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Article
Courtesy of The Naples News By Kristine
Gill Published
August 19, 2012
A local homeowners association president had 17 of the screens on her home slashed.
Another board member came home to find an expletive spray painted across his garage door.
The vandalism came after the board installed speed humps on their street in Whittenberg Villas without county approval.
Board President Barbara Puch said she thinks the vandalism was in retaliation for that decision, but said this behavior is the first of its kind in the pleasant, well-manicured community.
"Our neighborhood, this is not the way we are," Puch said. "We have maybe a couple of bad apples."
The board voted to install two speed humps along Whitten Drive, the single road that runs through the community of 122 homes off Davis Boulevard, after members said they observed speeding down the street.
There have been few official complaints of speeding raised at board meetings, Puch said, and the board agreed to review the humps three months after installation. If residents were upset, they'd consider removing them and trying a different approach.
Five complaints from residents reached Collier County Code Enforcement, which contacted board members and issued a notice of violation in June. Even private roads needed county approval for such changes, the county said.
Then a particularly contentious board meeting in July nearly ended in a brawl outside meeting chambers, Treasurer Terry Savage said.
"It was the biggest yelling match I've seen," said Savage, who has served on the board for more than a year. "I'm not sure my wife will want me to be on the board again."
Puch said the board did not knowingly violate county procedure.
"Since it's a private road, we did not feel at that point we needed to get permission from the county," Puch said.
Now the board is working to process an insubstantial change to plans with the county to add traffic control devices to the development.
County spokeswoman Connie Deane said staff will review the plan for consistency with the Land Development Code and Collier's Neighborhood Traffic Management Program.
Opponents of the humps said they weren't necessary in the first place. They have circulated a petition among residents to have them removed. The fact that they were installed without county approval has added to their anger.
"I told them for the last three meetings they were done illegally, meaning they needed to go through permitting," said resident Robert Hillier, a former board president. "And every meeting I asked when they were going to remove them."
In the nearly 15 years he's lived in Whittenberg, Hillier said he's never noticed a speeding problem, heard of a speeding ticket being issued or seen a car crash happen on the street. But as board president for three years, he saw his share of backlash for various, unrelated board decisions.
"I had my house egged, rotten oranges thrown. I just cleaned it off," he said. "This is the way some people are."
Arthur Brown, another resident, doesn't think the speed humps should have been installed but sees the vandalism as an outcry against the board's leadership in general. The board votes on issues without meaningful input from residents, he said.
"She's done just as she pleases," Brown said of Puch. "I like it here, but I'm getting really tired of it and very seriously thinking of moving."
Three months have passed and now the board will vet the merits of the speed humps, which cost $1,500 to install, at its Aug. 20 meeting. Parties on both sides said they hope whatever solution they reach ends the vandalism, which has been reported to the Collier County Sheriff's Office.
"This is the first act of vandalism I've seen against a board member since I got into the business in 2001," said Nick
Lichter, the community association manager who works for the firm Ability Management.
Lichter called Whittenberg Villas a model community with well-funded reserves, a quarterly newsletter, a women's club, and volunteers who decorate the street's entrance on holidays.
"It's a tough job sometimes to build communities so folks get along ... with something as hot as
seped bumps," Lichter said. "The contractors told us when we installed them, that these can cause owners to get
upset."
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