This
interview took place on October 25, 2005, hours after Hurricane Wilma
passed over
Fort Lauderdale
. Bob and I sat on the undamaged
sofa in the South end of the lobby and talked. We continued our
interview that evening. The interview was granted on the condition
that I not publish it until after Rozema’s death. This is a short
excerpt of the interview. Rozema had much more to say. If you find
this interesting, I may publish more from the interview.
I
am publishing this interview as a cautionary message to all owners, or
potential owners, of condominiums. On March 1, 2005, attorney Inger
Garcia, representing a group of Owners, filed a twenty-seven page
complaint with Bob Rozema and the Board of Directors at Southpoint.
The response is typical of what happens at Southpoint and many other
condominiums. Rozema and the Board ignored the complaints of the
Owners. A complete copy of this complaint is available at www.CCFJ.net
at no cost. When you read the complaint, you will be impressed with
the factual detail of the issues raised. You should also note the
history of violations of state law by Southpoint. It was in this
environment that I interviewed Bob, and I used the complaint as an
outline for our interview. Bob did not deny any of the allegations or
violations from the complaint. In fact, he said, “I took my chances
and I won.” George Santayana said, “Those
who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
Remember what happened at Southpoint, and do not allow this to happen
to you.
Dr.
G: Thank you for accepting my offer to interview you. With so many
things going on at Southpoint, we appreciate your taking time for this
interview. Would you please state your name and your position?
RJR:
My name is Robert John Rozema. Until recently, I was the President and
Condominium Manager here at Southpoint. I was appointed to this
position by Richey Gabrielle in 1990, and I held both positions until
I was forced out by Marty Glazer. I should also mention that at that
time, my late wife worked for Richey, and was the best performer in
his company.
Dr.
G.: You were both the Manager and President of the Board? Does that
mean that you controlled your own compensation. Did you feel this was
a conflict of interest?
RJR:
Sure, I did both jobs, but there was very little work involved. For
example, I never walked around the building. I figured that if
anything needed fixing, someone would reach out to me. Conflict of
interest? Perhaps, but nobody cared about that stuff. You know the
accountants wrote something about this in their annual inspection of
the books we gave them, but you know these people don’t bother to
read such things.
Dr.
G.: You said you were squeezed out by Glazer. Would you elaborate on
that point?
RJR:
You have to understand, as the President and Manager, they did
everything I told them to do. Understand? Everything. That Glazer is
your classic anal-retentive control freak. He wanted control. He
wanted to take money out of my pocket and put it into his. In condos,
having control is money. Nobody watches the money, and the other
owners are too old to care. As long as they can afford to pay what I
tell them, they pay.
Dr.
G.: As I recall, there were issues about how much you were paid, as
well as the other things Southpoint bought for you. The law requires
an employment contract. Do you have one?
RJR:
Do I have a contract? Hell, no! I don’t want a contract that could
pin me down to things. Remember, I’m on disability from
Jersey
, and a contract would mess that up.
Dr.
G.: How were you paid? Were you a W2 employee, or ... ?
RJR:
I took cash. Mostly, from the petty cash, but sometimes I would just
write checks to myself or make them out to cash. I didn’t want any
paper trails, you know. I almost got caught when Nico was on the
Board. He kept pushing about the petty cash! Richey and I had to reach
out to people to shut him up. Whenever he brought that up at a
meeting, I had him shouted down.
Dr.
G.: Other than taking the petty cash, what else did you take from
Southpoint?
RJR:
Let’s see, the big items were the maintenance and the taxes. As the
President, I paid the maintenance and property taxes for the Manager.
That was a sweetheart deal. I’m not sure how much that was, but over
fifteen year, it must have been around $100,000.
Dr.
G.: Were there any other big-ticket items that Southpoint paid for
you?
RJR:
Let me think. The windows and the balcony tile jobs were very
profitable. Of course, I had Southpoint buy my windows at full retail.
There were some other things that added up, such as my membership in
the Tower Club, health Insurance, car insurance, gasoline, electric,
telephone, AOL. Stuff like that. Oh yeah, I also got a dishwasher,
linens, American Express card, Costco charge card. I would also charge
them whenever I went drinking with our lawyer. I had almost no
expenses, so I was able to save a pretty penny, I can tell you that.
Dr.
G.: That is quite a list! How much do you think you took from
Southpoint over these fifteen years?
RJR:
Of course, I don’t keep records. But I can tell you that I have over
$250,000 in cash in my apartment – no records, you understand. I
have to guess I got over a half-million over the years.
Dr.
G.: Over a half-million dollars. Bob, do you ever feel any remorse
about taking so much money from your friends and neighbors?
RJR:
I thought we agree not to get into guilt about stealing. You forget,
this is
South Florida
. There are more crooks in condos than you can shake a stick at! Just
look around. I’ve never been greedy, but just you wait. Why the hell
do you think they squeezed me out? They want the money, and they want
more. I never took enough for people to notice, or get mad. I’m
telling you, Glazer and his cronies make me look like a piker!
Dr.
G.: Bob, give me a lesson here. How do you steal?
RJR:
Doc, it’s really very simple. The easiest way is using three sealed
bids. First, you make a deal with a vendor to do the work for, let’s
say, $250,000. You have him give you a bid for $500,000. You go to
another guy, tell him you’ve got a bid for 600,000, and ask for one
at $550,000. Then you go to another one, tell him you have a bid for
550,000, and ask for one at $525,000. You then go back to the first
bid, hire him for $500,000, and the two of you split the $250,000 you
tacked on the job at the start. You’ve got your three bids, and no
one’s the wiser.
Dr.
G.: Incredible! So that’s how you use the three required bids to
make money.
RJR:
That’s the way it’s done. There’s millions here at Southpoint.
When we ran the window replacement deal, the profit was much larger.
The same thing for the carpeting in the hallways. The windows and
carpeting were sub-standard, so we made huge a profit.
Dr.
G.: We’ve covered a number of topics here. Do you have any final
words for me?
RJR:
I hope you print this, Doc. I want everybody to know that I never
stole big. I never had your car or the cars of the others keyed. I
never hurt no one or had anybody beat up. I just wanted to be
comfortable, and not have to work hard. Now that Glazer’s pushed me
out as President, you better watch out. Like I said before, he’s a
control freak, and control of the Board means control of the money.
It’s going to get a lot worse here, and for that, I am sorry.