Questions for Pocono Woodlands
The following letter, shared with the Courier, is addressed to members of the Pocono Woodland Lakes Property Owners Association in Milford.
Dear Woodlands Residents:
Whether you choose to attend the annual meeting on March 20, 2016, or mail your ballots in, please ask yourself the following questions:
Why do we need 14 security employees? Eight years ago there were only 6!
Why did the board vote to spend $40,000 on 2 new security vehicles? Per the by-laws, any expense over $20,000 is to be voted by the community and this was never brought up to the community for vote. Why are the by-laws being violated and ignored?
Why do we need 4 (possibly 5) security vehicles? If the “old” ones were in such poor shape, why do we still own and use them? Why weren’t they sold? Are they still registered and insured?
Why wasn’t there any road work done this past year? The community approved a $330,000 road budget March 2015. Only $4,000 was spent — per the treasurer, “$100,000 was used to ‘right the ship’!” What does that mean? What happened to the other $226,000?
Why doesn’t any work ever go out for bid? i.e. roads, construction, insurance, anything? Work is just given out — and we pay for it!
Why aren’t any “reserve monies” ever shown on the balance sheet? Treasurer has been asked several times to post this — perhaps there aren’t any?
Why were 3 monthly meetings cancelled? Due to lack of a quorum? Where is the sense of responsibility? Two other meetings were abruptly adjourned after just about 5 minutes, why?
Why isn’t the community utilizing the services of a collection agency to collect over $600,000 in bad debt (per 2 audits)? Several years ago, board voted to have this done, has never happened, why?
Why hasn’t the Board sought to investigate services of a management company? A petition was presented requesting this, what was the outcome?
Why is there such an ongoing degree of nepotism in the Woodlands? As per the By-Laws, Article 7 Subsection 7.1.2 “No person may be eligible for the “Board of Directors” who has a spouse or relative employed full or part-time by the Association? And yet this is happening!
In addition, as per Article 7 Subsection 7.1.3 “no director or executive officer (Treasurer) of the Association shall be an owner, officer or agent of any business, firm or corporation under contract of the Association”. And yet this is happening!
Why are ballots being sent to the common mailbox of the community/office, and not being counted by an impartial third party as has been done previously?
The current Board should all be removed for incompetency, and blatant violations of the by-laws, and gross mismanagement of funds! We need to “right the ship”. We need a “clean sweep” of the current board, and filled with business minded citizens.
No current member of the board should be re-elected. Milford Boro citizens accomplished this in the last election and we certainly should be able to do the same. The “clean sweep” could also be suggested for the accountant, attorney and bids for new insurance. Let’s truly try for some much needed transparency and a stronger solvent Woodlands!
As a resident of Pocono Woodlands, do you even care to show up at this Annual meeting? Do you even care to know why our dues keep going up and up with nothing to show for?
As a responsible community member, I urge you to vote “NO” to the new budget and I urge you to demand the resignation of this entire board and to hire a competent management company to get us out of this mess!
Lesli Askew
Pocono Woodlands