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St.Augustine Record 
(11-4-2000)

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Report Annual Meeting 2000
and some follow-up Comments!

The Annual Meeting of the Oakbrook Property Owners Association took place on 10-26-2000 at 6 p.m. in the Oakbrook Clubhouse. All five Directors of the Board were present, but there was no quorum, since only 52 lot-owners were represented either in person or by proxy.
The actual meeting started at 6.39 p.m. with the Committee Reports.
All Committees reported, but without any surprising news.
Even if you're involved, it's really hard to keep track of the members of all the committees. The members seem to be changing permanently and while one resigns, the other one rejoins. Who knows?
The fencing around the Pool will be delayed for another four weeks due to wrong delivery by the factory.
There is still talk about a locking security device for the pool-entrance and it was confirmed that the cost for this device, Earl Kratzer is obviously pushing for, will be around $ 15.000.00 !
Easy locking devices, which will be sufficient according to County Code, are available for a few hundred dollar! 
The Code Enforcement Committee has, among other little issues, problems with the pets, as announced. 
My opinion: there is a leash-law, not only in Oakbrook, but as well in the County! Nevertheless dogs are running around in Oakbrook, unsupervised by any owner. There is a permanent problem with dogs, supervised and on the leash,  who use residents' mailboxes to mark their territory. The easements in front of the lots are being used to do the necessary business. Even it's an easement, the owners have to take care of maintaining these lawns according to the deed restrictions. It's no fun, when these kind of things come flying out of your lawn-mower or cleaning it from the blades later on. How about a little courtesy here ?
After nearly all committee reports had been heard it was announced that there was a quorum in the meanwhile, since some of the parties present went to neighbors to get proxies.
The election of the new Board-Representative on the Board of Directors was unanimous. Lee Straus was nominated and elected to serve on the Board for the next year. 
In my opinion Lee deserves the help and support of all homeowners here in Oakbrook. From my own experience I can assure you that it's not easy to sit on a Board, where 4 developer-appointed directors try to do their own little deals. The former excuse used in my case by the developer and his associates is not valid for Lee, since she is not a member of the OHG. Let's see, if now all the information required by Statutes is forwarded to Lee in a timely manner and no more decisions being made behind closed doors, as it has been the case with the purchase of the surveillance cameras, which turned out to be just another waste of money!
The Annual Meeting was adjourned at 7.30 p.m.
Please support Lee's efforts to make Oakbrook a better place to live!

 
Some Food for Thought !

Have you ever thought about the possibility that our developer may entertain the idea to sell out and leave? It has happened before!
The model-homes have been sold to private parties, there is in the moment no sales-office here in Oakbrook and the lady, who manned the office in the Club-House, is no longer there. There is a call for volunteers to fill the vacancy in this office, but please consider that the telephone in the Clubhouse is still in the name of the developer and was used to take care of his daily business. Are these volunteers supposed to take over for the developer-paid secretary?
The idea of having our own Association office, where may be twice a week a volunteer is present and can take care of business, is great. It would definitely help homeowners to voice their problems, ask for help or make aware of necessary repairs etc.
But shouldn't we have our own telephone-number and make sure that it is used for Association business only? During the time, when the office is not manned by volunteers, an answering machine could be used to leave messages.
I am sure that this solution will reduce our utility-cost in the Club-House by quite a margin, considering that before air-condition was running all day, sometimes with doors wide open, and toilets being used by all kinds of people.
If this is being done properly, we will definitely see a serious decrease in cost!
As to the possibility of the developer selling out and leaving?
Have you ever thought about what could happen here in Oakbrook, if this would be the case? Do you know that the deeds to Clubhouse, Recreation-area incl. pool, Guardhouse, the so-called family playground and the roads are still in the name of the developer, despite the fact that the Association is paying property-taxes, maintenance and repairs for these so-called common grounds?
Did you hear the story about a sub-division near Tampa, where the developer told the association-members, who paid all the years for tax and maintenance, that they could buy the Clubhouse for about 3-times the estimated value or he would sell it to an interested party for use as a restaurant? 
Some of the roads in our community will soon need repairs as is very obvious when walking our streets. Ever considered cost for road-repairs? The reserves in our Association funds are definitely not sufficient for larger repairs.
Even if our deed-restrictions state that the monthly dues can't be increased until 2002 and then only by 10% at a time, there is a possibility of a special assessment, if need be! If you ever lived in a Condo-Association you may know that the Board can vote on a so-called special assessment for necessary repairs etc. It happens all the time all over Florida and many homeowners are surprised, when they realize that the board can put a lien on their property, if this assessment is not paid within a short period of time!
I am not saying: this is going to happen here in Oakbrook! But it happened to other home-owners here in Florida in similar situations!
Let's just hope that nothing like that will happen here!