CascadeLakesResidents.com

Corruption Report:

April 20, 2023:

Update:  the censure discussed below which was passed by a minority of the board was done without any authority whatsoever.  There is nothing in the governing documents that provide for it and the Board never voted to implement procedures before this minority so voted.  So essentially it was an illegal vote by the minority.

As an aside, Robert’s Rule 39:7 requires a 2/3 vote for such a motion, but this group doesn’t follow Robert’s Rules.  (No motion outside the rules of the governing body can be made without a 2/3 vote of the assembly.) 

So this vote was not only illegal, but this means that the vote is void ab initio, meaning that it has no force and effect, even though they are entering it into the Minutes.  And this doesn’t even address the fact that no rules were broken which would support any such censure.

April 19, 2023:

“Update on Board Confidentiality Resolution,”

“Censure Does Not Include Email Exchanges or Made-Up Nonsense,”

“Misleading Comments by Another Resident,” and

“More Aggressive Residents in the Land of Goons”

This is an update to the below report.

Part I: “Update on Board Confidentiality Resolution”

At the April 19, 2023 Board meeting, the Board Confidentiality Resolution passed 5-2 with Sue and Arthur opposing it.  A careful review of it provides an alternative to resignation from the Board for the predicament it has created for ethical Directors:  the Resolution applies to closed board meetings ONLY; that’s exactly what it says. 

Since the permissible reasons to have such a meeting have been expanded without authority and contrary to statute, and the presence of the lawyer would permit all kinds of closed meetings that we believe are completely improper, Arthur advises he will simply not attend any of those meetings, as he has refused to do in the past. 

The board members who attend will essentially engage in those meetings behind your backs and spend your money without your knowledge, as they have already done in the past, but since the majority of the members voted for this behavior, that’s what you get. 

(Incidentally, I believe I grossly underestimated the amount of extra money you will need to set aside owing to the lack of great fiscal management, but that’s another story.)

And when these other Board members leak the information to their friends as Director Shelly acknowledged at the meeting others were doing, I highly doubt there will be any censure motions or fines or suspensions for them.  For the record, to date, Arthur has never leaked any confidential information to anyone.

Therefore, the resolution will essentially not apply to Arthur and will only expose those attending board members to potential legal liability.

Sue and Arthur both correctly pointed out what I pointed out in my below report: that nowhere does 720.303 state that it includes “other attorney-client communication” as this Resolution falsely states. Arthur cited 720.303 (2)(a) and (2)(b) which contains the limiting language:  pre-litigation communication and personnel ONLY, not “other attorney-client communication.” 

Pat then claimed, “you could say that but I don’t think that’s really true,” at which point Arthur pulled out a copy of the actual statute and replied, “I have the document here: show me where it says that.”  She didn’t, she couldn’t, because it doesn’t. 

Anyway, Arthur won’t attend the illegal closed board meetings, consistent with his refusal to do so in the past, so the potential liability exposure is with those who do. 

Part II. “Censure Does Not Include Email Exchanges or Made-Up Nonsense” and “Misleading Comments by Another Resident”

As for the censure motion, there are four areas identified for potential censure in the document in the Board packet (it’s not confidential; it’s a page from FindHOALaw.com that they literally pulled off the internet, and you can see it, read it, and download it from the Board packet at FirstResidential’s portal).  These are the four identified areas:

1.  breach of fiduciary duties (engaging in improper closed board meetings for example),

2.  improper or offensive conduct (not writings; just conduct),

3.  conflicts of interest (usually financial in nature), and

4.  disruption of board meetings (as other board members have done in the past, but also not applicable to email exchanges). 

The desire to censure Arthur for truthful email exchanges is specifically not one of those permissible categories.  Therefore, there is no authority to censure a director for truthful email exchanges or for any email exchanges, regardless of their veracity.

Shelly and Bob abstained from this thoroughly dishonest motion to censure Arthur; Sue and Arthur opposed it.  Jeff, Richard, and Pat voted for it, which was no surprise at all given their past conduct and actions. 

Jeff gave what he referred to as “additional reasons” that were not supported by evidence or which are not subject to censure on their face: 

1.  He claimed Arthur answered a resident’s ticket to the Board without consent of four board members. 

Response:  the ticket was specifically directed and addressed to Arthur, was also about me personally, and about emails the resident was receiving from me through Arthur’s personal gmail account, and Arthur answered for himself alone, stating we would remove the man from the email list (even though the man didn’t request that relief).  Arthur did not invoke the Board in his response. 

It was sent from Arthur’s personal account and signed by Arthur alone, and specifically not as a director, and Arthur gave the other Board members the courtesy of cc’ing them as opposed to just simply responding to the man without any cc’s, which he also could have done, since it involved removing the man from my email list, which had nothing to do with the Board.  So much for courtesy. 

2.  Jeff then claimed nonsensically that Arthur’s sending out emails to my contact list leads residents to believe they’re from the Board. 

Response:  This is not only nonsense but it is demonstrably untrue.  What Jeff is essentially implying is that no Board member should ever email a resident, period, because the resident might think it was official board business.  It’s so silly that it just reinforces the maliciousness of their actions.

The emails in question came from Arthur’s personal account and every single one of them, without exception, says “From Vicki Roberts” right on top and before you decide if you want to click on the link to read the report.  (I can’t send so many at one time from my account but Gmail will allow it, which cuts down on the time very significantly.)

This is the same resident who sent the ticket on the very same issue referenced above.  This resident also mentioned the same thing during the resident input session. 

He sat with the predator, Chick Coletta, in the front row of the Board meeting, and then after the meeting the two of them were discussing their Monday night poker game in the hallway outside the ballroom, perhaps the same poker game from which former board director Harvey is forever banished for being ethical (see below report). 

And this same guy, their “plant,” has been receiving these same emails for years and never said a peep until suddenly now when they made up this censure motion.  So this guy’s their operative and this smells like yet another set-up.

This fellow claimed in a most misleading and dishonest way that Arthur was misleading when Arthur was sending out emails from his personal Gmail account on my behalf, which this man has been receiving without comment for years. 

Again, it is a fact that every single one of those emails literally says “From Vicki Roberts” at the very top and it’s clear and unequivocal, and you see that first, before you decide to click on the link or not to see the report.  So this complaint is literally made up.

We decided to promptly remove him from my email list.  In my opinion, he deliberately made up these misleading and untrue statements, and it wouldn’t surprise me if his poker buddy put him up to it.  It’s entirely consistent with my below report on the behavior of members in this community.

3.  Jeff claimed that another reason for wanting to censure Arthur was that Arthur was “sharing internal board communications with his wife.”  The use of the word “internal” is interesting because none of that is “privileged.”  There’s a huge difference between “privileged” and everything else, which is not privileged.  And what is he even talking about?  Who knows; it’s just more made-up bunk.

4.  He claimed that my Election Report stated it was an official report of the HOA when in fact that is demonstrably false: it clearly states it’s the official report of the News Site, to wit, CascadeLakesResidents.com, which it is. 

So this is more made-up nonsense, because in fact it was signed solely by me.  So why is this a reason to censure a board member for an election report put out by someone else, in this case, his wife?  Again, it’s more made-up garbage.

Director Shelly noted that “other board members are guilty of giving out information that is privileged.” By way of contrast, in fact Arthur never did that; he has never attended any closed board meeting with the lawyer except for one on a foreclosure, and that was public record once it was filed with the Palm Beach County Clerk’s office.

In fact, I got all of my information on that foreclosure directly from the clerk’s website, and the case document tab on that website, which contains all the exhibits. Anyone can visit the clerk’s website, put Cascade Lakes into the search engine, and every single case will pop up, with all filings and documents. 

Shelly noted that other Board members are “guilty” of giving out “privileged” information on other matters, which means that it was several of those who met with the HOA lawyer, not Arthur who wasn’t there, and the only “privileged” information that could be claimed would be discussions with the lawyer about pre-litigation and personnel matters. 

Sue noted that she has definitive proof that certain Board members (again, not Arthur) took certain actions that “would cause a reasonable person to censure” those other board members (again, not Arthur).

So this was a retroactive censure without any basis therefor and was a complete set up, once again.  We’ve come to expect nothing less from these dishonest people.  Four Board members did not vote for this dishonest censure (Sue, Arthur, Shelly, and Bob), and that’s a majority of the Board, but because the latter two abstained, it passed 3-2-2. 

So it’s a shame that the majority of the Board did not vote for this but yet it passed because two of them abstained.  So a minority of the Board controlled this motion.  Perhaps one of you abstainers will revisit this next month and vote the more appropriate “no,” thus rescinding this bogus censure, but I won’t hold my breath. Surprise me, Shelly and Bob.

Part III: “More Aggressive Residents in the Land of Goons”

At the end of the board meeting, Steve Schlosser, husband of Jane Krive (the ranting, cursing woman referenced in the main report below), provocatively gave owner George Klein, who was sitting behind me and minding his own business, the middle finger from across the room. 

Thereafter, when I was making my way to the exit, both Steve and his wife, the ill-tempered and overly aggressive Ms. Krive, came at me physically as I was trying to leave.

This is the second time she has come at me physically, the first time (referenced in the main report below) was when she had to be restrained by another man as she was wagging her finger in my face as I was seated in a private home where she wasn’t invited and crashed the event, and she screamed at me, “you’re a f***ing c***!”. 

This woman is on the Grievance Committee, so good luck there, too, unless your name is Chick Coletta, then you’re good to go.

So this time when the ill-tempered and overly aggressive Ms. Krive physically went at me and her husband then followed suit, also coming at me, I opened my purse and took out my pepper spray and warned them both several times to back off.  I had purchased the pepper spray to keep the other predator, Chick Coletta, at bay, after he repeatedly stalked me at board meetings.

The switch to the small cannister was in the locked position at that time.  Not only did they repeatedly ignore my multiple warnings to back off and get away from me, as I was backing up myself to try and distance myself from them, Ms. Krive continued to taunt and mock me, saying, “oh, you have a taser?” as she was doing a little dance-like maneuver while continuing to approach me. 

At that point, Arthur put his hand out and told Ms. Krive to back off, and I then gave them both another warning: “I’m now unlocking it; BACK OFF.”  All of this was going on as we were trying to leave the ballroom.  At one point, Steve, the husband, blocked my exit and the HOA president, Jeff Green, had made his way over to the exit, and I looked at him and said, “hey, he’s not letting me leave, control this situation.” 

Apparently then Schlosser moved outside the ballroom a little bit away from the exit and then Jeff said, “you can go now.”  (Gee, thanks.)

I really didn’t expect to have to take out the pepper spray for others, but now I know, so it’s a good thing I have it with me.  Do I need to hire an armed guard?  Because maybe a cop won’t be as forbearing and patient as I have been. 

I can only imagine how the widow felt when she was cornered and horribly harassed by Chick and two other men after the July 20, 2022 Board meeting (see link to that July 21, 2022 CL-Update below entitled, “Goons Galore? Alleged Serious Harassment of a Widowed Owner by Several Male Residents Including One Self-Proclaimed ‘Number One Bully’ After the July 20, 2022 Board Meeting”).

The rest of my below report other than the above updates stands as reported.

********************************************************************

April 17, 2023:  

“More Secrecy: Just Shut Up and Pay Your Dues,”

“A Censure for One’s Honesty,”

“Potential Individual Board Member Liability,”

“Don’t Break the Mob’s Omertà,” and

“Where are the Board Meeting Highlights?”

The editorial comments herein are the opinion of the scribe below based on reported and documented facts.  There is an extensive reported history, none of which has ever been refuted or challenged (facts don’t lie, just people do). 

Part I.  “More Secrecy: Just Shut Up and Pay Your Dues,” “A Censure for One’s Honesty,” and “Potential Individual Board Member Liability”

The agenda for the next Board meeting on Wednesday, April 19, 2023 contains two predictable motions: one is a board confidentiality resolution and one is to censure a Director (presumably Arthur).  This agenda was released to the community on Monday morning, April 17, 2023.

The first motion (board confidentiality resolution) is for more secrecy and less transparency.  This is exactly what the majority of members voted for.  I promised you this would happen, and voilà! – it’s on the very first agenda of the “new” (not so new) Board. 

So now you will know even less than before.  The new edict is the equivalent of “pay your dues and shut up.”  That’s what the majority voted for and that’s what you’re getting.

The second motion is presumably to censure Director Arthur for his honesty, and that will be spun into false and fraudulent claims of the opposite of honesty.  This was entirely predictable.  Again, the majority voted for this, so there’s no surprise here either.

Arthur has a high standard when it comes to his fiduciary duty to the community, and by forcing him into silence under threat of fines and suspensions, which this resolution provides for, the majority of this board is directly and actively interfering with his fiduciary duty to you, the members.

To the extent that the HOA lawyer may have drafted, participated, and conspired with them in this endeavor, draw your own conclusions about that law firm. 

The same is true about forcing a board member into silence under threat of formal censure for fulfilling his fiduciary duty to you, the community.

Because of this direct and active interference with Arthur’s fiduciary duty to you, the members, and also because Arthur does not want the potential liability exposure that the majority of the Board members are subjecting all Board members to based on their continued actions, if these corrupt motions pass, he will be tendering his resignation because the Errors & Omissions Insurance they all have which the members pay for doesn’t cover intentional malfeasance and this group routinely operates in a manner inconsistent with rules, statutes, and good faith.

After careful contemplation, Arthur determined, and I concurred, that his continued position on this Board would be a liability risk that he is not willing to take:  the attorney for any member, resident, and/or vendor in a potential future lawsuit would surely name all directors as individual defendants for the actions of the majority of the Board, and in the case of intentional misconduct, the insurance carrier would likely deny coverage, which means the Board members could be personally, jointly, and severally liable for any judgment plus attorneys fees which also potentially wouldn’t be covered.

Other Board members should also consider resigning immediately so as to insulate themselves from this potential and very real liability due to the actions of the four Board members who hold the majority controlling interest in all Board matters and decisions.  If you’re a board member and you go along with this corruption moving forward, and you actively participate as a Board member under this new resolution, then in my opinion you’re just as corrupt and should be equally liable in potential future litigation.

This is especially urgent due to this new board confidentiality resolution, which imposes fines and suspensions for speaking the truth, following the law and the rules, and fulfilling your fiduciary duty to the members, and which flies in the face of the controlling statute (720.303) which clearly and strictly limits closed (secret) meetings of the board with legal counsel to attorney-client discussions regarding pending litigation and personnel only. 

The statute specifically does not say any other communication with the lawyer is allowed in a closed meeting: just those two specific categories are permitted.  That’s it, and it’s in plain English, so you don’t need to be a rocket scientist, linguist, lawyer, or Nobel Prize winner to understand it.

“Board confidentiality” in this case is just doublespeak for doing more things behind the members’ backs.  This type of resolution in part moots the need for an open Board meeting because all they have to do under this resolution is have the lawyer on the phone and they can make all kinds of decisions without your knowledge, not to mention charging you for the legal fees for those phone calls. 

And this law firm also advised the Board to have “sealed Minutes” (contrary to 720.303) for those closed meetings, so any financial decisions made behind your backs are forever hidden from you.  The members lose, and the law firm wins (they created a scenario where their services are utilized much more and all at your expense). 

And indeed this exact scenario has already played out in the past, so this wouldn’t be the first time the statute was ignored and this made-up procedure was used, and we’ve called out this practice on this News Site previously.

We never sued the HOA for all the alleged malfeasance at the top, contrary to the false claims made by some that we did, because while we would have surely been successful, we didn’t want to cost the innocent members money in having to pay your losing HOA’s legal fees plus our legal fees as the prevailing party.

But somebody else might not be so concerned, and separately, if the Board takes malicious legal action against us, we will vigorously defend against it as well. 

The Boca View Condominium Association is in that predicament right now: they owe their losing counsel about a half a million dollars and they owe the successful homeowner’s counsel about the same.  The special assessment to pay those fees per unit owner in that community is going to be approximately $1,000,000 divided by 72 units = $13,888.89 per unit.  That’s real, folks: Palm Beach County Case No:  50-2020-CA-000251-XXXX-MB.

This “confidentiality” resolution states that if these four controlling board members so determine, they can essentially declare a made-up violation against a fellow director and then fine and/or suspend him/her from the common areas, which would then invite a legal challenge. 

This was undoubtedly and inartfully drafted by the law firm: the resolution states in the beginning that “720.303, Florida Statutes, provides” that the Board can meet in closed session with legal counsel to discuss “other attorney-client privileged communications” in addition to pending litigation and personnel matters (the HOA has no personnel). 

They added the “other attorney-client privileged communications” phrase because it’s not in the statute even though they specifically attribute it to the statute.  The statute is very specific and limits closed board meetings with counsel to pre-litigation and personnel matters only, not “other attorney-client privileged communications.” And it doesn’t mean you can create a legal issue and then later claim that it was pre-litigation.

Claiming in a formal resolution that the statute says something it clearly doesn’t say, and then using that false claim as the basis for other action permitted by the resolution, doesn’t surprise me at all given the history of the advice and actions taken by the HOA’s law firm.

Here’s the simple take-away: they don’t want any other director calling out their corruption, they’re angry at Arthur for calling out their corruption, and that’s what this is really about.

So the rest of you remaining board members take note: you better shut your traps or else.  When these four directors do something illegal or improper going forward, you better be quiet or you may be suspended and/or fined and/or censured. 

Our advice is to get out now and save yourselves from both the potential liability exposure and from this abusive dictatorial regime, unless you like corruption, being abused, and personal liability exposure, and you’re willing to compromise your ethics, your integrity, and your fiduciary responsibility to the community, and you’re willing to kiss the ring and observe the “omertà” (code of silence).

By the way, you pickleball club members who voted for this vile group at the top have been played: you’ll never get hard courts.  Just wait, watch, and see, and dream on.  The survey they are about to distribute to the community will come back with little interest in the large assessment claimed necessary for hard courts and because of this the Board will likely not even put it out for a community vote, claiming, “what’s the point, the people don’t want it.”

The Dream Team that Arthur, your #1 player and whom many of you call “the gentleman of the courts,” recruited based on their like-minded high ethics and integrity, would have put it to a vote within 60 days and would have marketed it with you for the benefit of the entire community, and they were the people you voted against. 

So go ahead and knock yourselves out because it will all be for naught, which you will see soon enough.  And you have no one to blame but yourselves, so I have zero sympathy for you.  You will get exactly what you voted for: nothing.

This News Site’s 2023 Election Report provides a recap of a multitude of documented troubling behavior and actions of some of these current leaders of the community as do the many synopses, highlights, and CL-Updates on this News Site. 

Part II. “Don’t Break the Mob’s Omertà”

And now I’m going to show you once again how corrupt these people really are with the case of the former board member and the resident predator, and this is something you would never know about once this Board Confidentiality Resolution passes on Wednesday, April 19, 2023.  That is why I’m bringing it to you now, two days before the Board meeting, and before the resolution passes. 

The predator, Chick Coletta, is the same goon who, along with two other cowards, allegedly mercilessly and viciously harassed a widowed owner after the July 20, 2022 board meeting (see July 21, 2022 CL-Update). 

He’s the same goon who sent me numerous profanity-laced death wish emails. 

He’s the same public menace who sent unsolicited pornographic videos via email to another resident who dared to call out the bad behavior of the predator’s “friends” who are in positions of power within the community.

The predator’s wife, along with another resident goon, rigged the pickleball ladder competition back on August 14, 2021 which resulted in their demotions on the ladder and suspensions from play for two weeks (see August 18, 2021 synopsis entitled in part, “Who Rigged the Pickleball Ladder Competition and Why?”). 

At the last election in March 2023, the majority of people voted for corruption and voted for a mafia-style governmental structure.  Think that’s a bit strong?  Proof that it’s not: 

The former board member, Harvey Ginsberg, just lost the election, but at the last board meeting of his term (March 15, 2023), he apparently committed the cardinal sin of doing the ethical thing by mentioning previous message board violations for this well-known predator, Sylvester Coletta aka Chick Coletta, a resident (non-owner) who repeatedly violates the message board Terms of Service and has done so multiple times in the past.

The webmasters and other board members were counting on the fact that the violator’s prior violations would not be mentioned.  They were furious that this former board member did the ethical thing by applying the rules fairly and reminding everyone of the prior violations which therefore increased the Message Board suspension time significantly.

When the now former board member mentioned this, they were in a pickle, because now it was publicized that this non-owner/predator, Chick Coletta, was in fact a serial Message Board violator. 

The former board member’s ethical act resulted in the resident/non-owner’s proper two-year suspension per the Terms of Service instead of the corrupt 60 days the webmasters made up and publicly requested (because they were intentionally ignoring the previous violations which would have upped the penalty to the proper two-year suspension).

They all were trying to protect their henchman. They loved his Message Board hits, especially because so many of them were directed at me personally (calling me a bitch, calling me an idiot, saying I should use glue stick instead of chap stick, etc.).  Other posts of his were improperly political, and still others were just plain vile. 

All of them violated on their face various sections of the HOA website’s Terms of Service.  It was an easy call on all accounts and the board was backed into a corner about it.  That’s why the president of the HOA even asked at the end of that Board meeting if the Board wanted to suspend all violations that they just voted for reluctantly to try and save his henchman. 

That didn’t happen, but in the land of corruption, predictably, the problem was “fixed” as described below.

True to form, on April 3, 2023, the thoroughly biased Grievance Committee found no violations, so he is fully reinstated, which is completely consistent with the corruption here, since on their face, his posts were clearly abhorrent, predatory, and violative of multiple rules.

So this predator was given a complete pass and given license to continue attacking other residents at his pleasure, and this actually puts the HOA at potential risk for liability, because it’s clearly designed to permit continued predatory behavior in and on the common areas. 

But again, the majority of you voted for this corruption, and frankly, this just adds to the reputation of this community as a low-class den of thugs run by mostly low-class bottom dwellers and their supportive minions.

By the way, one of the members of this mostly corrupt Grievance Committee, Jane Krive, was the woman who rushed at me in a private home (prior to the election) on March 12, 2023 where she crashed that “meet and greet the candidates” event without an invitation, and with her finger wagging in my face, screamed at me, “you’re a f***ing c***!”

At that point in time, a man rushed to restrain her, grabbed her in a bear hug from behind, and dragged her physically away from me where I was seated on a chair. 

As a postscript to that story, my only response to her was a calm observation, “you know, when you don’t smile, you’re really quite ugly.”  With that she dropped her jaw, gasped, and was removed from the room by the man who was lugging her away.

So, yes, it makes perfect sense that the predator’s rule-breaking posts would be applauded and he would be reinstated by this mostly corrupt committee with the ill-tempered Ms. Krive on it. 

The predator’s excuse to the committee, emailed by the committee chairperson to the property manager who then forwarded that email to the Board, was that he was responding to “the allegations of Vicki Roberts.”  What allegations?  This is made up propaganda and is manipulative, false, and corrupt. 

And what does that have to do with what he posts which on their face violated the rules?  Since when is that a permissible rationale to violate rules or get a pass for violating the rules?  Well, in the land of low-class thugs and pond scum, it is.

The Grievance Committee’s hearings and decisions are not confidential: nowhere in the statute (720.305) or in the HOA’s governing documents does it state that this committee’s hearings and decisions are confidential. 

During his grievance hearing, the predator purportedly “apologized” according to the Chairperson’s email to the property manager which was forwarded to the Board.  To whom did he apologize?  To his friends on the committee? 

And so what? Is that all it takes to get relief from this official HOA committee?  No, only if you’re the predator and you agree to continue to do their bidding.  Does anyone foolishly believe that this doesn’t potentially put the HOA itself at risk?

And if one apologizes, that necessarily means that one is in the wrong; why else apologize if you’re not guilty?  So if one is in the wrong, why does the committee find no violation, when the apology is the equivalent of an admission of one or more violations? 

The answer again is the same:  corruption reigns supreme in Cascade Lakes, the land of low-class thugs.  But back to the so-called apology for a second.  In the words of poet Kalen Dion:

“The words ‘I’m sorry’ are a formal declaration of intent.  Changed behavior is the actual apology.”

As far as this repetitive predator is concerned, in my opinion, nobody can hold their breath that long, i.e., forever, waiting for any change.  So it’s most certainly a hollow, empty apology which is the equivalent of no apology, or it’s lip service with a wink at best.

Another Message Board poster, who is not part of their mob, received violations for innocuous posts and was suspended for two years.  Had he been a member of their mob, he would have surely received a pass, because nothing he wrote violated anything.  (This is the resident to whom predator Chick Coletta sent unsolicited pornographic videos via email.)

But alas, the innocuous poster will lose his appeal, because he’s not their henchman and he dares to call out corruption which he witnesses and he also tries to correct false statements made and distributed by corrupt leaders in the community. 

And any apology from him, while unnecessary because he did nothing wrong, would fall on deaf ears.  Again, if you’re living in a den of low-class thugs, this is what you get.

But back to the former board member. 

Because of that ethical act, the now former board member was told that he broke the “omertà” (Mafia code of silence) by mentioning the predator’s previous violations instead of remaining mum (so that the perpetrator would only get an improper made up 60-day suspension instead of two years as required by the rules applicable to everyone else). 

This was, of course, before the Grievance Committee “fixed” the problem.

This unforgivable sin of breaking the “omertà” was confirmed by two independent inside sources (also known as canary singers), so the code of silence is apparently not so silent after all.

Clearly the Grievance Committee understands and follows the “omertà.”  How many of the members of this committee received supportive phone calls from others in leadership positions in the community urging them to ignore the rules and reward the predator?  

Again back to the former board member:  what was the former board member’s punishment for this act of integrity and honesty?  He was henceforth blacklisted from all poker and domino games in which he had participated for years.  He can never play with them again.  He’s permanently cast out.  He’s dead to them.

His playmates all apparently agreed to his punishment of being permanently blacklisted.  They used the Mafia term that he “broke the omertà,” not me; I’m just reporting what they purportedly said.  And his permanent banishment was confirmed by more than one inside source.

This serial Message Board violator also posted multiple messages during that Board meeting after this went down, instructing people not to vote for this incumbent.  This former board member lost by a wide margin.  Those outrageous and violative posts were never referred to the Board for action and the clear message to him is to continue as their number one bully, henchman, and pervert.

So the term “mafia-style” governmental structure is well earned, because there is a clear mob here and there is the clear use of the mob phrase “omertà.” 

The majority of voters, therefore, deserves what they get: corruption and a mafia-style governmental structure.  After all, they voted for it, and I think you should give people exactly what they voted for; it’s only fair, and as you all know, I’m a big proponent of fairness.  But with those choices come consequences, which are fully earned.

They were given clear choices to vote for people with experience who possessed ethics, integrity, and honesty, and who wanted openness, transparency, and fairness; all of those stellar, high class, educated and good will candidates were roundly rejected.

Please understand that because the majority voted the way it did, it also voted for the community reputation earned as a result of it.  This community was given choices.  It was given a choice between integrity and corruption; it did not choose integrity.  It did not choose ethics; it chose dishonesty.  It did not choose transparency; it chose secrecy.

It also did not choose good financial stewardship; it chose giving vendor employees secret raises outside of contracts, giving vendors more money than they originally agreed to accept, lack of negotiation, lack of competitive bidding, private board/vendor parties, wasteful spending on lawyers, and the like. That’s what the majority actually voted for.  

The apathy of many also contributed to this state of affairs: those who didn’t vote allowed these black prevailing winds to continue and flourish.  Apathy is the nectar of the corrupt. 

Others were snookered by devilish lies and improper electioneering. 

Still others enjoy the mafia-style governmental structure because they feel and like the coziness of the corrupt Cascade Lakes family. They were and are perfectly willing to sell out whatever ethics they may have had so they can fit in, and they make nonsense excuses to justify the conduct and behavior of their overlords.

They dutifully acquiesce to instructions on with whom to socialize, with whom to demonize, and for whom to vote.

At the end of the day, however, you’re all responsible for your own votes and your own independent research and thought, so you must own your votes and all the consequences of your choices.

So, if some of you are going to spend the next 25 or so years here, we’ve calculated it’s going to cost at least, conservatively, an extra $50,000 more than it should if there existed good and proper management of your money, so put at least that amount aside right now or start a savings account for it because you’re going to need it. 

If you can afford it, great; if you cannot afford it, and you voted for this, you have no one to blame but yourselves for having to downsize and ultimately move. Not that anyone will care, because ultimately, they won’t.  They’ll say, “miss you!” and then forget about you.  Because remember, once you leave the mob, you’re essentially dead to them, and they will immediately recruit your replacement from the incoming new owners.

After almost four years of our unwavering service and devotion to try and make Cascade Lakes an honest, ethical, transparent, and honorable place to live, the majority doesn’t want any of that. 

In fact, do you know what they say if you speak up and voice your opinion or raise an objection?  True to their mob mentality and thuggery, they tell you to “get the f*** out of Cascade Lakes.” 

That exact phrase was used multiple times by, ironically, a non-owner, the aforementioned predator who repeatedly gets passes for his vile behavior, because that’s what pond scum does: it rewards other pond scum. 

Therefore, we’ve decided to turn our backs on the majority, and believe me, it’s a heck of a lot less work and expense for me personally (cartoon licenses and website maintenance are expensive, and the almost four-year endeavor was extraordinarily labor intensive). 

Happily, we live on the berm and our backyard faces away from Cascade Lakes and toward a beautiful view of a peaceful and gorgeous nature preserve.  For us, the majority of Cascade Lakes effectively no longer exists other than to pay our overly bloated maintenance dues.

When honesty, openness, transparency, fairness, goodness, ethics, and integrity are not of interest to the majority of voters, and are not appreciated or wanted, those who possess those qualities shouldn’t waste any more of their time on those who don’t.

Those who cherish good values and are interested in living in a fair and open community with nice, decent, and honorable people, or who are on a fixed budget, should probably look elsewhere if they’re not already here.

If you are here, and you wish to and are financially able to stay here under the existing circumstances, and you do possess those inherent good qualities, come on over to the light side where we and others will welcome you with open arms into the other Cascade Lakes, aka CLASSY - Cascade Lakes Alternative Social Society of Youngsters. 

Send me an email and if you possess the values of this minority group, I will add you to the list. This isn’t bitterness: this is reality. Our CLASSY group is a fun group of honest and honorable people who are very happy and living our best lives here in Florida!  We welcome like-minded individuals to join us.

Moving forward, the corruption, naturally, continues, and they wasted no time: they invited all of you to attend a Committee Expo on Monday, April 10, 2023, but unlike past years, there were no sign-up sheets or opportunities for anyone to seek Chairmanship positions on any committees.  Why not?

Answer: because the fix was already in.  So if you were interested, forget it.  In fact, on the previous Friday, April 7, 2023, the property manager sent an email to the Board with an attached list of the chosen Committee Chairs (chosen privately by a majority of the board apparently in secret and without your knowledge the week previous to the Expo). 

If you dared to mention your desire to be a chairperson of a committee, it’s potentially an invitation to be a target as a possible threat to the “real” (previously chosen) Chairs and their friends.  It actually invites new targets for bullying and blacklisting.

Oh, and did you say you had specific expertise in a particular area which is the focus of a particular committee?  Irrelevant, and actually more onerous for you, because then you’re an even greater threat because they don’t want to be challenged as to anything they do.

And by the way, four Chair positions are held by a husband-and-wife duo (three and one respectively), there’s two other husband-wife duos occupying four other Chair positions, and two additional individuals with two Chair positions each.

That’s a total of 12 out of 28 Chair positions occupied by this elite little gang of 8 people, or almost 43% of the total, and 75% of them are married to each other/other Chairs (six out of eight of them).  And three of them were former Board members.  So, there really isn’t much room for, or interest in, new blood. 

But again, the majority of you voted for this, so you get what you voted for.  There is no doubt in my mind that there will be months and years of more corruption coming down the road because that’s business as usual in Cascade Lakes (but most of you will now never know about it, and perhaps don’t care anyway).

In fact, there was rarely a month that went by where this News Site did not uncover something secretive and/or improper: this website’s almost four-year long record of reports with supporting documentation establishes and proves this fact.

The majority of you have now voted not to know about it going forward (also known as an ostrich’s head in the sand preference).  You voted for continued secrecy instead of transparency. 

Indeed, if not for this News Site, you never would have known about the above-referenced secret raises to the management company employees outside their contract, for example.  The treasurer will just tell you, “it’s in the budget” because backing into budgets is another example of poor fiscal management.

You also voted for lack of ethics, lack of integrity in addition to lack of great fiscal management.  So get out your checkbooks and continue to play cluelessly (or in some cases intentionally) at your favorite watering holes, and life will go on. 

In the meantime, the other Cascade Lakes, CLASSY, welcomes anyone and everyone who is not ethically challenged and who doesn’t espouse such corruption and who rejects bullying, blacklisting, and other predatory behavior which apparently is the norm for the main Cascade Lakes.

Part III.  “Where are the Board Meeting Highlights?”

There were a number of haters who asked me to continue preparing board meeting highlights but to leave out my opinion.  So, in other words, I should dutifully work for the mob and just print a sanitized version of essentially what they want to read and what they want the rest of you to read.  No thanks.

If someone else takes up the helm to produce board meeting highlights for you, and they’re a member of the mob, the chances of your receiving accurate reports are, in my opinion, next to nil.  So go ahead and fool yourselves. 

And those are your board meeting highlights and what this place is really like, and that’s really all you need to know about Cascade Lakes. 

  Your faithful scribe,

  Vicki Roberts

Hyperlinks:                                              

1.  Contact Us page has been updated.

2.  2023 Election Report

3.  July 21, 2022 CL-Update entitled, “Goons Galore?  Alleged Serious Harassment of a Widowed Owner by Several Male Residents Including One Self-Proclaimed ‘Number One Bully’ After the July 20, 2022 Board Meeting”

4.  August 18, 2021 synopsis entitled in part, “Who Rigged the Pickleball Ladder Competition and Why?”

5. “Explosive: Lies Exposed, A Smoking Gun, and Vindication:” June 15, 2022 Board meeting