Getting the facts straight about our money . . .

Sincere appreciation is extended to the Chairman and members of the Big Canoe Audit and Risk Management Committee for any assistance provided in determining a resolution to the 2020 balance discrepancies found in the Master Plan Fund. After resubmitting questions (1) that had been previously asked as far back as February 2021, the Chairman responded by stating that the request had been forwarded to the Board and that “They are opening a ticket to ask the POA and will be addressing your inquiry.” Round and round the questions seem to go.

Unfortunately, the Audit and Risk Committee has been rendered powerless as after almost a week of waiting, the Board of Directors has failed to deliver on it’s promise. No ticket. No response. Further, one can only wonder how and why a request to the Audit Committee and Whistleblower hotline would even evolve into an Ask the POA request to be channeled through the desk of the General Manager prior to any response.

The discrepancy . . .

To summarize the issue here, as discussed in previous posts on this site, all transactions listed in the 2020 monthly reconciliation reports do not equal the $1,897,283 Master Plan Fund balance at year end as shown on the internally prepared balance sheets. Therefore, either transactions were missing or the balance was inaccurate.

And now, little more than a week ago, the audited 2020 financial statement was posted to the POA website confirming that the year end balance in the Master Plan Fund was indeed $1,897,283. (2) However, the audited statement does not confirm or provide the itemized detail and timing of transactions used to arrive at that year end balance. Therefore, with the balance now confirmed to be correct and due to the board’s failure to respond to this writer’s inquiries, transactions totaling $265k remain missing and unexplained.

For the record . . .

Considering this example of this writer’s prolonged attempts at obtaining answers, it is most disingenuous and unfortunate that any director on this community’s board would have supported the published statements implying that this writer has failed to ask questions or do research.

Only in leadership’s imagination could the Capital Replacement Fund have had $1.8 million at year end . . .

Moving along, the 2020 audited financial statement clearly confirms balances in other accounts as well. Specifically, the Board Designated – Capital Replacement Fund is confirmed to have a year end balance of $796,211. This balance is contrary to the $1.8 million balance imagined by the board. Once again, disingenuous, inaccurate and unfortunate information has been distributed and published by the board.

Fast forward/$55k – 2021 Master Plan Fund discrepancy corrected by management . . .

As noted in a recent post on this site, (3) yet another discrepancy was found in the Master Plan Fund beginning with the March 2021 financial reports that resulted in an overstated balance in the amount of $55k that continued through the month of April. Kudos to management for not only correcting the discrepancy but also providing an explanation of same as noted in the May financial reports posted in late June. (4)

According to the explanation, “The Capital Contribution Fee in March of $55,000 was transferred twice from the Operating Cash account to the Master Plan Fund account.” It seems that Capital Contribution Fees are actually deposited into the operating account rather than the Master Plan Fund as specified by the covenant amendment. Apparently, later, an amount representing the total of all fees received for the month are then transferred into the Master Plan Fund. Note: Leadership and management might want to consider rethinking this process as it allows errors such as these just described to occur and fails to acknowledge any reconciliation to actual fees collected and homes sold. Further, the constant transfers into and out of the various funds and accounts is an obvious invitation to error.

And the ruse continues . . .

As if these monetary discrepancies aren’t disturbing enough, there doesn’t seem to be any slowing down of leadership and management’s spouting of inaccurate and frankly untrue financial information.

The latest example takes us to July’s Town Hall meeting. Any appreciation for the impressive slides and outpouring of information about capital projects and the status of our dams, etc. is instantly erased and negated with the General Manager’s inaccurate statements regarding our community’s money. While discussing the funding of Lake Petit dam repairs, the following message was echoed by the GM as it was flashed across the screen. (5) (6)

“No  bank loan or special assessments planned”

Really? Instead, look only to the June 22^nd Finance Committee meeting minutes for discussion about drawing on the $3 million line of credit “for future improvements to our community.” (7)

The General Manager even goes on to say “We have really, really good cash reserves, unlike some of the communities you hear about in Florida.” (6)

• Unbelievable. Look only to the recently posted reserve report indicating underfunded reserves and negative balances 2023 through 2031 for confirmation of the ruse. (7)

Property owners – we are being hoodwinked. And for now, that’s really all that can be said.

In closing, it is important to remember that even though we are all neighbors and Big Canoe is our home and community, the POA is not a social club. It is a business with significant assets and annual revenues exceeding $17 million. That said, we should always expect our POA to be run like a business and managed appropriately. Doing so will protect our homes and our community.

There should be no tolerance for leadership or management’s continued distribution of inaccurate and false information such as has been shown in the examples listed in this article. Likewise, there should be no tolerance for leadership’s continued lack of transparency and refusal to provide answers and/or information that property owners are entitled to see. It’s time to begin expecting more because – make no mistake – the ruse will continue until it is made to stop.

. . . . .

To see additional articles posted in the future, please check back frequently or subscribe for an email notification.  Likewise, please feel free to contact me at thepcrosses@gmail.com for questions or further discussion.  Meanwhile . . . take care and stay safe.

Patricia Cross (10438 Big Canoe)

References:

1 July 19^th correspondence to the Chairman and members of the Audit and Risk Management Committee.    Audit&RMCommitteeEmail

2 Big Canoe Property Owners Association, Inc. – Financial Report – December 31^st, 2020, Balance Sheet, pg. 3 (POAWebsite>login>POA>Financial>AuditedFinancial>2020>AuditedFinancials)

3 https://bcmatters.org/more-big-red-flags/

4 May 2021 Financial Package, Reconciled Board Designated Master Plan Fund, pg. 5

(POAwebsite>login>POA>Financials>SummaryOfOperations>May2021)

5 Big Canoe POA Town Hall Meeting, July 17^th, 2021 –  bank loan

6 Big Canoe POA Town Hall Meeting, July 17^th, 2021 @ 57:45 through 58:25 (POAWebsite>login>POA>Meetings>SubscribeToOurYouTube . . . >)

7 Finance Committee Meeting Minutes, June 22^nd, 2021 (POAwebsite>login>POA>Committees>Finance>Minutes>June2021)

8 Big Canoe Master Plan, beginning January 1, 2021, pg. 47 (7of51) (POAWebsite>login>POA>Reports and Studies, Reserve Study 2021)