That is a BAD
idea for many reasons.
o This
company in my opinion wanted to protect the board that hired them rather than
the investor/members who were dissatisfied with the actions and decisions of
the board.
o Based on
the above, I strongly urge you to immediately
dismiss CDC management and re-hire the manager who was fired by this board.
(Jeff Hayes) Pay them off and remove the festering sore that hiring them
resulted in. Jeff is a Riviera member/investor, a positive member of the entire
community, was growing in the job, and would continue to grow in the job with
your oversight and good direction. While we have struggled for decades to
maintain consistent management, Jeff could grow into a terrific long term
manager with strong ties to the community.
·
Operationally
it is clear your first priority will be addressing budgetary and
accounting issues and working to regain our solid footing. It goes without
saying, and I will not presume to have any real insights, based on the fact
that I have not seen an approved treasurer’s report for a year, and that those
we have seen have had many-many questionable entries. You have your work cut
out for you there. (Another reason why you do not need the hassle of continuing
to fuss over CDC. Get them out of your hair)
·
Second
priority is getting our Lakeshore re-opened. Let the restaurant
committee help you with that. Put them to work! LOL. This will be a major
challenge as well. Be careful about getting into an agreement with an outside
person to operate the restaurant. We need Riviera oversight, and with an
outside operator we lose that. If however you do look hard at such a proposal,
give them free rent so they can at least make a profit. False starts are not
needed.
·
In
fact you may want to re-instate other committees that the previous
board dismissed, such as the golf and greens. Be sure they have a charter.
·
I
fully understand that the previous board may have done many things outside
their authority and in fact cost us untold thousands of dollars. It
will be tempting to try to recover that money. Not sure what I think about
that. I would like to see healing of this community. If you seriously think
that regaining those dollars from malfeasance that can be proved
will help the healing, then it should be done. If not then you need to think
carefully as to whether you want to spend time and energy there focusing on
negative or on the other many important tasks at hand. A tough call. I really
do not know how much money they cost us. I do know that they left a poison in
this community that will be hard to erase. I do not envy your responsibility on
this matter.
·
Your
first long term priority will be a complete review of our Bylaws to strengthen
them. Yes there should be a committee of members, but most importantly a
legal team should be tasked with the responsibility of review and suggesting
areas for modification. (And/or reviewing suggestions from the committee) The
committee should work with and through legal experts who work with such things.
The recall fiasco is a perfect example of a need to tighten wording so a needed
recall can be accomplished with or without the cooperation of the Board being
recalled.
o This review and revise of the Bylaws should
not be accomplished in a few weeks. It is a big task. Also I think a limit
on the size of the committee will help it get things done. The larger the
committee, the harder it is to make any intelligent decisions. (Think
Congress-lol)
·
As a
final gesture I offer myself to serve on the following committees should
the board feel I can make a contribution on any of them. I am not asking to be
on all of them. Just any you feel I can contribute to: Water, By-Laws,
Restaurant, Golf and greens. I would particularly be interested in a water
committee duty.
Lastly, thank you for taking on this daunting task at this
challenging time in Riviera history. I do not envy you but I am confident you
are up to the task. And if you had the patience to read this far then thank you
for that. Good luck this year!
Respectfully,
Dave Albertson
Riviera Member, Section 14, lots 12 & 13
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