COURTESY : Ocala Star Banner - the Reporter
Published December 4, 2003
BY BILL KOCH
The Reporter

THE VILLAGES - An undated letter from former developer Harold S. Schwartz sent to homeowners in Orange Blossom Gardens nearly 20 years ago warns residents about joining the community's Property Owners' Association.

"Before you are mislead (sic) into paying your dues to join an organization that you perceive to be something that it is not, I would like to advise you about the relationship between Management and that organization," Schwartz stated in the letter.

"We have repeatedly refused to recognize the Property Owner's (sic) Association as an organization that represents the residents of Orange Blossom Gardens and we do not accept or respond to suggestions or demands from that organization," Schwartz said.

Years later, on Sept. 21, 1992, developer Gary Morse sent a similar anti-POA letter to newly forming The Villages Homeowners' Association, which now has about 7,000 members. Morse said he would meet with the association as long as it refused to allow members to express grievances.

"We agreed to these meetings, on the provision that your organization would not be a forum for, or a conduit to the developer, for individual's (sic) complaints, thus preventing your organization for (sic) becoming the grievance board for the minority of disgruntled residents that the POA professed to be," Morse said. 

Morse said his "real estate" business was adequately equipped to deal with homeowners' grievances.

"We have efficient mechanisms in place to handle individual complaints," he said. 

Joe Gorman, current president of the POA, disagrees, and said his association is the only one in The Villages that responds to complaints of homeowners in the retirement community. 

In fact, he said, the major difference between the two homeowners' associations is the POA's insistence on residents' rights, an initiative that has long been ignored by the developer. A former VHA member, Gorman said that's where he faults the VHA.

"I think the VHA is not primarily focused on homeowners' rights as a homeowners' association is supposed to be," he said. 

Although he praised the VHA for its other initiatives, he said the association deliberately refuses to take confrontational stances on issues, fearing the developer would sever their close ties.

"All their activities are worthwhile," Gorman said. "But as for residents' rights, they're a big disappointment."

Burgess said he finds Gorman's and independent media's criticism of the developer and occasionally the VHA misguided and offensive.

"We're going in our direction and they're going in theirs," Burgess said. "We have broader-based issues we're looking at. We're talking from a standpoint that we represent the residents."

Burgess said his association's goals are simple.

"We're interested in trying to make this a better place," he said, adding that he has brought issues of concern to the VHA for the developer to consider. 

Burgess also said independent journalists have failed to examine the needs and desires of the residents of the retirement community at the expense of what he calls overly aggressive and single-minded news coverage of the developer. The developer has refused interviews with any news organizations, and the retirement community's spokesman rarely returns reporters' telephone calls.

"We are residents of the community," Burgess said. "When people look down here, they don't see us, they see someone else."

He also said he found little point in writing a news story comparing the two associations.

"It's two different opinions. It's two different approaches," he said. 

Burgess added that many residents of the VHA might consider a news story "negative" when a writer quotes Gorman, who he said is also viewed as antagonistic and unnecessarily critical of the developer.

Gorman said he finds criticism by Burgess and others of the POA baffling.

"Our vision is to have a better community," he said. "What the hell is wrong with that? How are we critical of the developer?"

Both association presidents said they have worked with each other on some issues, such as expansion of The Villages hospital.

Two Ocala hospitals are suing The Villages Regional Hospital and the state, arguing that special legislation favoring The Villages is unfair.

Burgess and Gorman said the suit is based on "greed" and will ultimately hurt residents in the retirement community.

The two have worked to push similar initiatives, but rarely are efforts unified or planned.

A newspaper columnist who lives in The Villages suggested two months ago that the two associations mend their differences and unite to form a stronger, more cohesive entity, which then may weild more influence.

Both Burgess and Gorman scoff at the notion, saying the associations have irreconcilable differences.

"We have two different missions," Burgess said. "I think the community is better served with two associations."

Formed in 1975, the POA has gained a reputation for its activism only because, Gorman claims, The Villages Center Community Development District has refused to release information, has been too slowing moving on POA concerns, and the developer's newspaper continues to publish increasingly biased and slanted stories. 

"The VHA is a cheerleading organization for the developer," Gorman said. 

The POA's membership is nearly a quarter the size of the VHA's, although it has doubled in size since last January, Gorman said. 

The VHA has access to new homeowners' lists and enlists new arrivals to the community.