A Timeline of Mismanagement and Fear

By Ron Duncan with a noted assist from Don Smaltz

No one wants The Club at ArrowCreek to fail. However, the high handed manner that the ArrowCreek Home Owners’ Association (ACHOA) Board of Directors (BOD) has approached the failings of the previous club has not drawn the community together as someone, not clear who, wanted or desired. The below set of events and timeline portray a stark indictment of the Elected ‘volunteers’ of the ACHOA BOD. You will not find a ‘concern’ for property values until a YEAR after it was decided to acquire the Golf club. Now, we find ourselves being told that the ‘best thing’ for our property is to buy the land and then determine what to do with the 405 undeveloped acres of the golf course, the courses actually take up only ~120 acres of the FOA property. The best ALTERNATIVE has always been to leave it in private hands as there are way too many costs associated with owning the additional acreage, not the least of which would be fire prevention and potential clean-up of any toxins used while it was part of the golf course. Other factors that have bothered many in our community is the need, IF the ACHOA owns the property, to cover any bank and tax obligations should the property not be able to cover these obligations. Since we will not be able to dispose of this property at a ‘profit,’ what’s the point of purchasing it?

There is NO vision, other than the subdivision to pay through the nose, to sustain a losing golf course.

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28 July 2015 – ACHOA Communications Committee holds a Realtor forum. Paul Burkett states, in his opening remarks, that there is “no deal or proposition” at this time. The meeting is merely to provide the community information on the real estate market. NOTE: No one asked if there was/is a ‘proposal’ at this time. Technically the speaker did not lie.

21 July 2015 – Communications Committee meeting – Norm Reeder in opening remarks says “there is no deal or proposition at this time.” Norm is one of the negotiators with the FOA.

9 June 2015 – ACHOA BOD meeting – The HOA is looking at the option of the HOA buying the golf course and leasing it to an entity to run. The holdup has been getting financials from Arnold Palmer Management and FOA. The information should be forthcoming and digested within a month or so. The board will come up with proposals for the options, but NOT the Option of doing ‘NOTHING.’

31 May 2015 – Letter of Intent (LOI) to purchase the Club at AC and form a joint venture expired. No attempt was made to renew it or develop a new version and bring it forward to the ACHOA Board on 9 June 2015.

27 April 2015 – From Maddox, Segerblom and Canepa LLP Billing Statement Line Item – Receive, review and respond to e-mail from Board of Directors regarding ballot proposal; review same; respond to e-mail regarding same.

14 April 2015 – ACHOA BOD meeting – Rich Kenney “The Communications Committee received a home value impact literature study:

  • It supports the previous research conclusion that a viable golf club enhances community home values
  • Consequently, we continue to look at actions that will ensure a sustainable golf club operation at a reasonable cost
    • The Committee has researched and discussed an alternative approach:
      • HOA acquires the club property and then leases it to Arnold Palmer Golf
      • Could potentially minimize some of the issues associated with the joint venture approach
      • Had preliminary discussions with FOA and APGM, but too early to determine if financially or structurally feasible
    • One of several alternatives that need to be investigated

NOTE: There is NO mention of an NDA being signed to further this investigation.

6 April 2015 – ACHOA BOD President signs a Non-Disclosure Agreement with Friends of ArrowCreek (FOA). Agreement does not cover data prior to 6 April nor does it cover any ‘negotiations’ with the FOA. BOD still maintains, in spite of being presented facts to the contrary, that ArrowCreek (AC) property values would be significantly impacted by a closure of the privately held golf course.

24 February 2015 – ACHOA Board Meeting –
Rick Hsu – Spoke to agenda Item 3(a)(i) – The Articles of Incorporation and for-profit business. He disagrees with HOA attorney on the opinion provided to the board. Does not believe that the HOA can be a for-profit entity.

S. Fox responded that there is no proposed amendment to bring forward at this time on a partnership with Golf. As of this date there has been a change in the direction the Golf Club has taken; they want to go private.

Questions followed:
– Is the study for the impact of the golf course on community property still proceeding? Yes.
– What is the cost of the study? There are two parts of the study. The cost for both parts is approx. $5000.
– Does the property value study look at the complete picture: both sides of the equation? Yes.
– When will the study be available? A presentation will be made during the meeting.

The [Communications] Committee recommends ratification of the approval to hire UNR to conduct a survey of property values and associated golf course impacts and to assist with a community census and survey of interests and demographics. The cost for both activities will be approximately $5000. The demographic survey addresses what members in ArrowCreek want to see in the community going forward. The survey will be useful whether or not the HOA pursues the purchase of golf. UNR has also been asked to complete research on the impact of a golf course on property values. It is an objective study. The only input the HOA gave UNR is to answer the question “what is the impact.” The study is to include a golf course closing and of the raising of assessments. Townhall meetings will be scheduled well before any vote, should there be a vote.

Motion: S. Fox moved to RATIFY the approval to hire UNR to conduct a survey of owners and to complete research on how golf impacts property values. The cost of the survey and research will not exceed $5,000.

4 February 2015 – E-Mail From J. Tarantino, Associa Manager of ArrowCreek; Committee meetings are informal and committees are not required to take minutes.  Please note that no action can be taken at committee meetings or by committees at all.  The purpose of committees is to research tasks and then to bring information before the board for board action at a noticed meeting. I hope that helps to clarify.  Please feel free to contact me if you have further questions. NOTE: The expenditure of $5,000 was ‘approved,’ via e-mail, out of Board with Ratification posted to the next Board meeting. A Clear violation of NRS 116.31085

17 November 2014 – ACHOA BOD meeting – LOI [Letter of Intent] Approved and signed – MOTION: S. Fox moved to proceed with the Joint Letter of Intent with Arnold Palmer as recommended by the ACCC. P. Burkett seconded. Discussion ensued. It was clarified that this is a non-binding agreement for information gathering purposes, and to allow negotiations with Arnold Palmer and FOA.

26 August 2014 – ACHOA BOD meeting – GOLF PRESENTATION – Since a majority of homeowners were present to discuss the ArrowCreek Country Club (ACCC) situation, a presentation with handouts were prepared for the owners. There is a non-disclosure agreement with Arnold Palmer Golf. The residents can speak amongst themselves about the topic but should not talk about the details of the presentation outside of the community. The full presentation given this evening will be posted on the HOA website for view by all owners. Thank you to the ArrowCreek Community Golf Committee for their hard work to put this together. A full presentation was made, there was a question and answer period.
ARROWCREEK COMMUNITY CLUB COMMITTEE UPDATE
This item (agenda item 7.f.) was moved to this portion of the meeting due to it being the topic of homeowner discussed.

24 August 2014 – E-Mail Exchange – Subject 8/26 BOD mtg;
From Robin Hoa a/k/a Rakusin
To Messrs. Kenny, Smith, Reeder, Burkett, Fox, Gurnee, Dickinson, Kirsch,Elliot, Ross, Tarantino

Since the cat is/will be out of the bag on Tues, and we expect a lot of people, I suggest a simple focus (probably golfer biased) survey to hand out and collect at the meeting …cost would be negligible to get a sense of support by the community and give us an idea of marketing work cut out for us…

Response of Norm & Jan Reeder to Hoa a/k/a Ruskin and Kenny et al re 8/26/ board meeting:
I am reluctant to conduct a survey at this very early stage …most likely the response we get this week will be based more on emotion vs. thinking through the issue which will take some time coupled with additional meetings. I would de-emphasize golf and focus on the benefits of being a social member of the new “Community Club”…

1 August 2014 – ACHOA BOD President, Sam Fox, signs a Non-Disclosure Agreement with Palmer management LLC. Agreement only covers the exchange of data not negotiations.

14 April 2014 – E-mail – Subject: RE: ACC Committee Meeting with Arnold Palmer Golf
From Paul Burkett to Messrs. Kenny, Fox, Rakusin, Robertson,Reeder, Anderson and Tarantino,
Short term management issues for the management of the courses? …Impact and duties for ACHOA as the leader in these efforts…Legal review and recommendations? …Transparency issues and information for the ACHOA membership? Town Hall meeting subjects?…

NOTE: The fact of this deal was kept secret from the homeowners, and no survey or sampling was undertaken to determine if there was a consensus that the HOA should consider, let alone pursue, the possible purchase of the golf courses prior to the time the announcement was made to the HOA.

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Is it time to get rid of this fox den?

DenMod1

This entry was posted in ACHOA, ACHOA BOD, ArrowCreek, ArrowCreek411, Fire Abatement, Fire Danger, FOA, HOA, Land Re-Use, Land Use, Reno Real Estate, Timeline of ACHOA Events and tagged , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

1 Response to A Timeline of Mismanagement and Fear

  1. Bill Edwards says:

    I think it is important that in the next aboard elections there are candidates such as Mr. Duncan. Although I own a house in Arrow Creek, I live in Portland Or in a retirement community with a 9 hole 2500 yd semi private golf course. For $600 the residents here can play all the golf they want, 7 days a week. It only takes 2 maybe 2 and a halve hours to play the 9 holes. Public can play in the afternoons, evenings, and weekends for $15. In todays world the 9 hole “short” courses are what is making money. Most people don’t want to spend 5 hours playing golf. So a question I have is, since FOA owns the course and land, are there zoning restrictions on the land that makes up the golf course? Can the FOA turn 18 of the holes into some other activity? I also hope the FOA group is successful. I will also say that I think it’s too bad that so many are already writting off the efforts of the FOA without letting the situation play out.

    Like

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