Pebble Creek board turmoil goes on
The latest defection from the homeowners association board is the member who served as community manager.

 
Article Courtesy of the St. Petersburg Times
By MICHAEL VAN SICKLER
Posted March 13, 2004

PEBBLE CREEK - John Fletcher says he has a thankless job as community manager.

"Half the people you talk to see an "S' on your chest," Fletcher said. "And half the people see a bull's-eye on your back."

Score a direct hit.

On Monday, Fletcher resigned from the Pebble Creek Homeowners Association board and from his $16,000-a-year community manager job effective June 30. He said he was fed up with allegations that he didn't account for his hours in a job that included supervising the upkeep of the swimming pool.

"Pebble Creek is one of the premier communities in New Tampa," said Fletcher. "But there's so much disharmony in our community right now. It's an unfriendly atmosphere and it's getting personal."

Fletcher's resignation - the third in more than a month from the five-member governing board - is part of a growing wave of change at Pebble Creek, a deed restricted community of 1,049 middle-class homes north of Cross Creek Boulevard.

Homeowners say they can't remember when they've seen this much turmoil, but many say it's helping shine a spotlight on how the board spends the $345 it collects every year from each homeowner.

"People are becoming aware about how our money is being spent," said homeowner Thais Forbes. "And it's finally hitting the fan."

Homeowners started asking questions after the board removed and replaced sod from a lawn that it said failed community standards in January 2002. The board charged the owners of the home $2,212 for the work and awarded one of its own members, landscaper Michael Meggison, the job.

After that, a group of homeowners started meeting in kitchens and family rooms to discuss the association's finances and why certain board members had lucrative gigs paid by association fees. The board paid Meggison $109,217 in 2001, for example.

Some of the homeowners said they were denied financial records, and four of them decided to run for the board. All four, including Forbes, lost in the November election, which they said was rigged against them.

To board members such as Michael Carricato, the homeowners were too negative. Instead, he has said he sought positive people who could cooperate to sit on the board.

But one woman he picked for the board resigned in January.

Replacing her was another woman Carricato selected. The homeowners who had lost became even angrier.

During a February meeting, Fletcher asked the board to consider allowing a day care company called New Tampa Kids to use the community center. But he didn't tell the board that his wife was the owner.

"I only brought it up at this meeting," Fletcher said. "They weren't going to make a decision. If they were going to vote on it, I would have told them."

But a board member, Linda Clancy, found out about Fletcher's wife before Monday's meeting. In a surprise move, she resigned from the board, citing that omission, along with Fletcher's work hours, as a reason she could no longer continue.

Fletcher countered that he is not getting credit for the odd hours he puts in to maintain the pool.

"No one is around when I get a call at 11 p.m. that says there's somebody skinny dipping in the pool," he said. "No one's accounting for those hours."

Fletcher said Clancy held a grudge against him because he hired a Hillsborough County sheriff's deputy to patrol the streets without consulting her, even though she was the board liaison for security and safety.

"She didn't do it, so I did, and she thought I overstepped my boundaries," Fletcher said. "She had a personal issue with me."

Clancy wouldn't comment.

On Monday, when the board appointed Bob Vega, one of the homeowners who lost in November, Fletcher resigned. But he said it had nothing to do with Vega.

"My ultimate decision on resigning was based on the fact that we were getting pushed around by people raising questions," Fletcher said. "They wouldn't let us do our job. Because of all this negativity, the best thing for the community was for John Fletcher to step down."

The board didn't vote on filling Fletcher's seat.

"The message is clear to the board," Forbes said. "Either listen to the residents, or resign from the board."