By now everyone is mostly aware that the Big Canoe POA Board & Management is undergoing somewhat of a financial meltdown – although throwing an entitled, temper-tantrum is perhaps a better way to describe what is going on.
The simple fact is that the Board wants to spend more money than they have revenue to justify. They tried to raise rates last year, and while still hitting the Property Owners with a whopper of an increase, they got less than half of what they wanted. They have threatened to come back for more later this year. In the meantime, they’ve unleashed our new Country-Club-Minded General Manager and new restrictive rules upon the community.
- Clubhouse Food Prices have skyrocketed while quality has gone down
- All Amenity Fees have increased
- They took away the free Monthly Trash Day
- They restricted food at the Swimclub
- They raised Marina Fees
- They are talking about monetizing Bocce Ball
- They increased minimums for popular programs like Trivia Night
- They eliminated a decades old tradition of free member* usage of meeting rooms
* indicates an individual member, or a collection of members that are NOT part of a “sanctioned” club - They have heaped new penalties and fees upon those that Rent their Homes
- They have restricted our landscape choices to unthinkably narrow selections
- And the list goes on regarding the monetization and other attacks on our traditional way of life here – all in just the past few months.
All of the above is on top of the new $182 / month Lot Assessments (that’s an unrealistically high lot-only holding cost, which is becoming a market drag. Already we are seeing Lot Prices beginning to collapse in response). Housing Assessments are up to $281 / month (which wouldn’t be bad if we were a total “Country Club” of million dollar homes – but for the Treetoppers, Villas, Condos, and the small traditional 2nd home market we are pricing those people out, and the market is responding with rapidly dropping prices in those home types. The mid-level homes will soon follow suit if history is any teacher.) The increased assessments are also counting against Mortgage income approvals, which is further downward pressure on affordability. The Board & General Manager’s decisions are directly contributing to a looming disaster for property values!
But none of that is what this article is about. This article is not about all the wrong-headed things they have done – it is about what they have NOT done.
They have NOT taken basic steps to cut costs, or review obvious revenue gaps. This article is about how our Board is asleep at the fiduciary oversight wheel, while our long time POA Employees (primarily Jayne Hagan & Debbie Pickett) act in utter disregard of their basic responsibilities of overseeing assessment revenue.
To lead us into the actual meat of the following article, let me offer up a snippet from the March 2019 Financial Committee Minutes, and some commentary…
So where are the “MISSING” delinquent assesments? We are going to start with a list of perfectly good assessment lots that are owned by the POA. The Parcels highlited in Yellow can be found in Pickens County Tax Searches. The Parcels highlited in Pink can be found in Dawson County Tax Searches.
The obvious question is… WHY haven’t we moved to sell these properties? Even if we were to sell them as sub-$1000 Amenity Lots, this would stop the financial leakage. For TWENTY-NINE (29) YEARS, in one case, we have held these Lots and paid taxes on them, instead of putting them under the Ownership of a new potential community member that would pay the taxes, and pay us the $182/mo assessment fees – and perhaps even join and pay for our amenities and spend money at the clubhouse. But NO! They just hide these lots in some dark accounting corner, away from record seeking eyes. They tell nobody. They take no independent action to fix this issue.
And it gets worse… we have also allowed Pickens and Dawson County to sit on “County Owned” Lots for decades as well. Here are the Lots I could find that are County Owned…..
Look at the amount of Assessment Revenue we are losing! This is Fiduciary Irresponsibility at an almost criminal level. I would hope the Counties are paying us those monthly Assessment fees, because while they may have “Tax Exempt” status on paying themselves property taxes – they do NOT legally have any codified exemption from paying us our POA Assessments! Unfortunately, indications are that they are NOT paying us Assessments. We should demand the counties to pay past due Assessments – and I promise you they would tax sale these in a heartbeat. And THAT would create new dues paying Property Owners!
But where does the blame lie? I’m not sure if I have enough time to answer this question, because there is plenty of blame to go around, but I will give it a shot….
- In part, I guess, we could ask the Smoke Signals where their “Award Winning” newspaper has been for the past couple of decades in regards to looking out for Property Owner interests.
- We could look ourselves in the mirror collectively as Property Owners, and ask ourselves how we have allowed this to go on so long.
- We could ask the Community Facebook Admins why they have stifled discussion on these issues and allowed it to go on. WHY INDEED are those that ask questions in this community attacked, vilified, scorned, intimidated and banned? Only a fool beats the loyal watchdogs that sounds the alarm to the property owner!
- We could ask the Board what they have been doing, but the answer to that is simple…. they are laser focused on SPENDING Money, not saving it, or accounting for it, or wisely stewarding over it.
- We could ask GM Jill Philmon if the Buck really does stop at her desk in regards to her employees actions, and the overall well being of the community finances. Perhaps she could answer why in all of her seeking of monetization – she ignored obvious revenue sources that actually ARE her responsibility – before seeking to overturn decades of Big Canoe tradition and way of life with new fees, rules and losses of privilege.
- OR WE COULD ASK THOSE DIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE…. Debbie Pickett who has been involved with Big Canoe for almost 4 decades and has been responsible for our records (mis)management, and Jayne Hagan who openly mocks and ignores most property owner requests for reviews of her accounting.
I encourage everyone to take a look at the 2016 IRS Tax Form 990 that the POA filed. On page 7 you will find that we were paying Jayne Hagan almost $110,000 / year back then. Our finances shouldn’t be that complicated that we can’t get basic tasks handled when we are paying that much money. And the POA even has support staff.
Many property owners are working behind the scenes, sharing information and notes, and have been putting out accounting records requests – which have been mostly ignored by Jayne Hagan. I myself have been stonewalled for basic information. Basic level reviews of monthly and annual accounting reports reveal troubling inconsistencies. In regards to the fundamental issue of managing and collecting Lot Assessments – the POA staff has clearly fallen short.
We need a new team. I am not saying this out of animosity or meanness towards the existing employees. I AM SAYING that our Attorney George Nowack (and his firm), our Administrative Manager Debbie Pickett, and our Financial Manager Jayne Hagan all have much longer relationships with the Developer, than they do with the Board. Our Board cycles in and out…. in for a few years, then out. (Except Carolyn Littell, who continually rotates in and out playing both sides of the fence.)
It just goes on and on, but the one consistency is that these Core People, who are actually running the community, are either intentionally doing bad things we aren’t aware of, or they have developed some very bad habits. My guess is that they even treat some of our elected Board as 2nd class citizens, giving them information only as they see fit. I admit to having a biased opinion in this, but honestly, I don’t know and don’t care. What I do know is that if this was a business we would be firing the lot of them, cleaning our house, and getting people in here that will do a consistent and quality job of running the Community – and that are LOYAL to the interests of the Property Owners.
We have over 160 employees. Most of them are great folks. But those few at the top are continually the problem, and actually act entitled, and above us mere property owners. That is NOT acceptable, and it is not acceptable that with all of the high salaries we are doling out to Senior Management, we can’t get basic responsibilities taken care of.
It is OUR Community. If we continue to allow mismanagement of records and funds, accounting discrepancies, lack of accountability, etc… then we only have ourselves to blame.
IF ANYONE HAS QUESTIONS, post them in our Facebook Group and I will do my best to answer….
https://www.facebook.com/groups/FocusonBigCanoeGA/ *
* Members of the Facebook Group always get immediate first priority notice of breaking news, or you can Join Our Mailing List to get occassional eblasts of recent articles.
IMPORTANT NOTE: The Facebook Group Admins of Sidebar, N2N, BC Issues and BC Saloon have all banded together to censor our news articles. Not all of them are bad people, but there is a small but dedicated group of “Intimidators” that puts pressure on other admins. It is increasingly important that individual property owners take control of their own destiny, and share this article (IF you legitimately feel this is inportant information) with their friends and neighbors. You can email links, repost this story in facebook groups, and talk about it to your friends. Do NOT allow factual information to be censored by a small group of people determined to keep everything in the dark. Until the Board and GM think that there may actually be consequences for their actions – they will not veer from their path. Finally, in regards to the Facebook Admin comments – I realize some people may be saying, “There goes conspiracy theory David again” and I understand that, and it is a legitimate concern. But my allegations are also easily proveable…. just go post a link to this or any of my articles on Neighbor to Neighbor, or Sidebar facebook groups, and watch and see how fast they get deleted. I should warn you though… some of the admins have directly warned people that posting links to these articles will get you immediately banned. I mean, I do need to be honest with you – that getting banned is a possibility you will face. You can however send emails and discuss this without fear.
Good luck. Peace,
– david / publisher
Focus On Big Canoe, GA
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