Town Hall Meeting May 5, 2011

Many thanks to board VP Dennis Kralick who initiated tonight's Town Hall meeting. An estimated  150 people were present. What a surprise for us that Ronald Weaver, the agent (attorney) for DiBartolo Development and Mr. Rosenberger showed up at our Town Hall meeting tonight... apparently uninvited! The attorney Weaver was given the microphone to answer questions. Someone asked for a simple explanation of the recent Good Neighbor Notice we received in the mail, and Weaver likened it to a hockey game. How would you like to be playing an important conference game only to learn that the rules have changed since last night's game? Each point tonight will only count for half of last night's points. How would you like that?
He joked and guffawed thru the explanation, and then asked for questions. His mistake. The people of Regency Cove made some pretty remarkable queries to which Mr. Weaver answered more than once "Hey, I want you on OUR SIDE!!" He dodged, avoided, and skirted many tough issues, or deferred the site questions to Rosenberger. He jabbered and babbled but many questions had to be asked more than once to get a suitable answer.The membership was patient as questions were asked, and re-asked, and asked again.

After they left, the conversation continued, and all residents were asked to please either sign a petition, or write a letter to request a traffic study and mitigation plan for the new Georgetown construction. Snowbirds are strongly urged to return the form in May's Outlook ASAP.
Our board members were asked by residents present to support this request either in writing, or to appear if meetings are held downtown. Other than Dennis, not one board member present addressed the need for a traffic study. They were all ill-prepared for tonight's topic, or waited for a consensus.
Ellen Nimon described her many meetings attended to show our displeasure at the Gandy Overpass Project, and encouraged the current board to Get With It. It soon became very apparent that our board, other than Dennis, wanted no part of an official stance, despite  resounding applause or votes by hand on the issue. "The Board will consider this issue at a later date" said Betty, which, hopefully, will be TOMORROW (May 6)?!? The deadline for letters downtown is May 12.
Send your letters to Dennis Kralick, the only board member who attended a recent emergency meeting of Bayside West Neighborhood Assn, and came forward in support of this important issue. Imagine 6,000-12,000 new car traffic on West Shore Blvd, coming from this new community which is being planned for twice the number of units that old Georgetown had.
THEN:
Ellen Nimon took the mic and started speaking directly to the residents. She spoke about how Rules and Regs have been taken away from the people, many, many changes have been made recently with no communication with the people. Town Hall meetings have disappeared. Shareholders began contributing their own comments. One woman recounted attorney Ellen De Haan's address to us at the Annual Meeting about how rules should be enacted. It starts with the people, at Town Hall meetings, ideas are shared and residents are given the opportunity to speak. Longer than three minutes, and more than once if necessary. People were irate at the most recent Rules and Regs changes, under the previous president, and accused the board of voting on them without knowing what they were. It seems as if the Board wants no input from the shareholders, and are running away with new policies, new accounting practices, and the firing of our manager and possibly our maintenance staff if a management company comes in. Many residents have no confidence in our attorney, and want the board to hire a new one.The president and several board members stood and argued their positions. The were drowned out by more and more questions, comments and jeers from the membership. People continued to demand transparency and communication, and board members repeated the procedure to fill out a form to get items on the agenda. The problem is, the people's agenda items are put at the end, and recently board meetings have been cut short with several  agenda items completely ignored.
People began addressing questions directly to specific board members, some were pertinent, some were a little off the wall. It appeared as though the president went to each board member standing and told them not to answer any more questions, because one by one they disappeared out the door. By the end of the meeting that asked for board members to LISTEN to us, only two remained in the hall (Hindman and Belba) sitting in the audience, not up front speaking to the group.
The residents were generally polite in their public comments during the meeting. Elaine was wrongly accused of statements made by another candidate during Candidates' Night. She addressed her accuser and remained in the hall.
The irony of the evening is this: the people were asking for communication. Damn near all of the board members present ( Dunphy, Fennessy, Hayes,Kralick, Ridge) responded by walking out on the people they represent. The comments after the meeting were not so polite.. .talk of  secret board meetings on Saturdays, too much board business done by email, and ultimately, let's have a board member recall.
The Board of Directors has a lot of damage control to remediate. Kudos to Dennis Kralick for initiating tonight's informative and exciting Town Hall meeting.

Mail your personal letter requesting a traffic study and mitigation plan  for the Georgetown Project
Case Number FD 11-26
Folio: 130055.0000Tell them who you are, and that we are worried about traffic at our back gate.
to:
City of Tampa
Land Development Coordination
306 East Jackson St, 3E
Tampa, FL 33602

I can't end this without one short little commentary. I think our newly elected board members got an earful tonight. If I'm not mistaken, 5 of our 9 board members have been onboard for 2 years or less.
All of our board need to recognize the importance of maintaining a neighborhood position within the city of Tampa. Bayside West has been that avenue since its inception in 2008 (?) . Our neighbor association president, Jerry Frankhouser has for years attempted to pull Regency Cove into its fold. Not so long ago, we had a position imposed by our board to stay away from "Downtown" because they were the enemy, or highly suspect.
Over the years we have learned that by cooperating with the city and the county, we gain immeasurable rewards. Things like our master gardener who helped us plan Blvd 7, rain barrel workshops and micro-irrigation workshops giving us hundreds of dollars of free materials. And don't forget our grants... to date $5,500 in the last three years.
Regency Cove is not only a wonderful senior citizen community, it is a distinct neighborhood in the city of Tampa, and a neighborhood association by Hillsborough County definitions. I am asking the members of our board to be sensitive and receptive to our governmental agencies. Be proactive, they are our benefactors. You can write the grants in the future. I'm getting a little tired.