Lots of credit to the MCA for holding the Townhall meeting. As an indicator of its success there was strong support for holding them more frequently than quarterly. Would be great to get another one in before the snowbirds leave in April.
LINK to Jan 22 MCA Townhall Meeting recording (also available through the Homeowner portal)
A large portion of the meeting was filled with passionate pleas from some Board members (Mark Pienkos, Tom Bondur, Chris Perone) and from several homeowners to reducing divisiveness. From the reactions of those in attendance, MCA Homeowners are unanimous in that goal. That is a great sentiment. But there is a big barrier we must overcome to get there: We cannot have informed, constructive, respectful discussions unless we know and agree on the facts.
Truth and Transparency are the cornerstone to reducing our divisiveness
We cannot build ourselves back to a united community without truth and transparency. While we have a few Board members making headway on transparency, we have others who continue to mislead us. This empowers the status quo by making people believe “We (TMCC members) need you (MCA), and you need us”. These false beliefs make it impossible to have rational, fact-based discussions. Our divisiveness will not end until we all understand the truth.
The two low-lights in this vein were:
Low-light 1: The MCA President (member of The Meadows Country Club) repeated one of her favorite misleading statements: TMCC has invested $28 million over the last 3 years. That sounds impressive, but is absolute nonsense. Those are just their normal business operating expenses, and TMCC have earned about $28 million of revenue while using the MCA Homeowners’ sports and dining complex for free (Footnote 1). In case there was any doubt, a Homeowner pointed out that TMCC’s fixed assets have only gone up only $1.4 million from 2018 to 2023 ($280,000 per year). That’s a long way from $28 million of “investment”.
Regarding operating expenses, in the last year MCA Homeowners have become responsible for paying about $800,000 per year of expenses previously paid by TMCC:
- Property taxes: $144,000
- Insurance: $378,000
- MCA assessment (no longer paid by TMCC): $50,000 (estimated)
- Pool and Fitness operating costs: $223,000 (starting March 1)
- Total: $795,000
When this shift started last year, the Treasurer indicated it was just different administration of the RAP fee (which would be fine if disclosed that way). But now that these expenses are buried in MCA’s $5.7 million budget, the MCA Treasurer flatly denies we are paying these TMCC business expenses.
Low-light 2: The Board’s Aviva Liaison (TMCC member) showed up very late in the townhall meeting just to passionately perpetuate a false premise: TMCC saves our property values. That is a cornerstone of TMCC’s negotiating position but is absolute nonsense. If you haven’t already, please read our post on Green Space & Property Values. The key points are:
- Our property values are primarily enhanced by green space.
- NO ONE is advocating developing homes in place of golf holes.
- MCA owns the golf courses (not TMCC) and they can be operated without TMCC.
As a past TMCC President recently stated: TMCC is merely a vessel that currently operates MCA’s golf courses. TMCC DOES NOT keep our green space open or maintain our property values. The MCA does that and will continue to do so.
There ARE Board members who are fighting for transparency, truth, and all MCA Homeowner interests. They are making some important steps forward. We need to rapidly continue down that path to become united. We cannot continually be distracted by misleading information.
There was unanimous support for continuing these Townhall Meetings. We agree. We hope they will include even more truth and transparency, and less false information speeches from MCA Board members.
Ballots for the MCA election will be coming out soon.
Vote for candidates that will represent all MCA Homeowner interests, increase transparency and be honest with Homeowners.
Please share this with your friends and neighbors, and encourage them to subscribe. Contact us at ForTheMeadows@SarasotaMeadows.com
Footnote 1 – This footnote is from our 2024 MCA Annual Meeting Recap.
MCA states (parroting TMCC info) that over a 3-year period “the Club has invested over $28,000,00 to operate and maintain the facilities”. MCA and TMCC repeatedly highlight how much they are paying in normal business expenses, implying that we are fortunate that TMCC is paying the expenses, otherwise MCA Homeowners would have to pay the expenses through MCA assessments. This is SO misleading.
- Paying business expenses is NOT INVESTING. When you fill your fridge with groceries, or pay your electricity bill, are you “investing” in your home? Of course not.
- MCA/TMCC never disclose that TMCC is receiving $28 million in revenue from using our assets for free. They only ever mention the expense part, implying MCA Homeowners would have to pay those expenses (without offsetting revenue), and our MCA assessments would go up by $9 million annually.
- MCA/TMCC never mention TMCC’s actual bottom-line results, despite TMCC’s legal obligation to disclose their financial results to the public via the Form 990. TMCC delay and make it as difficult as possible for the public to obtain this information, meeting the technical requirement but not the spirit of the law. The exact opposite of transparency. Reminder that you can go to TMCC’s office and they are legally required to provide you with a copy of their Form 990 that you can take with you. Unfortunately TMCC has been able to legally delay the disclosure of their 2023 results from May 2024 until May 2025 (IRS allowed deferrals).
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