Holley by the Sea board may be subject to recount election
BY BRADLEY "B.J." DAVIS Gulf Breeze News news@gulfbreezenews.com
Board members of Holley by the Sea (HBTS) are awaiting word from a third-party arbitrator on whether or not they will continue leading the association. Last October, some homeowners in HBTS banned together in an effort to oust the current board because of questionable practices.

"Up until this board, members have always been able to discuss any topics they want. This board stopped that," said Jim Kizer, former HBTS board president and current homeowner leading the petition process to vote out the current board.

According to Kizer, over 2,500 petitions signed by homeowners were turned into the board demanding new leadership. In addition to the accusations of the current board not allowing members to speak at meetings, homeowners are saying board members raised annual assessments to pad association coffers for unneeded expenditures.

"The board trumped up a bunch of improvements. They came up with about $200,000 for air conditioners and $150,000 for the pool dome," said Kizer. The board also raised annual assessments from $250 to $377. He explained the types of improvements did not necessitate that much money.

Kizer also said of the 2,510 ballots turned in, the board threw out over 750 erroneous ballots citing lack of signature, parcel number or lack of paid assessment. Current board president countered by explaining specific association guidelines stated that members not in good fiscal standing with the association forfeit their right to vote.

"The ballots were not certified and there were a lot of things missing. Some people didn't sign them; some people didn't live here and some didn't pay their dues," said Tim Harrington, HBTS board president. "We've got an ongoing policy that you cannot vote if you haven't paid your dues." Harrington claims around 775 ballots didn't quality. He also said 2,362 ballots were needed to remove the current board and after the 775 did not qualify, only 1,650 submitted were eligible. Kizer claims that decision not to allow homeowners to vote based on unpaid assessments was decided by the board and made retroactive canceling a number of signed ballots.

The ballots were turned over the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR) to verify the questioned validity.

"(The DDPR) has a lot of ballots to look over. We can hear something any day, but I believe, and what I've heard is I'd be shocked if they got back to us (anywhere from) 30 to 90 days," said Harrington.

As far as the questionable expenditures, Harrington explains there is a need.

"(There are things) in ill repair and need renovations to bring them back up to how they were three to five years ago," said Harrington. He said the board voted to replace a majority of the air conditioning system in the recreation center. In addition, the inflatable dome of the pool needs replacing. Harrington said the board is currently accepting bids and will know around March 20 the status of the dome. He added that around $120,000 was budgeted.

Homeowners say their concerns go beyond the board's superfluous spending.

"What we have are members of the board of directors that have a vision different from the majority of the membership. They don't want to listen to the members; they just want to get up there and vote how to spend our money," said Kizer.

Harrington said it is the responsibility of an association to make sure amenities and neighborhood appeal are up to par.

"The biggest problem we have right now is you're really talking about the difference between some people (wanting to) replace things that others do not," said Harrington. "We take pride of ownership and want things to look nice. That's really the division of what (people feel is) acceptable. The board was asked what are we going to do if this had not happened. We said we are going to continue to act as a board of directors, and if the recount goes through, fine, remove us. If it doesn't, it doesn't matter: I'm off the board (soon) anyway."