Clearly in a celebratory mood at the December annual meeting, the Big Canoe Board of Directors announced that a settlement had been reached with Utilities, Inc. After three years of secretive negotiations, the agreement will yield each water customer and each sewer customer a $108.43 rebate ($15.49*7) over the next seven months along with several other concessions apparently in exchange for the “dissolution” of a 1984 Trust Deed . (1)
Shudder.
The announcement followed with a brief history of the water system later documented in an e-blast to the community on December 19th (2) that omitted and grossly mischaracterized important information pertaining to our water and sewer system and the associated Trust Deed.
This post will seek to fill in those blanks.
The real facts . . .
The trust actually came into being forty plus years ago when the developer (Southeast Holding Company d/b/a Big Canoe Company) conveyed the water and sewer system to the Big Canoe POA as “trustee” in order to ensure the continuity of maintenance and operation as required by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources (DNR). Additional tracts and easements were also conveyed in subsequent years via amendments.
It is this writer’s understanding that sometime in 2016, the Georgia DNR no longer required private water systems to have a Trust Deed in place in order to be permitted.
However, this change did not dictate the cancellation of previously filed Trust Deeds. In fact, a number of other trust indentures remain valid and on record.
Further, the Georgia DNR continues to mandate that all privately owned sewer facilities have a trust deed in place. This fact has now been verified in writing with an individual in the Environmental Protection Division of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.
This is a blatant and critical omission of fact by the 2024 Board of Directors.
Seriously, did anyone even bother to check the regulation?
A bit more background . . .
Meanwhile, Utilities, Inc. (UIG) purchased the Big Canoe water and sewer system from Big Canoe Utilities in 2018.
At that time, the POA Board entered into an agreement with UIG called the Service Level Operating Agreement (“SLOA”) which instituted additional controls and conditions while also questionably agreeing to “cancel” the Trust Deed in five years if UIG met certain conditions and KPIs. (3) (4) The Board’s agreement to cancel the Trust Deed in five years was made absent any property owner discussion or required approval.
The SLOA was posted to the POA website.
The Trust Deed was not.
Upon obtaining copies of the referenced Trust Deed along with amendments via superior court records, this writer first published a copy of the 1984 Trust Deed (1) on this site and began posting articles about that purchase in April 2020. (5) Since that time, the water situation has been discussed in four additional posts. (6)
Note: For the sake of brevity, most information found in those posts will not be revisited here.
At some point in 2022, the Board of Directors began secretive arbitration proceedings and negotiations with UIG under the vague pretext of lowering the excessive water rates while racking up almost $79k in attorney fees just through 2023. (7) It is unknown what additional legal fees and other expenses have accrued since then. Whenever asked about the subject of the negotiations over the years, the Board has been vague at best, and to this writer’s knowledge, cancellation of the Trust Deed was never mentioned. Instead, one retired director described the entire process as “horsetrading”. (8)
Present day . . .
And now, profoundly disappointed by the Board’s December 7th announcement of their intent to “dissolve” the Trust Deed while falsely characterizing the document as nothing more than a “right of first refusal”, (9) this writer again searched superior court records for documentation of the amended SLOA and Trust Deed cancellation. Without any recorded documentation as late as year end 2024, an inquiry was submitted to AskThePOA.
Ask the POA . . .
Remarkably, it was learned that the required changes to documents had not yet been completed. And certainly true to form, the POA President advised this writer in his AskThePOA Response#15651 (10) that “the SLOA and the Settlement Agreement are documents which are not a part of the Association’s books and records which Members are entitled to review”.
Perhaps the President does not understand that this request was made as a “beneficiary of the 1984 Trust Deed” rather than a member of the POA.
For that matter, perhaps the President does not recognize that the water and sewer system were conveyed to the POA as trustee for the benefit of the present and future owners of the properties connected thereon. (i.e. beneficiaries)
Note: Interestingly, the original 2018 SLOA was prominently posted to the POA website, and yet, the current board has deemed the complete amended SLOA confidential.
Additional note: It is this writer’s understanding that residents of the Waterford community have the option of obtaining their water from Pickens County, therefore, they are not customers or beneficiaries of any settlement negotiation. However, those resident’s assessments have also been used to fund this legal quagmire. Perhaps their assessments might have been better utilized to ascertain the status of the pending sale of adjoining property.
With an undeniable arrogance . . .
Thus, the 2024 board appears to believe that they have the infinite wisdom and authority to both privately negotiate away that 1984 Trust Deed without the required beneficiary approval while also disregarding the State of Georgia EPD/DNR regulations.
Acknowledgment of these requirements has been demonstrated by other Trustees and communities in the State with similar trust deeds in place. For example, only days ago, headlines in a December 31st article in the Griffin Daily News, read “Spalding County BOC wants to resign from trust indenture agreement with private wastewater plant”. The BOC is seeking the required approval from the DNR to be removed as trustee and replaced with another government entity. Unfortunately, one must subscribe to have access to the complete article. However, it is a worthy read and suffice it to say that the trust deed requirement for sewer facilities is obviously alive and well and contrary to what we have been told by our leadership.
And as noted in a previous post, Peachtree Acres Homeowners Association (as trustee) transferred all their rights, etc. set forth in a Trust Indenture to UIG in 2015 only after noting that “a majority of the beneficiaries of such Trust Indenture have consented to the transfer” as required in Section 9 of the Trust Deed and including the actual signatures of those owners on an attached exhibit. (11)
So many questions . . .
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One must seriously wonder where is the Association’s legal counsel in all of this?
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UIG’s sewer permit is set to expire in October 2025. Again, did anyone bother to run this scenario by the Environmental Protection Division of the Georgia DNR?
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And did anyone bother to understand the real meaning and responsibility of being the Trustee of a Trust?
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And, does the Board recognize that with the dissolution of the 1984 Trust Deed, so goes their position as Trustee rendering them powerless to negotiate anything on behalf of any water or sewer customer other than themselves?
It indeed appears that the POA Board may have seriously overstepped their boundaries of authority in this entire UIG negotiation debacle not only with the “beneficiaries” but also with the Georgia DNR. Clearly leadership owes this community answers.
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That said, those answers should be forthcoming posthaste.
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If you believe the information contained on this site is important, please continue to share and pass it on. Should you wish to see additional articles posted in the future, please subscribe for an email notification or check back frequently. And as always, feel free to contact me at thepcrosses@gmail.com for questions or further discussion. Meanwhile, take care, stay safe and stay warm.
Patricia Cross
10438 Big Canoe
References:
2) POA Board of Directors UIG Update, dated December 19th, 2024.
Click here: e-blast to the community
3) Service Level Operating Agreement, April 18th, 2018
(POAwebsite>login>POA>meetings>BoardDocuments>UtilitiesIncDocuments>ServiceLevelOperatingAgreement)
4) Third Amendment to Trust Deed, April 18th, 2018
(POAwebsite>login>POA>meetings>BoardDocuments>UtilitiesIncDocuments>AmendmentsToThe WaterUtilityTrustDeed1984ServiceLevelOperatingAgreement)
5) “Let’s talk about our water”, April 13th, 2020, bcmatters.org
https://bcmatters.org/lets-talk-about-our-water/
6) https://bcmatters.org/more-water-talk/
https://bcmatters.org/lets-not-give-away-the-ranch/
https://bcmatters.org/keeping-the-record-straight/; and
https://bcmatters.org/water-discussions-on-the-horizon
8) https://bcmatters.org/lets-not-give-away-the-ranch/
9) Board of Directors Annual Meeting, December 7th, 2024 on Vimeo at 19:26
(POAwebsite>login>POA>meetings>Videos>2024>AnnualMeeting)
11) Quit Claim Deed between Peachtree Acres Phase IV Homeowner’s Association, Inc. and B. Robert Dinkins, Jr., Individually and Utilities, Inc. of Georgia dated January 15th, 2015 and recorded in Brooks County,Georgia superior court records, Deed Book 00731, Pages 0341 through 0347
This is yet another call to hire a professional community management team to run Big Canoe. Judging from the money spent on a number of boondoggles the POA board passed over the last few years, we are throwing money out the window without either full disclosure or input from Big Canoe property owners who pay the freight for mismanagement.
I have no doubt past and present board members or the General Manager(s) have good intentions and think they are doing the best for the community.
Not so fast!
When board meetings (or whatever they choose to call such “meetings”) are held in secret and property owners only find out what decisions were implemented after the fact, one can only assume something is clearly wrong.
Most board members have little or no experience running a community the size or financial imprint of Big Canoe. Gone are the days of friendly board gatherings over morning coffee and Danish or back slapping accolades loaded on each other at five o’clock waterings in the pub.
We are a business and must be run as such. This is serious and should be treated with full disclosure. Presently we are allowing a small contingency of fewer than a dozen ill equipped board members and a GM who has never managed a community to make short and long term commitments for close to 5,000 residents. Does this sound reasonable to you?
Many board members have successfully run businesses and corporations but that type management is a far cry from being responsible stewards for a “living, breathing community of stockholders.”
I’ve heard from potential home buyers and realtors that when such purchase prospects delve into the financial management of Big Canoe and our developing future plans, they no longer have interest in supporting a debacle.
What will it take for property owners to do a little hard research and come up with facts and figures to analyze where we’re heading? We don’t need a squad of cheerleaders supporting moves the board and GM make. We need an honest and probing review.
What will it take?