Your HOA Board of Directors met on August 2  to take action to continue to improve your community. The meeting was held via  Zoom. The Board discussed and acted on the following items:

1. ARB Construction Policy: A new policy involving the review and approval of new home construction or projects costing more than $50,000 at existing homes or other home projects that need some expertise was approved by the Board. This policy came about because sometimes there are homeowner projects to be reviewed where the ARB Committee needs the input and advice of an expert. This expert may be an architect, engineer, or general contractor. The committee will ask the expert to review the ARB application and all the required supporting documents and make sure the new home construction or project meets the requirements of the CC&R’s and is appropriate for the North Shore Community and especially for the adjacent homes. The homeowner will be responsible for reimbursing the HOA the fees and costs charged by the expert.
2. ARB Application Approval Process: The Board voted to add three new members to the ARB Committee. They added Laurie Bihailo (HOA Association Manager), Tanner Mews (HOA Compliance and ARB Manager) and Tabitha Hoheb (HOA Administrative Assistant). This brings the total number of committee members to five including long time members Paul Johnson and Ish Samuel. Adding staff members to the committee will allow for a much quicker review and turnaround of applications in the office without homeowners having to wait for the regular every-other-week meeting. Easy to approve items such as painting, adding a new roof, adding outdoor lighting and landscape changes can now be approved within a few days of a homeowner turning in a completed application allowing the homeowner to get a quicker start on the changes. Construction projects such as adding a pool or lanai or patio or building a new home or garage addition will go to the full committee at the regularly scheduled meetings.
3. Softball Field Backstop: After discussions at prior board meetings and input from the Grounds Committee, the Board voted to have a new backstop installed at the same location where it has always been but with an addition of a Hood across the top to help prevent foul balls from going in the parking lot, hitting the Clubhouse, or going in the street. The Board also approved adding 20-foot-tall netting extending from the backstop along the first base line to the start of the pool area. This will aid in keeping balls from hitting the Clubhouse or going in the pool enclosure.
4. Golf Cart, Utility Cart and ATV Safety Policy: The Board voted to adopt a new Golf, ATV and Utility Cart Policy because of a few residents allowing underaged and unlicensed drivers to drive these vehicles on the HOA streets and sidewalks, as well as along the sidewalks on the Boulevard. Orange County has a strict ordinance regulating all of these. The HOA is always striving for a fun and safe community for the enjoyment of all residents. The easiest solution to this unlawful activity is for parents NOT to let minors drive these vehicles even when an adult is present in the vehicle and certainly not by themselves. The staff and Private Patrol will be documenting incidents, which could result  in a $100 fine to the homeowner per occurrence.

Continuing a trend from earlier this year, North Shore homeowners and their HOA Board scored additional victories in July in two separate legal disputes. 

The latest of such victories was achieved on July 25, when Circuit Judge Reginald K. Whitehead imposed sanctions on resident Maria O’Donnell and struck all of her pleadings in a suit dating back to 2016. The Court also entered a default judgment against O’Donnell and awarded attorney’s fees and litigation costs to the HOA, which O’Donnell must pay within 10 days after the Court determines this amount. 

The action against O’Donnell spans from a 2016 suit claiming slander filed by the Board after Ms. O’Donnell accused Board members of stealing items from the golf pro-shop as well as money from the Association.  

Throughout the process, O’Donnell and her attorney did not turn in documents that had been requested by the Court during the discovery process.  It is notable that documents from another case were found which showed that Ms. O’Donnell was not forthcoming in the documents she provided. This inaction elicited strong words from the Judge in his final order: “Defendant and her counsel had ample opportunity to give Plaintiffs the requested documents and did not do so… Defendant was undoubtedly involved in the disobedience, as the documents sought involve her private Facebook account; Defendant’s refusal to tum over the documents has resulted in extreme delay, as Plaintiffs’ litigation has been stalled in excess of four years due to her refusal; neither Defendant nor her attomey have offered any justification whatsoever for her noncompliance, despite having over four years and ample time and opportunity to do so.”  See entire document HERE. 

The second victory involves a July 6 action taken by the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR). On that day, the regulating board  issued a Final Order to dismiss two Petitions for Binding Arbitration, a legal process in which a  dispute is arbitrated by a neutral party who makes a decision instead of a judge. Both petitions were similar in nature and sought the review of a 2020-2021 recall effort seeking to have all board members removed.   

The DBPR dismissed the petitions because they ruled that there have been two valid elections since these were filed and there is still a case pending in district court which will ultimately dictate whether a  five-seat election will be held. The order to dismiss mandates costs and attorney’s fees to be paid to the HOA by the non-prevailing party, which includes homeowners Lynn Sandford, Kurt Kuhl, Tom Garland, Greg Mathison, Kelly Clavijo and Will Arwood and possibly the Homeowners Voting for Recall group (more on that later on this article). The HOA board of directors has instructed The Orlando Law Group to pursue immediate payment.

The following is the background on how we got to this point:

In late 2020 five homeowners (Kurt Kuhl, Tom Garland, Greg Mathison, Kelly Clavijo and Will Arwood) led by homeowner Lynn Sandford prepared ballots to recall the entire HOA Board. They organized a small group of workers who went door to door throughout the community telling homeowners various things that would happen if the recall effort was successful to entice them to sign these ballots. Some of the things said, according to residents who came in contact with members of the group, included  “you will get a dues (assessment) refund possibly up to $1,200,” “the new board will roll back the budget to the prior year budget amounts and your dues will immediately go down for the remainder of the year,” “the current board misappropriated funds,” “the current board is not the legitimate board” and “signing ballots is necessary to have an annual meeting and election.” Some homeowners were even led to believe that these ballots were the “2021 Official Election.” 

Upon obtaining the required number of signatures, the  group presented them to The Orlando Law Group, whic represents the HOA. The ballots were reviewed and some were found to be invalid, yet there were enough remaining ballots for a recall Board meeting which convened on January 25, 2021.  Nevertheless, only one board member met the legal requirements for recall because two of the five board members had previously resigned and two were up for election within 60 days of the date the recall ballots were turned in (Florida law says board members up for election within 60 days of the recall can’t be recalled). 

Residents leading the recall effort objected to the removal of only one board member. To address this, the HOA filed a Petition for Mandatory Binding Arbitration with the DBPR.  The petition asked the body  to review the entire recall effort to make sure that the HOA handled it properly. A short time later Nancy Campiglia, an attorney representing “Homeowners Voting for Recall” filed a similar petition. The group in question was made up of approximately  575 qualified individuals who signed recall ballots, who likely did not realize that by doing so they would be involved in litigation that could put them on the hook for legal fees if they lost. The DBPR put on hold both petitions because another group of five homeowners had filed a lawsuit against the HOA to enforce an order issued by the DBPR in 2020 for a new five-seat election of the board. That suit is still pending in court after the judge found in favor of the HOA in a summary judgment motion which would end the case in favor of the homeowners. 

There have been two annual elections properly noticed (according to our Bylaws, CC&R’s, and Florida Law) since the order for a five-seat election and since the recall effort. One of these was the election in March of 2021 and the second one in April of 2022. Quorum (15% of the homeowners) was not reached in either election. Unfortunately, a small group of disgruntled homeowners led by Lynn Sandford advised homeowners via social media to NOT participate in these elections falsely claiming  this would legitimize the current board.

It is noteworthy that on July 18, a Motion for Reconsideration and to Vacate the Order of Dismissal was filed with the DBPR by Bruce Burtoff on behalf of ‘Homeowners Voting for Recall’ (originally represented by Campiglia). Burtoff is an attorney who lives in Osprey Landing, also representing Sandford in a lawsuit filed against the HOA which has been dismissed several times. In its most current version it seeks $7 million in damages for Sandford herself.  Should this lawsuit prevail, it could result in each homeowner having to pay more than $7,000 to the HOA to pay Sanford. 

Once again, the HOA has incurred even more legal fees to defend against this latest motion filed with the DBPR by Bruce Burtoff upon the direction of Lynn Sandford, the apparently self-appointed “Designated Representative for Homeowners Voting for Recall”. This latest motion was denied by the DBPR on August 9th and once again the Board has directed The Orlando Law Group to take legal action to recover all costs and legal fees from all parties involved. 

 

The Board of Directors met at 5:45 p.m. on Tuesday, July 11, 2022, for two and a half hours and continued to take action to protect the assets of the HOA, improve the quality of life for residents and increase the value of homes in North Shore. The meeting was held by Zoom giving all homeowners an opportunity to safely attend the meeting but only 26 homeowners took advantage of the Zoom capabilities. Six homeowners made comments at the beginning of the meeting. These were the action items discussed:

1. Water and electric lines installation at the dock: A representative from the contractor hired to do this attended the meeting in person to provide an update, explain the Orange County permitting process and answer questions from board members. The Board voted to approve the final cost estimate which will be paid for using proceeds from the Eminent Domain lawsuit previously settled with Orange County. The total cost of the project will  be between $60,000 and $70,000. Having water and electricity in  the area  will allow North Shore maintenance personnel to power wash and seal the dock themselves whenever needed instead of bringing in a contractor to perform this task. This will save the HOA between $5,000 – $10,000 annually.  Installing electricity will also allow for the addition of much needed security cameras in that area, as we have already had some unfortunate acts of vandalism on the observation deck, including attempted arson.
2. Fences:  The Board also continued to discuss the possibility of fencing in some or all the area surrounding and including the clubhouse. Our management team  is going to obtain additional quotes for consideration at a future meeting. 
3. Replacement of the softball field backstop: This was destroyed in the October tornado. Staff  is currently securing quotes to replace that structure as well as possibly adding some tall netting along the first baseline, which will keep foul balls from hitting the building or pool area.
4. Pool furniture: The Board also approved replacing all the pool furniture, which has been done. This was paid in part with insurance proceeds and the rest will come from the NSLH HOA Reserve Fund.
5. Pressure washing of the common area sidewalks and  the Miami curbs (in front of homes in all the neighborhoods): This was approved and has already begun. HOA President Dave Gordon will contact Orange County officials to see if they will agree to power wash the sidewalks along North Shore Golf Course Boulevard as well as Kirby Smith Road. The board went ahead and approved this expenditure as a backup plan if the county declines taking care of the sidewalks.
6. Hedge heights: The Board approved a community wide variance for hedge heights along rear property lines (except for those homes backing up to Lake Hart, a retention pond, or the golf course) allowing for 6-foot tall hedges.
7. Gate codes: Upon the recommendation of Association Manager Laurie Bihailo, the Board agreed to reinstate codes for all gates except for Mallard Landings. 

As you can see, this board remains very active and productive despite distractions, including a lawsuit containing unfounded accusations against the Board members. Led by Dave Gordon, the HOA volunteers are spending countless hours working to improve the community for homeowners and their families.

As soon as the minutes are approved at the next board meeting, they will be posted on the Northshoreatlakeharthoa.com website where you can read them in their entirety. If you haven’t already registered for the website, please do so as soon as possible.