Country Club HOA could split from town hall model

Board members of the Country Club Edgewater Village Association hope to save money on property management services, though others worry a change could increase costs to residents outside CEVA’s boundaries.

CEVA President Mike Miller said CEVA has received an unsolicited bid for property management services that, at a base level, shaves 30% off its $500,000 annual budget. An ad hoc committee met last week with that property management company to better understand what the true estimate for services will be and to make a recommendation to CEVA’s board in September.

CEVA is the homeowners association for the bulk of residents in Country Club at Lakewood Ranch.

“Each year as we finish the budget, it’s very common for a question to get asked,” he said. “Has the HOA ever considered anything other than the town hall shared-services model? Do we know what the other HOAs in the area do and why they do what they do? Do we have any point of view whether the shared-services model we have is competitive? We don’t have an answer to those questions.

“Out of due diligence, we think there’s an obligation to at least call them back, find out if it’s apples to apples, find out if the quote is real or meaningful,” he said.

Miller said CEVA and the Inter-District Authority, a board representing Lakewood Ranch phase one CDDs and which runs Town Hall, have worked well together for more than 20 years — since the community’s inception — and CEVA recognizes there are benefits to being a part of the IDA. Those include that residents can come to one location, Town Hall, for questions related to either the CDD or HOA. Many times, residents don’t now which it is, and because of the relationship with Town Hall, it hasn’t mattered.

“I think we are very aware and appreciative of the benefits we have at being together with the CDDs at a shared town hall facility,” Miller said. “It’s a great thing. It’s worked really well.”

However, he said the effort is aimed at due diligence, and the unsolicited proposal created an opportunity for “benchmarking.”

A change in association management for CEVA, however, would impact Lakewood Ranch’s other phase one homeowners associations and community development districts — Greenbrook Village Association, Summerfield Riverwalk Village Association and Lakewood Ranch CDDs 1, 2, 4 and 5. The IDA’s staff provides property management services for those HOAs and CDDs. Staff salaries and other costs are funded, in part, by each association and district on a proportional-share basis.

Alan Silverglat, an IDA board member who is serving on CEVA’s ad hoc committee, led a similar effort to explore outsourcing of property management services in 2010. He now is serving on the committee in an advisory role but will not be voting. Silverglat said it’s important for CEVA to understand the true costs and impacts of separating services from Town Hall because of the way the CDDs and HOAs have historically been integrated to serve residents.

“If one group pulls out, they risk creating a dysfunctional remainder,” he said. “That’s the real point.”

“I think you can say there are some things that an outside service provider would do different than the IDA in part because of public records constraints and that CEVA might find those differences attractive,” Silverglat said. “It’s going to be up to the CEVA board to ascertain if those few items are sufficiently significant to warrant the disruption to all phase one residents that results.”

IDA Executive Director Anne Ross said about two years ago the IDA had property management staffing challenges that impacted levels of service, but the IDA has worked hard to remedy any frustrations. It has been focused on addressing the CEVA board’s priorities and now is focused on retaining CEVA as a customer.

“We’ve been trying to address items the board has had over the two years, and we feel we have done a good job with that,” she said. “We feel we provide concierge service, not just high level service.”

The IDA and CEVA boards will meet at 10 a.m. Sept. 8 at Town Hall to discuss the situation. IDA officials asked for the meeting to better understand CEVA’s concerns with services.

CEVA is scheduled to have a workshop Sept. 14 and its formal board meeting Sept. 22 at Town Hall. Miller said after hearing from the committee, the board will determine its next steps. If there are competitive alternatives, he said, the board would issue a request for proposals.

He said the board hopes to make a decision as quickly as possible so as to eliminate uncertainty for Town Hall.