WELLINGTON — The homeowners association at the Black Diamond development in Wellington, already reeling from allegations of massive vote fraud in a May 2021 election, is now fending off an effort to recall a majority of its members.

While the state Department of Business and Professional Regulation agreed that “improprieties” had occurred in the 2021 election, its order to hold a new election was never enforced.

Disgruntled homeowners filed a lawsuit to force a new election, but the litigation was settled in May after the HOA agreed to pay the legal fees of the homeowners who brought the lawsuit.

Now the focus is on a recall, which requires the support of a majority of the homeowners, or 238 of 475. Richard Darquea, who was involved with the 2021 lawsuit and is leading the recall effort, said 283 homeowners have signed the petitions.

The four targeted board members — Terry Pruitt, Elas Kazan, Brian Papula and Jerry Milord, the HOA president — all voted at a special board meeting Wednesday to reject the petitions. The three board members not targeted voted to certify them.

“We have issues with the validity of them," said Pruitt. “We have people telling us that they were misled and pressured into signing it. The numbers are increasing daily.”

But Darquea says the targeted board members are relying upon the development's property manager to pressure residents into now saying they did not intend to vote for the recall.

Daniel Field said the property manager contacted him and wanted to know why he signed the recall petition. He called the communication "inappropriate," noting that the property manager should be neutral and have no involvement in the recall election.

Field noted that state law does not require those seeking to recall an HOA member to state a reason why the person should be removed.

HOA dispute riles Wellington neighborhood of 475 homes

The community, where homes sell for between $600,000 and $1 million, lies west of State Road 7 and north of Wellington Regional Medical Center. It has been roiled in controversy after Darquea says he discovered that at least 27 proxies from the 2021 election contained forged signatures.

His lawyer presented affidavits to the state saying that many of the homeowners did not sign the proxies that are, in effect, absentee ballots. Some told The Palm Beach Post that their signatures were forged.

And dozens of legitimate ballots were disregarded as duplicates, according to the petition filed with the state. 

Darquea said the lawsuit that called for a new election was settled in May because of the legal costs that were being incurred by both sides, noting: “We spent a lot of our own money and they were spending HOA money, which is basically our money as well." 

Now it looks like another protracted legal battle may take place.

Darquea, a paralegal, said that would be unfortunate because the law is clear. He called on the board members to do the right thing and resign. “We are far over the required minimum. It is just another waste of HOA money to challenge this.”

He said he fears a repeat of what happened when the HOA ignored the state's 2021 order that a new election should be held.

“The agency is powerless to enforce its orders. We had to go to court and try to do it. This is a real issue that the Legislature needs to address. Why is the state agency powerless to enforce its orders?”

Darquea said it is now likely that he and his allies will again look for a favorable ruling from the state. But even if that occurs, such a ruling might have to be enforced by a judge, resulting again in tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees.

Pruitt said that would be silly because an election will be held in six months. “Let the homeowners decide then if they want a new board.”

Board members say dispute has become personal for opponent

Pruitt said Darquea has become obsessed with removing board members and has split the community. “We were starting to recover, but this is going to destroy us and impact property values,” he noted.

Pruitt said a compromise was reached when the lawsuit was settled in May that resulted in his being placed on the board, a move that Darquea supported. “Now he wants to recall me," Pruitt said. "I’m not going to let that happen. This is all personal for Rick.”

The makeup of the board has changed since the 2021 lawsuit, but Milord has filled vacancies with residents who support him, according to Darquea. Milford declined to comment on the recall effort.

Darquea’s lawyer, Michael Gulisano of Boca Raton, sent a letter to the Black Diamond HOA demanding that the four targeted members all resign based on the recall votes.

They would be replaced by Jeffery Ray, Donnamarie Garcia, Brittney Mason and Georges Hobeika.

“Respectfully, we request that the recalled members certify the recall agreements immediately and relinquish their positions,” Gulisano said in his letter to the HOA.

“We sincerely hope that the current board considers what is best for the community in the event that its property management company or lawyer, whose continued financial interests are tied to maintaining the current board in place, advocate wasting Black Diamond’s funds fighting the will of the overwhelming majority of its members.”

Darquea called the system “rigged,” claiming that HOA boards have all the resources because they can use HOA funds to pay HOA attorneys to contest efforts that question what they do.

“This is just wrong. This is all about using the resources of the HOA lawyer to thwart us, knowing that we have to use our own money."

As for waiting until the next election, Darquea said he and others are concerned with the way the current board has been spending money. "More than $20,000 was spent on a holiday party last year. That is outrageous" he said.