Members Present: Paul Napieralski, President Sue Patalano, 1 st Vice President Richard Rombro, 2 nd Vice President Jeff Hamburger, Treasurer Sydney Freifelder, Secretary Joel Elin Ben Geller Ron Hoffman Janet Kresge Roberta Levetown Molly Wilson BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING September 20 th, 2016 2:00 pm Present by Phone: Judy Braslow Absent: Stephen Danzig Harriet Miller Guests: Ricardo Catarino, General Manager Joe Roux, Assistant General Manager Recorder: Joe Roux ITEM DISCUSSION ACTION FOLLOW-UP I. Call Meeting to Order II. Consent Agenda Items A. Approval of previous Board Meeting Minutes for July 19 th. Approval of the July Board minutes. III. Communications Letter from Marvin Talsky is attached to these minutes. Highlights of the letter were read to the Board. These highlights include: Page 1 of 10 Meeting called to order by Paul. Napieralski at 2:00pm. Motion made and seconded to approve the board minutes. July Minutes are posted on the Fountains Website.
The powers that run the club don t represent the club well. The $17.Million from GL homes isn t a real number. The club is withholding information that we have a plan but haven t fully disclosed it with anyone. When we will be receiving the $200 dollars per home GL homes? We haven t told anyone what the upgraded amenities will be. He is very worried about the traffic when the new homes are built and about the elderly drivers. Lastly he claims the continuation of the lawsuits has destroyed the community and that the deal with GL homes isn t excellent and that the vote that was taken was meaningless and not examined after the count. IV. President s Report Ricardo Catarino announced that he is leaving. The Board thanked him for all of his services. Paul Napieralski read a letter Board Member Murray Danz, announcing his resignation from the board. Paul Napieralski addressed some of Mr.Talksy concerns, including: The $17 million dollars is a correct number. Other than the pool, upgraded amenities are unknown at this time. Decisions will be made by the membership not the Board, as to which amenities will be funded with the remainder of the $17 million. Our long term, older members will have a new Page 2 of 10
reduced membership dues plan by the end of the year. Traffic is not an issue as our roads aren t heavily traveled. We all received a letter from Bernie Ciancanelli, FCO President, accusing the FCC of holding up the process of the North Gate. The truth is that the FCO is still waiting on permit approval from Palm Beach County. Contractually the FCC should be coinsured with the FCO on our buildings that are maintained under contract with the FCO. We have repeatedly asked for documentation of this coverage and to date no documentation could be provided by the FCO. In the contract it states that the buildings owned by the FCC and leased to the FCO have to be maintained in the same way that the country club maintains their facilities. The FCC payed for a Commercial Inspection of our leased buildings. The Inspector found 87 code violations. The report was given to the FCO March with a list of 87 Building Code Violations that needed to be repaired. The FCC asked for a status report and a subsequent reinspection by the Commercial Inspector in July who determined that only 15 of the 87 violations had been corrected. The FCO Maintenance building in serious need of repair. One of the workers is feeding and caring for many stray cats. An offensive, anti-semitic symbol was painted on the door to the maintenance shed and covered with paint. That Page 3 of 10
symbol is now bleeding through and the door to the shed must be repainted. FCO has always handled the collection of dues at closing from members who sell their property. Recently, without our permission or knowledge the FCO has started to change the amount of money on the Estoppel Letters, (letters notifying FCO how much money is due to the FCC), lowering the amount due to the FCC. The FCC has the permit for water pumped from our lakes to be used to irrigate the Country Club property. The water is pumped out using equipment owned by the club, as well as generating electrical costs to run the pumps. The FCO has been using a greater amount of water, reducing the amount available to maintain the Country Club property, to irrigate resident s lawns. They have not paid us for the use of our pumps or for any of the electric costs to run the pumps. The FCO will benefit from the sale of the land to GL Homes. At the least, $35.00 a month for each resident will be paid to offset security costs. Additional fees for maintenance of common areas still needs to be worked out which will be an additional benefit to the residents further reducing their own maintenance costs. V. GM Report Golf Course closures should be done by October 3 rd. The Budget Preparation cycle started. New Carts should be arriving in November. Page 4 of 10
Carpeting replacement has been finalized. Cart path repairs are in process. Annual, cyclical A/C replacements are in process. Artificial Tees have been contracted. Looking into new maintenance equipment Ricardo said his goodbyes to the Board Members as this is his final Board Meeting. VI. Treasurers Report Board approved the hiring of a new Director of Finance. Once she arrives we will begin looking for an assistant. The Treasurers report states that our Operating Cash is at -$396,000; the Capital Reserve Account is at $61,000; the Members Receivable Account $2.5 million; Members Receivable Reserves are at $623,000; Accounts Payable Account is at $741,000; the outstanding Renovation Loan is now $8.8 Million. Accounting has gone through all of the member s files to confirm that all memberships are being billed properly. VII. Legal Committee The Legal Committee is going to schedule a meeting for September 27 th to review the sections of the By-Laws that were approved by the membership. VIII. Membership Committee Our New Membership Director is Debbie Shulman We have signed up 14 new Premier Members. To date we have a total of 45 Summer Members. We have 10 members who have come from Sherbrook. The Ambassador Club has 30 members. They will have Page 5 of 10
their first meeting on September 21 st. Debbie will be meeting with different realtor groups to discuss information on the club including membership options and amenities. Starting the 1 st of the year there will be a person from Membership here on Saturdays to setup appointments and viewing of the club. Realtors won t just be able to walk into the club and look they need to setup an appointment. Membership Director main priority is to sell membership. Membership will be conducting Exit Interviews on every member that is resigning. Realtor Report- Numbers are close but not accurate. IX. House Committee The new 12-month Calendar is now available at the Front Desk. It runs from September 1 st to August 30 th. New Events that aren t on the Calendar. Current events Series starting in November - July. Our new Pub Sous Chef is Randy Wynns. The RVing Through the US RVing has been very well received by the membership. A brand New Sunset Music Series on the Patio, outside the Main Dining Room, will start in October. China hasn t been ordered for the Pub as of yet. Still waiting for additional bids. Food and Beverage AdHoc Committee will be evaluating menus and making suggestions for the next menu update. The date of the Ladies Page 6 of 10
X. Golf/Greens & Grounds Committee XI. Tennis/Fitness Committee Member Guest Card Party date has been changed to Monday, January 23, 2017. Many of the outings that we have hosted in the past will no longer be hosted at the Fountains. Many factors went into this decision, including closing of the North Golf Course and the implementation of New Golf Guidelines We have hired Randy Ramonidi as our New Head Golf Pro. He will be creating new lesson programs as well as ranger programs. Three (3) demo Carts have been available for our membership to preview: Yamaha, EzGo and Club Car. The majority of the members that tried them out liked the Club Car carts. Carts would be leased with a dollar buy out at the end of the lease. Fans not included but they will be added on. Mike Reinzi working on a rain course solution for the summer of next year. Management is working on the walkway from the Golf Proshop to the Bag Room to make it look more presentable. There will be Punched Greens and Punched Fairways each month. South Course is closed now for regular maintenance. North Course will not be fertilized or irrigated in certain areas. Ned Price, our Golf Course Consultant is working with the club to figure out the best solutions to replace the two holes on West. They will start their committee meetings in Page 7 of 10
October. Roberta and David Jasmin have been visiting other County Clubs to view their pools and Fitness Centers. Once we are closer to closing the sale of land to GL Homes we, as a membership, will decide what upgrades or expansions will be added to the Sports Complex. XII. Old Business The Board is working on a discount for older members with a set number years of membership and a set age. Additional information will be given to the membership. XIII. New Business The Management is working with the Budget and Finance Committee on the 2017 budget. Information will be provided to the membership in November. XIV. MOTIONS At a previous meeting the Board approved funding to replace our outdated computer hardware. A motion was made to approve an additional $21,000, for additional purchases necessary to complete the upgrade in equipment to run our updated software. The conversation on dealing with Legacies was tabled until a special Board Work Session where all options can be explored. XV. Q&A Can we terminate the Contract between FCO and FCC? There are provisions that state we can, but for now we are taking the proper steps that we have to follow as part of the contract to resolve the contractual problems. Will there be an Operating Assessment this year? We are unsure as of right now. Vote was taken and motion passed unanimously. Page 8 of 10
Has GL Homes made filings with the county as part of the zoning process? If so, is the process moving along? Yes it is GL is working with a zoning board. Does GL Homes provide an attorney to respond to all of the questions about the new community? GL homes knows what they are doing but if we need one, then yes it will be provided by them. What happens with the Board seat that is now open because of the resignation of Murray Danz? The Board agreed to appoint an Equity Golf Member to the seat at their next meeting. When are we going to use the Main Dining Room for dinner? There are more opportunities for dining in the Main Dining Room on this calendar. If the members support the dining events in the Main Dining Room, the management will make recommendations to open it more often for dinner. opening more for dinner. Why can t we have all Dining in the Main Dining Room? Based on information from Focus Groups, made up of Equity Members, last year both the Pub and Main Dining Room will be open for lunch once more members return for the winter months. Management will be studying the member utilization of both venues. Who was responsible for signing the contract between FCO and FCC? There was a Sub Committee made up of Board Members who were responsible for negotiating the contract with the FCO Page 9 of 10
and bringing it back to the entire Board for input throughout the process. The Board approved entering into the contract. Who hires the Next General Manager and does that person have to come from Kemper? The Board hires the New General Manager and no they do not have to be from Kemper. When will GL be finished building the new single family homes and when do we anticipate people moving in? Will the new homes buyers have to be Mandatory Members? GL is still in the permit phase and we do not know when they will start to build. The new homes will have to take a South Complex Membership in the Club. XVI. Adjournment Meeting was adjourned at 4:30 pm XVII. Good & Welfare Board went into Good & Welfare Page 10 of 10