There they go again. Marlem and her crew’s response to getting caught spewing smears, lies, and misrepresentations in their previous “Choices We Make” email blast is to conjure up a whole new set of them in their newly-fabricated “Lies of Desperation” email blast of Feb.16, 2024 (which was sent as a draft? Do they intend to edit their lies to make them even more false?).
Here are their headlines (quoted from our response, so thanks?) and our response to their false claims.
Summary: we stand by every statement we made.
“It is easy to clean up a mess by raising a $1.7 million assessment in midyear 2023 to cover the board’s wish list.”
“The Catania settlement fund of $1.7 million was used for these projects.”
We stand by our statements.
These are two different figures: a $1.7 million assessment by the Association board; and a $1.7 million settlement from Catania.
So, there’s no disagreement that there was an assessment by the Association Board. The board claims to have “cleaned up,” but what they did was .. create a new assessment, just as we said.
The Rec Board, on the other hand, didn’t charge an assessment — not because they didn’t spend money, but because they spent the Catania settlement money and borrowed from the reserve without replenishing it. They spent it on unplanned and unapproved projects, including the misguided biometrics system, inappropriate and rushed “upgrades” in the social hall, and a restaurant renovation driven by a personality clash instead of by a considered and approved spending plan.
Furthermore, $60,000 from Recreation’s reserve deficit from the beginning of 2023 wasn’t replenished after the Catania settlement. Instead Marlem and her Rec board charged ahead with their unplanned wish list. We call that borrowing from the future: eventually the piper will need to be paid.
And here are the details behind the $1.7 million settlement amount for Catania:
| Item | Amount |
| Escrow | $940,000 |
| Insurance from Travelers | $435,000 |
| Insurance from CNA | $70,000 |
| Mediation penalty from Catania | $300,000 |
| TOTAL | $1,745,000 |
No approvals. No replenishment of depleted reserves. Marlem and her Rec Board bought on a credit card. And the bill is coming due.
“It is a lie to state that we want the promenade to remain a windswept empty space.”
We stand by our statement.
Marlem and her crew continue to spread the lie, which they know to be a lie, that we are against improving our property. What we are against is pretending to have money when there’s none there.
Despite warnings from the Rec Board Treasurer, and even though Marlem was confused about the amount and the meaning of budgeted money, she led the board to re-allocate money intended for other purposes to the purchase of patio furniture. Yes, we need to replace the patio furniture. Think of what an amazing place we could have had without the unplanned and misguided expenditure of $500,000 on biometrics that the great majority of owners had already said they did not want.
Members of the audience at the Rec Board meeting did indeed express approval of our position — because our position is that you can’t create money out of thin air. That $40 per unit figure Marlem tosses out? — you’re going to pay that sooner or later in the form of a higher assessment for something or the other, but it won’t be called patio furniture.
“It is another lie to state that we want to file lawsuits against Recreation, Association, and Board members. No one on our team is contemplating such action; the subject has never come up.”
We stand by our statement.
The examples given in their latest tirade only serve to underscore how upset the community is at having biometrics forced down their throats — upset to the point of preparing to hire a lawyer at the community’s own expense. No lawsuit against the boards or board members was ever contemplated; the discussion was about the legal rights of the owners.
Yes, we support obtaining legal advice on behalf of the owners. Many owners were willing to spend their own money to do this. They had to, because the Rec Board only cared about its own protection, hiring lawyers and spending our money to protect themselves, to fight us — their own constituents— and to impose their will.
The community considered hiring their own lawyer only after asking the Board to seek legal advice on the community’s behalf; they didn’t, despite claims that they did. The legal “opinion” Marlem claimed to have obtained became the waiver that completely takes away owner rights to recover damages if (or when?) biometric data is compromised.
And, for the record, here’s the full text of the redacted Facebook response from Oscar Sandoval:
“We believe every owner has the right to choose secure non-biometric access to their home and property…”
We stand by our statement.
As we write this, owners are being locked out of their own property by the removal of Medco keys from building entrances. There’s no policy, no procedure in place for the many who refuse to risk their most private personal data on the most egregious and misguided whim of Marlem and her cohorts on the Rec Board. How many owners have only grudgingly given in to Marlem’s demands to take their private data and store it? — in an openly accessible room passed by outsiders on their way to the restaurant behind a closet door with a residential lock you could buy at Home Depot.
If you want to know the truth about our position on biometrics, and read about one suggestion for dealing with short-term rentals, read our blog entry: https://quadproteam.net/biometrics-security-is-a-sham/
“…we don’t just say we’re professionals; we act professionally.”
We stand by our statement.
First of all, we believe that how one conducts a campaign shows just how professional one is: https://quadproteam.net/professionalism-campaigning/
Marlem’s tirade claims that Henri tore up the biometrics waiver. The truth is Henri was helping an owner get an access card. After being invited by Alex into his office, Alex stated, “I never force anybody to sign a waiver …” and on the way out of the office the owner asked for a waiver and ripped it up in disgust. This is just one example of how upset many, many owners are at the whole mess of having biometrics forced down their throats.
Marlem’s tirade claims that Jim doesn’t have ideas for how to stop short-term rentals: the truth is Jim offered a proposal in the reasoned and analytical blog post mentioned above on the uselessness of biometrics to secure our buildings and stop short-term rentals.
As for Marlem’s claim that Alan provided “inept advice”: the truth is the Rec Board stopped listening to Alan because he insisted on using sound financial discipline and accounting practices instead of seat of the pants spending. His warning to the Rec Board that they would run out of cash went unheeded — and where is the Rec Board now? They borrowed from the future to pay for much-needed patio furniture now. They did this despite Alan’s advice and against their own Treasurer’s warning that it was inappropriate. In other words, the Rec Board decided to ignore an accountant’s and treasurer’s expertise and chose instead to spend unallocated money to please a group of supporters during election season. And so we’re all going to pay the piper sooner or later.